Five Million Steps

After reading the foreword, I’m sure your head is filled with questions. You might wonder how and why I came to the conclusion of walking 5 million steps. How my idea materialized and why I decided to implement it, right? Let me take you back in time. I was in India in September 2016 and there were a lot of ups and down going on my life. Each minute, I felt as though I was on a rollercoaster. Sometimes there was happiness but most of the times, it was sadness. My life had come to an abrupt halt due to my business shutting down and there was nothing else for me to lean into. Actually, let me rephrase that, I couldn’t bring myself to lean into anything else because I was sad and depressed. My business was everything to me, but when fate took that away from me, I became nothing and I felt nothing. For a while, I stayed at home and did what those who didn’t have any work do; eat, sleep, watch T.V and repeat. It was a habit that I soon got accustomed to. Now that I think back on it; it was quite scary how easily I got used to repeating that habit every single day. Kudos to my wife who was patient with me all along. She would once in a while motivate me to do something-and I would feel in the moment that I had to do something-but right when she would come to her last period of her sentence, my motivation would go down the drain and I would end up immersing myself in the T.V show that played in front of me. Life went on like that for a couple more months before I suddenly felt; from deep within my heart and soul that it was high time I DID something. Ever since I came to Australia with my family, every day seemed like a challenge. I felt the need to have some kind of a timeout; to find a way to get out of the cell that I was keeping myself locked in and to find a way to express myself. I began to things that I had and what I could do with them. After contemplating for several days and scratching my head like a mad man, I finally settled on an idea that I knew would be something near and dear to my heart. I planned to execute a long walk and not just any walk. I decided to walk from Darwin to Canberra. Yes, it was long, it could be tiring, it was challenging, but it was something that I immediately decided to do. I just felt that it was the right thing to do at the time. My gut told me so as well and my mind told me that it was simply a silent protest for myself. I would have the time all to myself to reflect upon and such a task would most definitely boost my creativity and get me back on my feet in no time; both physically and mentally. Obviously, I began researching a little in the corner of my bedroom and stumbled upon a page in Wikipedia of people who walked across Australia. I felt hopeful and I most certainly felt that a task like this-that was physically challenging-was doable. Nevertheless, with my love for walking and nature and with the support from my family and friends, I knew that I could achieve my goal if I stayed true to it.