150 Walks in Victoria Project
For those who are new to reading my blog, you may have missed my 150 Walks in Victoria project. The idea that I came up with in January 2018, was centred around the book, 150 Walks in Victoria written by Tyrone Thomas and Andrew Close.
At the time, I was looking for something that would really challenge me during the coming year. My plan was to walk every one of those 150 Walks during 2018. As we’re almost at the end of the year, it’s now time for an update. This project has been on my mind constantly, and I’ve been putting off doing this update. The reason is that I don’t have good news.
Even though I’ve done many of the Walks,, I have to admit that this project has not worked out as I had imagined it would. I’ve ticked off many of the walks, but it’s became clear to me, as the year has progressed, that the project was a little ambitious for many reasons.
- Time: As I’m still working, I’m a bit time poor. Also, I drive almost an hour to work every day. That two hour round trip, really does make a difference to time available
- Injury: This year, I’ve had a few injuries, including to my feet, which has made walking long distances very difficult
- Weather: This year we have had months of extreme hot weather and many months of extreme cold weather. Both of these extremes mean that it can be quite dangerous to go hiking in the bush alone.
When I set this goal for myself, I really thought that I could overcome the above difficulties. Sometimes you just have to take a risk and try something. If you are successful that’s great. If not, it doesn’t mean you’ve completely failed.
At first I thought of it as a total fail, until I realised that I did complete many walks in the book. Most of those walks, I wouldn’t have done otherwise. I really did enjoy the walks that I ticked off, so they have added value to my experiences and exercise program in 2019.
Integrity
About twenty years ago, I participated in an intensive leadership and personal development program, which featured integrity as a major requirement to live a fulfilled life. I’ve always remembered those lessons and worked hard to ensure that I operated in my career and my life, with integrity. When I realised that the walks in the book, wouldn’t all be ticked off by the end of the year, I became very concerned about my integrity.
I would define integrity as ‘doing what you say you will do, when you say you will do it’. To have integrity you need to be authentic and be true to who you are. To have integrity, you need to do what is right, or moral, even when it is difficult or inconvenient to do it. To live a life with integrity, you need to be your word.
I have always prided myself as being a person who values integrity. It’s a word that is in my mind constantly. So lately, I’ve been concerned that my integrity can now be questioned. However, integrity is not right or wrong. Integrity can always be restored.
How To Restore Integrity
- Give up your story about the breakdown
- Acknowledge that your word is broken
- Clean up and apologise for any consequences of the breakdown
- Recommit, or make a new promise
Moving Forward
In acknowledging the breakdownof my project, I can see clearly now, the reasons for the breakdown. This takes away the stress of the breakdown. Even though this project will not be complete by the end of 2019, I don’t see it as failure.
My new plan is to keep the project going, but to slightly change the rules to make it more manageable. I still plan to tick off all walks in the book. However, I’m not attaching a time frame. I will still post walk reports on the blog, so do watch out for some great walks coming up.
Just acknowledging the breakdown and setting a new plan, gives me a feeling of renewal, and happiness that this project will eventuate, even if it is different to what was first envisaged.
Have you done anything that caused your integrity to be questioned? What did you do to restore it? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, and will reply to all comments.
Hi, Jennifer –
To me, the change of time-frame and guidelines for your 150 Walks does not take away from your integrity, it adds to it. To achieve great things, we need to dream big. If we play it safe, and only set goals for what we are 100% sure we can achieve, we miss out on so much.
I applaud your reflections in this post, and the decisions that you have made. I look forward to reading your further updates on this project.
You may not have met your (very ambitious) goal, but hey, you got out there and did a lot of walking! I hope you were able to enjoy the walks you took. I love hiking and there are so many beautiful areas of Australia to see. On my next visit there, I’m hoping to do a multi-day hike, perhaps on Kangaroo Island. I wish you many happy trekking miles in the coming year.
I loved the walks that I did from the book Kristin. Like you, I love hiking. A walk around Kangraoo Island would be fantastic. I had a cycling holiday there a few years ago, but there was little walking.
I think there is an ebb and flow to everything we do, and the challenge is to see our progress, rather than focusing on perfectionism. For example, I was very excited about joining Weight Watchers, and I lost nearly 25 pounds on it. Then life got in the way, I went back to work, and I started missing meetings. I was so ashamed, that I gave it up, because I had “failed.” However, I have kept 20 of those pounds off, so I am hardly a failure! So look at the walks you DID take, and move on from there!
Thanks for this great advice Bethany. Your experience with WW sounds like success to me. I”m trying to give up being perfect. Thanks for visiting.
It was a VERY ambitious project Jennifer – that equals about three walks a week by my calculations! If you’re working full time and have other interests, it’s a lot to fit in to one year. Perhaps you could make it your 5 year plan instead – that way you can tick it off at the end but allow yourself the grace of resting if you’re busy or injured and then picking it up again when you’re ready. I always think there should be an element of pleasure in walking – but that might just be me?
MLSTL and I’ve shared on my SM 🙂
You’re right Leanne. It is about three walks per week. When I made the plan it looked doable but it seems life just got in the way a bit. I haven’t set a new time frame yet, but thinking of three years. And I agree that walking should be enjoyable. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Jennifer, I would say that I have integrity and determination however, I’ve started to change my thinking and accept that sometimes our best laid plans just don’t happen. In the past, I would have set myself a challenge and diligently stuck to it, even if it meant stress on me to achieve it. I still enjoy a challenge but this month I’m doing a 30 day yoga challenge. I love it but I had to miss a day and normally would have beaten myself up about it. I acknowledged that I missed the day and accepted that I would just add an extra day at the end. It took unnecessary pressure off and also surprisingly increased my motivation for the challenge. Thank you for sharing with us your approach at #MLSTL and have a great week!
I like your new approach Sue, and seem to be coming round to that way of thinking myself, to take the pressure off a little.
You are a person of integrity Jennifer, such an honest post. I wish you well in your ongoing project #mlstl
Thanks so much Deb. Feeling much better about it now. Thanks for stopping by
Thank you Deb. Once again I appreciate your support. I’ve realised that sometimes life just happens and we have to move on to plan B.
Thanks for sharing this Jennifer, both your goal and your feelings about not fulfilling the goal in its entirety. I agree with what the others have said. I also would like to add that we need to allow ourselves to change the goals along the way. Sometimes life has other plans for us, as in the case of your injuries and the weather. Other times, we set stretch goals, knowing that even if we fall short, we will have accomplished something amazing. Other times, especially with long term goals, we grow and change so that the original goals no longer fit. Part of integrity is being true to ourselves. I look forward to hearing more about the walks yet to come. Good luck!
Thanks Christie for your kind and sensible comments. Feelin much better about it since the reflection
Jennifer, you did not fail, and you are to be congratulated for making such great efforts! Though you may not have reached your ultimate goal, it sounds like you made great strides towards it. Congratulations for all that you have achieved!
Thankyou Christina. I appreciateypur kind comments. Will keep plodding away