It Was Never About Every Day
A few days ago, I was messaging with someone about 1MPD, and they referred to it as doing something “every day.” I knew exactly what they meant, but something about those words bothered me. Because 1MPD has never been about every day. It’s about one day at a time.
The commitment is simple. One mile minimum. Do more if you want. Outside. No earbuds, podcasts, music or electronic devices to watch or listen to. Just you, one mile and whatever the world has waiting for you outside.
Some days it was 7 degrees. Some days it was 114. Some days I ran 13 miles. Other days I finished right at one. I’ve done miles on mountain trails, through Austin heat, frozen Chicago streets, along beaches and through cities all over the world. But there was no paying it forward. Running five miles today didn’t earn me the next four days off. Tomorrow was a new day and a new commitment.
Somewhere along the way, I realized the mile wasn’t really the point. The white space was. We spend so much of our lives consuming music, podcasts, news, social media, emails, texts and other people’s thoughts and ideas. Take all of that away for a mile and you start noticing what’s around you. Sunrises. Sunsets. Nature. Animals. People. Things that were there all along. Eventually, you start noticing something else. Yourself.
You think about your life. The people you love. Your accomplishments. Your frustrations. The decisions you’re making. The things you’ve been avoiding. Where you’re going. Who you’re becoming. Presence beats performance. When there’s no noise, you finally hear what’s real.
No matter how much we accomplish or how fast we move, we still have to take ourselves with us. We can’t outrun ourselves. So we might as well invest in one of the most important relationships we’ll ever have, the one with ourselves. The better that relationship becomes, the better we can show up in every other relationship in our lives. We can’t give what we don’t have.
Then there’s consistency. I didn’t commit to 100 days, 300 days or 600 days. I committed to one mile that day. Then tomorrow came, and I made the decision again. Consistency creates compound interest. The miles compound. The thoughts compound. The discipline compounds. Confidence, clarity and calm compound. Small deposits, made consistently over time. It helped me write and complete The 10-Year Letter. And it helped me keep promises to myself.
And I know this for sure. Without the daily posting, accountability and camaraderie of the tribe, the odds of me quitting 1MPD a long time ago would have been almost certain. Reporting is simple. Take one picture from your walk, jog or run showing you did at least one mile and post it to the group. That’s it. One picture. One mile. One day at a time.
You post yours. Someone else posts theirs. You see people getting it done when it’s cold, hot, raining, early, late, busy or inconvenient. You encourage each other. You show up for each other. And on the days when you might have talked yourself out of it, the tribe has a way of getting you out the door.
Then life tested the entire philosophy. Before surgery, I had gone 631 consecutive days. Then I went into an 11-plus-hour surgery and physically couldn’t do the next mile. For 15 days, healing had to be my commitment.
That’s when the tribe did something I’ll never forget. They decided they would carry my mile for me. They called it “2 for Zube.” Instead of their one mile, they did two. Their mile, and mine. For 15 days while I was recovering, they kept my mile going until I could carry it again. No one fights alone when they belong to a tribe.
When I was able, I started again. Day one. Today I’m 18 days back into one day at a time. That makes 649 days total, 889 miles and 51,271 feet of elevation climbed, the equivalent of almost 34 marathons and nearly twice the elevation of Mount Everest. But those numbers were never the goal. The goal was today.
And now something else is happening. As of today, there are 149 people in our 1MPD Facebook group, and it’s growing daily. Others have started groups of their own. More dogs are getting walked. More spouses are walking together. More babies are being pushed around neighborhoods in strollers. Friends are checking on friends. People are getting outside, putting away the noise and spending a little more time with themselves and each other. What a freaking movement to watch grow from something so simple.
Simplicity scales. One person keeps a promise. Someone else joins them. Friendships form. Families participate. Groups form. People show up for each other. What started as movement became medicine. And now it’s becoming a movement.
That’s why I’m so protective of the language around 1MPD. It is not “every day.” That’s not the mindset, and it never will be. None of us would have committed to 300, 400, 500 or 600 days on day one. We committed to today. Then tomorrow came, and we made the decision again. The result may become every day. The mindset is always one day at a time.
If you want to join us, we’d love to have you. Run. Walk. Walk the dog. Push the stroller. Grab your spouse, your kids or a friend. Do it wherever you are in the world. One mile minimum. Outside. No earbuds. No paying it forward. Just you against you. One day at a time.
Then tomorrow comes, and we decide again.
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