When Consistency Meets a Chaotic Month
March and April brought locked‑in focus. I walked at least 10,000 steps every day without missing a beat. Then May arrived with a wake‑up call. I am not a fan of excuses, so this is simply a factual snapshot of the month.
The first eleven days of May started strong. I hit my daily steps and stayed on track. However, those following My MS Journey series know that my infusion on May 12 did not go as planned. I expected a normal day with a two‑hour drive from Charlotte to Mebane after the infusion. I planned to walk later that evening.
Instead, a family emergency in Ohio changed everything. I drove home, packed a suitcase, and my partner drove us on nine‑hour drive that had our arrival the early hours on the next morning. Since I spent the rest of the night in the car, my step count didn’t recover that day.
The Habit Stacking Gap I Could Not Ignore
This brought something important to the surface. My days run smoothly when everything goes according to plan. Habit stacking works beautifully until life throws a curveball. My life is predictable most days, but I have known for a while that I should shift more steps to the morning.
This would require waking up earlier. I am a morning person, usually up between 7 and 8. However, the idea of getting up at 6 or 6:30 to walk never made the priority list. Intrusive thoughts won that battle. Sleeping in won too.
This is why I dislike excuses. It would be easy to say May 12 was unavoidable. But my infusion did not start until 9 a.m. I had time to walk that morning. I simply did not.
The Five‑Day Slide and the Lazy Truth
May 12 was not an isolated incident. I missed my step goal for five straight days! Another family emergency happened the final weekend of May accounting for another five days missed. And the week before that, I had no excuse at all.
May brought rain and cooler temperatures, but that was not the real issue. I hit a four‑day stretch where I did not want to walk. Plain and simple, I was lazy. While most days I still averaged around 7,000 steps, one day I had less than 3,000. I was a little defeated from the earlier misses. That combination created a perfect storm in my mind. However, no perfect storm could take away from this sunny Lewisburg, West Virgina farmland photo as my feature image. I captured it while stretching my legs to get some steps in on a day where I knew I wouldn’t meet my goal. It shows the unexpected beauty and small rewards that come from staying committed to this habit even when the daily goal becomes out of reach.
This is the part that matters most with real consistency. We all have days where legitimate reasons arise. We also have days where we simply do not want to do the thing. What matters is the mindset to hold ourselves accountable and not let a rough week derail the bigger goal.
June Arrives with a Reset and Renewed Focus
No one is perfect all the time. It is okay to have days where we fail. What matters most is what we do next.
Today is June 2. I have over 13,000 steps and it is only midday. I am locked back in and focused on getting most of my steps earlier in the day. This small shift will help me build better consistency in the weeks ahead.
The journey continues, one early morning at a time.
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