Most people, their personality, their identity, isn't something that they chose.
It's something that's subservient to the system that created it by definition.
Meaning, if you want to recreate who you are, because if I could attribute my writing and creator success to one thing, it would obviously be walking.
I mean, we can even just have Devin, if you can just put up an image of, like, your brain when it's just sitting around, and your brain when it's walking, to form this new walking habit and to get addicted to it, I believe it's wise to pull the patterns and principles from video games so that we can implement it in our habit formation so that you can form the habit.
If you're bored, go on a walk.
If you're stressed, go on a walk.
If you're uninspired, go on a walk.
If you're overweight, go on a walk.
Most, if not all of your problems, can be relieved, if not solved, by going on a walk.
For those of you that know me, you know that I truly love walking.
I cannot stop going on a walk even in this 100 degree and increasing Arizona heat.
But what most people don't know is that I used to absolutely hate walking.
I used to despise walking.
And I don't mean that I used to just not like going on an intentional walk, like going out for a stroll.
I mean, I used to hate walking anywhere.
I was the definition of lazy, but I prefer to think of myself as efficient over lazy because I've always loved going to the gym, which is funny.
I didn't like going on walks, but I loved going to the gym.
I've loved going to the gym since 15 years old.
I've been in the gym for, I think that's 12 years now.
So when I was younger, I would go to the gym.
I would watch YouTube. I would work on my little side businesses that I had at the time.
But aside from that, you'd probably just find me on the couch or playing video games most of the time, like World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, because I've always been the type to do the bare minimum.
And what I find funny is that I used to play League of Legends matches and Teamfight Tactics matches in between growing my businesses.
Like I would wake up, I'd do my work.
I would then play a match of League of Legends and then I'd do my work again.
The only reason I did my work is because I was already at my computer and it just made sense to do the work.
But now I don't really play those anymore.
Honestly, they're kind of enticing.
Maybe I'll get back into them one day.
It's been a few years now since I've actually played a full video game because now I just go on a walk in the sun.
Now to set the scene for how I fell in love with walking.
I started using nicotine when jewel became popular.
You know, the little vapes, the little pod vapes I conformed and hopped on the bandwagon during college and eventually going through jewels and other disposable vapes.
I eventually came across zins when those first came out and I got on those instead.
And for those that don't know what zins are, they're like tobacco-less nicotine pouches.
I thought those were healthier and they arguably are.
But on a random day in 2019, I don't know exactly when or how or where, but I realized that my nicotine abuse was hurting the attention I could give to others and that I also felt very tired.
So I was kind of just like a corpse of a human being.
I wasn't able to give dedicated attention to the people in my life that deserve the attention.
And since I was tired all the time, that didn't help.
I would find myself in conversation with someone and then randomly I would just continuously think about, oh, I need to put in a zen right now.
I need to put in a zen right now.
And then they'd be like, hey, like, are you listening to me?
They wouldn't say that exactly, but something along those lines and I'd be like, oh crap.
And that's when I realized this is actually a problem.
But around that time, and again, I'm not sure how I came across this random post on social media and I'm assuming it talked about the benefits of walking and it was closer to the summer.
So I was in the mindset of I want to lose some weight for the summer.
I want to get shredded. I want to get six-pack abs.
And the social media posts talked about the benefits of walking versus cardio.
I'm sure both are very important.
But I talked about how you can walk 10 to 15,000 steps a day and burn X amount of calories.
And that simple habit can take place for cardio in terms of calorie burn, maybe not cardiovascular health, but you get what I mean.
So these stars aligned here where I didn't want to use nicotine anymore.
Walks came onto my radar and I decided to quit nicotine cold turkey and replace that habit with walks.
So it was like a complete reinvention of myself in those two domains, the ones that were occupying the most of my attention.
So I decided, okay, we're going all in on this.
We're going to go on walks.
We're going to quit nicotine.
We're just going to focus on improvement, shredding, business building, etc.
Monk mode in a sense, but like a mental monk mode.
I wasn't disappearing from my friends or anyone else.
I was kind of just disappearing from the habits, the bad habits in my life.
So my strategy for this was whenever I felt the urge to use nicotine, I would immediately train my brain.
It was actually pretty easy at first, honestly, just retrain my brain to immediately get up, go on a walk, put in chewing gum, and I was able to quit relatively seamlessly.
Now, I do believe there are benefits in nicotine.
I still use it. I don't really want to talk about that or endorse that.
Do your own research, do whatever you want.
But just for transparency, I use nicotine, definitely not as often as I used to, but I still use it for its benefits and work cognition, etc.
So after a month of walking the glorified 10,000 steps a day, just like 10 to 15 minute walks around the apartment complex that I had at the time, the result was an absolute love for walking.
Now, for five years, there has never been a time where I have walked under 10,000 steps a day.
It started at 10,000 steps, increased to 15,000.
There was a time when I lived in Austin, Texas and just didn't spend any time in the house.
I was just outside all day long.
I was averaging 20,000 to 25,000 steps a day, and now I hover around 15,000.
And those that have been here a while kind of know that my name has become more or less synonymous with walking, where there's even a podcast by Danny Miranda that I went on while I was in Texas that was literally titled The King of Walking, Danco.
I also discovered that the greats or some of the greatest creatives were right in that like Charles Darwin, Steve Jobs, they considered walks to be a massively important part of their day.
I discovered the same thing.
And now some ask, how do you get work done if you're walking for multiple hours in a day?
Because it takes time to walk 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 steps.
And my advice to that would be to go watch my four hour workday videos or pick up my book, The Art of Focus, or go read chapter seven of Anti-Fragile by N.
N. Taleb, Naseem Nicholas Taleb.
I recently read that and it actually gave me a new perspective on my own philosophy of the four hour workday or like procrastination as a natural filter, a way to filter signal from noise, meaning that I don't really work.
I mean, I work on my consistent things every single morning, but I don't really work unless I have to work.
Because if I don't have to work on something, then it's usually just noise.
It's usually just a distraction and I could be doing much better things with my time like going on a walk, being outside in sunlight, getting the health benefits from that and being happy.
Another thing is that you probably wouldn't be watching this video if it weren't for walks.
My ideas wouldn't be the same.
My content wouldn't be the same.
My body wouldn't be the same.
My identity wouldn't be the same.
So in this video, I want to share with you the raw power of walking.
So you have multiple whys to keep you going with this habit and how to turn walking into a game.
So you can seamlessly form the habit yourself.
My hope with this is to transform your life with one simple habit.
So let's begin by talking about how walking is the ultimate holistic habit.
And what I mean by holistic habit means comprehensive or all-encompassing.
So mind, body, spirit, business, business can be exchanged for work or life's work or whatever it is that you do.
And a popular tweet of mine a few years ago when I was tweeting all the time about walking is, long walks are the secret to a lean body and mind.
Now, I hope that I can get this point across to you.
This point is extremely important for understanding the importance of walking and just good habits in general.
You only have so much time in a day, meaning there are only so many habits you can adopt.
Also meaning the habits you choose to implement are of utmost importance because they create your future and influence your quality of life.
Most people aren't in control of the habits they choose, so their life is on a trajectory that they didn't set and it becomes increasingly hard to change who you are.
Habits aren't only physical, but mental.
You distract yourself by scrolling on your phone.
Your attention span shrinks because your mind is in the habit of receiving novel information every 30 seconds.
So you can't focus on meaningful conversations.
You can't focus on building a business.
You can't focus on putting on your shoes and going to the gym.
Your mind reacts to almost everything with memes and random bits that others programmed into your mind.
You can't take anything seriously.
You think anything worthwhile is a joke.
Meanwhile, you feel depressed and hopeless, but there isn't a solution because your mind is too busy stuck bouncing on the surface to see one.
So let's stop and think about that for a bit.
You can only have so many habits in your life.
Most of the habits that you have right now were not chosen by you.
If your identity determines what your habits are, then that means the habits that you do right now reflect your identity and your habits reinforce that identity through conditioning because you become what you repeatedly do.
So most people, their personality, their identity isn't something that they chose.
It's something that's subservient to the system that created it by definition.
Meaning if you want to recreate who you are, you need to focus on changing the habits that occupy your day.
The very few habits that can be there because that will create a new conditioning cycle that will eventually turn into a new identity of your choice.
And if your habits and identity bounce back and forth to create the quality of your human experience, then the reason you feel depressed or bad or anxious or overwhelmed all the time is because you aren't in control.
So the solution to most of your problems is this.
You must reclaim your focus so you can implement new habits.
You must implement new habits because you can only choose a few.
The habits you choose must be high leverage, high impact, and highly enjoyable.
The habits you choose refocus your attention on the depth of life.
Where you focus your attention programs your mind, creates who you are, and determines your future.
Walking as a habit covers all bases.
Mind, body, spirit, and business.
So first, let's talk about walking as meditation.
So walking for the mind.
I personally used to be very skeptical about meditation.
I always thought it was for hippies who were just sitting there channeling some divine energy so they could become like avatar from the last airbender.
And it turns out like most things I dislike or we dislike, I just didn't understand the concept.
Meditation is the act of freeing your mind.
Meditation is decreasing your attachment to thoughts.
Meditation is the practice of being at one with reality, not expectations for the future or happenings of the past.
In other words, with a consistent meditation habit, life gets better because you're actually living it.
Most people don't realize how surface level their lives are.
They bounce around in their heads creating problems that don't exist and spiral out of control into a state of deep anxiety and overwhelm.
Their lives are ruled by stressful past situations that influence how they perceive the future.
The boss that yelled at you yesterday makes you dread going to work today.
The writing that sucked yesterday makes you worried that it won't get done tomorrow and you continue projecting into a future where you don't get it done.
Your side business fails and you start creating a plan B without realizing you're creating that reality with your thoughts because your actions will follow.
You trap yourself in a narrow minded state of suffering and your only path out is by reprogramming your mind with meditation.
Now, the problem here for me at least is that I always failed with a seated meditation habit.
So I decided to try that out with a walk and do a walking meditation because that's actually a thing.
So some of my walks I do what we're going to talk about later, but in a lot of my walks, mainly morning walks, like first thing in the morning, I will try to just meditate on the walk.
I'll focus on the feeling of the ground on my feet or the breath going into my nose, especially if it's cold or hot, I will count in my head and breathe.
And if any time my attention floats to a thought or a task or something that I need to do, I simply refocus on my breath because that's how you recondition your mind to detach from the thoughts and give less attention to them.
So you can live more in the present and truly pay attention to the signal around you rather than the noise.
And we will discuss this more later how to do it when we actually turn walking into a game so you can form the habit.
Now, walking for health is a very important aspect of walking.
So what I'm trying to illustrate to you here is that walking is more than just going on a walk.
It has so many different benefits for your mind, body, spirit, business.
So for your health, this one isn't difficult to understand.
Walking equals increased calorie expenditure and I don't know how true this is, but I read somewhere that if you walk and run the same distance, time doesn't really matter because obviously you're going to run there faster than you walk.
So it's going to take longer to walk, but walking and running the same distance burns around the same amount of calories.
So I personally would rather go on a 45 minute walk than a 20 minute run or a 15 minute run.
That's just me because I can do more on that walk.
I can actually get into some kind of meditation or I can listen to a podcast or read an audio book or jot down ideas on my phone or literally write my newsletters or my books or outline things.
So if you struggle to lose weight or you just want to get outside, you want to increase the benefits of just getting outside and getting sunlight, then walking could help you and you don't really need to worry about, oh, I'm not exercising today.
I'm not doing cardio. This is just a good first step.
The next thing is that being outside equals sunlight and a lack of blue light.
Now, we can go deep into this.
I personally haven't collected and I'm not able to articulate my thoughts on my own health philosophy very much.
All I can do is point you towards the people that I've learned from because many people are not ready to hear this health philosophy.
But at the same time, I also feel like way too many people take it way too seriously to their own detriment.
So I'm talking about a blend between flexible dieting, the re-peat diet, the ancestral diet and the carnivore diet and how those have kind of evolved over the years.
I integrate patterns and principles from those diets to create my own, but they're not just diets.
They're also lifestyles and sunlight and blue light are very big topics within those domains.
So blue light is quite a bit more dangerous than just like, oh, you're not going to be able to sleep at night.
It destroys your mitochondrial health and definitely contributes to chronic disease.
Now, a lot of people have heard about Andrew Huberman's advice to get sunlight first thing in the morning.
This has a lot more benefit than just optimizing your circadian rhythm.
And of course, I don't want to get too deep into this.
I don't want to contribute to hearsay.
So I'm just going to list off a few people that you can follow.
The first is Zade K. Dahaj, both on Instagram and X.
The next is Analyze and Optimize on YouTube, X and Instagram.
The next is Grim Hood, mainly on X.
And then kind of following them and see who they interact with to get the gist of everything.
It's going to take a while to kind of absorb the knowledge.
But for reference of something that I recently discovered or not recently a few years have recently discovered and implemented is I'm like the palest guy you will ever meet.
Or at least I was I get extremely white during the winter or at least I did.
And now that I'm out walking shirtless 15,000 steps a day, I can be out in the Arizona heat on the top of the roof for 45 minutes at a time.
And I do not burn and that's mostly contributed to building my solar callus, which is a tan pretty much an easy your way into that, as well as diet and the certain foods that contribute to inflammation and other things.
I don't know the science too well.
I'm just stating what could be possible if you had an open mind and chose to integrate some of their perspectives.
Now, what I'm saying here is I'm not dogmatic about any one of their diets.
If I'm presented with different information, I'm going to experiment with it and see what I experience in my direct experience.
So what I'm saying here is that if you go and follow these people, please do not if they tweet a belief, do not assume that my belief is that.
So moving on, let's talk about walking for creativity, because if I could attribute my writing and creator success to one thing, it would obviously be walking.
I mean, we can even just have Devin, if you can just put up an image of like your brain when it's just sitting around and your brain when it's walking.
And you can see the massive difference in brain activity.
And that's pretty good argument for walking, in my opinion.
So to me, walking is a creativity block.
What I mean by creativity block is we all have productivity box where we're sitting at our computer and doing our thing and getting work done with the ideas that we've generated throughout the week.
But how many of you actually sit down and read?
How many of you sit and listen to long form content?
I would argue that it's very little.
And because of that, I would argue that the depth in your life is very little and that you're missing out on so much of life because of that.
So a creativity block getting outside for 15, 30, 45 minutes, however long it takes, that's dedicated time for zero distraction.
So if you can stay off of your phone or just use your phone for a good purpose like listening to a podcast for longer than five minutes or actually getting through an audio book over the course of a month on your walks.
So I use these creativity blocks to listen to audio books and long YouTube lectures like actualize.org.
He's my favorite to read physical books.
Yes, I have literally brought physical books with me on walks in the morning.
So sometimes I do the meditation.
I've been experimenting with literally bringing a book with me on a walk when nobody's outside at 5 30 a.m.
in the morning and reading it for 30 minutes to write down ideas that I want to write about.
And if you don't have ideas to write about or know how to capture ideas correctly, I have a free course called seven days to genius ideas.
You can download that with the link in the description and that will actually lead into cortex the software because that is one of the initial ideas that led to to our writer the course and the system and that is being used.
As the foundation of our writing app that we're building cortex.
And lastly, I also use these creativity blocks to walk in silence to allow my mind to solve a problem, relieve stress or bring clarity to my goals or vision.
Okay, we have made it past the wise or the reasons why you should go on a walk and I feel like that's ample.
Everyone could use those benefits in their life.
This isn't a walking is only suitable for this niche or this niche.
It's suitable to everyone because everyone has legs and everyone can go outside.
I take that back. I know some people don't have legs, but you can still get outside.
The only reason I say that is because you get the point of what I'm saying, but there's always the people in the comments where they're like, you're an ableist like you.
I can't focus and you're saying I should do this, this and this just click off the video.
If this doesn't apply to you.
So let's get into it. Why do we get addicted to video games?
One, there is a clear hierarchy of goals.
So how to win or requests to there is clear feedback for progress.
Like leveling up or milestones.
Three, there are rules that narrow your attention and remove distractions.
Four, there are tutorials to get you up to speed with the game.
And five, there are challenges according to your skill level so you don't get anxious or overwhelmed in a nutshell.
Video games are addictive because they put us into the flow state.
The flow state is characterized by absolute clarity, zero distractions, pure progress that is like no other feeling in the world.
And you can tap into it with most habits, especially walking.
You know what you need to do, how to do it, when to do it, and it isn't easy or well known.
So it is meaningful and the extra dopamine from novelty doesn't hurt either in terms of getting into the flow state.
So to form this new walking habit and to get addicted to it, I believe it's wise to pull the patterns and principles from video games so that we can implement it in our habit formation so that you can form the habit.
Because one, that's what I did without realizing it and two, four years in, five years in, no four years in to walking that much every single day.
I have this cornerstone habit in my lifestyle and lifestyle trumps almost everything, even diet, I would argue, and certain work hacks just having a healthy lifestyle covers so many bases.
That's like at the top of the health pyramid.
So I don't really have to worry about getting overweight or being unhealthy or not being able to come up with creative ideas that help me build businesses and make an income all because I walk and that's the pillar of my lifestyle.
So step one to turning walking into a game is to clarify why you are walking.
That means vision and anti vision, the things that I continue saying and drilling into your head, because they are absolutely important.
Vision and anti vision for both your life, for your business, they need a vision for everything.
If you are not making decisions and alignment with a vision for the future, you're making decisions in alignment for someone else's vision for your future.
Whether you think of it that way or not, that's what's happening.
The means and everything that you're scrolling your attention, where your attention goes, where your focus goes and your actions that result of that information programming your brain is moving you towards a specific goal.
If you're watching self deprecating memes all day or just content all day, you're working towards a vision of mediocrity and destruction and that's not good.
So to form this vision or anti vision, think deeply about how walking as a habit can revolutionize your life.
Do you want the benefits that come from quitting a bad habit?
Walking can be a replacement for that habit.
Do you want to be more creative in your work?
Do you always struggle to write or come up with ideas that will change your future?
Can you see how a simple walk can change the direction of your life?
Do you want to drop 10 pounds of fat, get a tan and reap the benefits of consistent sunlight exposure?
If your mental health is in shambles, isn't it worth a shot?
So list out every single thing that you don't like in your life right now.
From that list, think about the opposite.
List out every single thing that you want in your life or you think you want in your life one year from now.
Then contemplate how walking 10,000 plus steps a day can contribute to that.
Step number two is to set a daily goal and break it up.
All behavior starts with a conscious or unconscious goal.
Every single action you take can be mapped to a goal you are pursuing.
The question is, did you set that goal or were you quietly programmed by the media, your parents, your teachers and your friends?
A simple habit is no different.
Set a goal and start small.
The goal should be in alignment with your vision and the habit should be so frictionless that it's nearly impossible not to actually do.
The thing here is that many people will argue that they don't have the time to go on 10,000 steps a day.
And while that's fine, you can believe that.
I would also try to be honest with yourself here, considering the gravity and importance of going on a walk and potentially walking 10,000 steps.
I think that should be a baseline.
You can start with less if you'd like, but if you are realistic with how you can reprioritize and reorganize your life, I think you can find the time to walk 10,000 steps a day.
You can wake up earlier.
You don't have to indulge in bad habits at night.
You don't have to do really anything that you're doing if walking holds more importance to you.
But if walking 10,000 steps a day makes you anxious and you don't think you'll be able to stick to it, then it's okay to start lower.
And you can think of walking 10,000 steps a day as level 100 and think of maybe 3,000 steps a day as level one and then you progress.
And you can create these sub goals for yourself where level one is 3,000, level two is 4,000, etc., etc.
And maybe you can treat yourself to some kind of reward by achieving those things.
So now that you have a daily walk goal, it's smart to break those down into specific blocks that you can knock out throughout your day.
Are you going to knock it all out all in one walk?
Are you going to space them out?
What route are you going to take on the walk?
Are you going to walk to a specific landmark or location?
Are you going to walk to the local cafe for focused work?
Bring clarity to your new habit by sticking to these goals until they just become habit, until they are programmed into you.
Step number three is to create rules for your walk.
Now, flow state. The flow state is about narrowing your attention on a task and it becoming the only thing you be coming at one with the task.
So if we want to narrow our attention further and increase the enjoyment of the walk, we need to create rules.
Like rules of a game. And if we don't, then we don't have structure in our mind.
We don't have something to refocus on and our mind will default to thinking about something better it could be doing or just complaining about how it's too hot outside or whatever it may be.
Like, I don't like walking.
It's too hot or cold outside.
Boohoo, I need my comfortable air conditioned box.
I don't live in a walkable city.
All of these are excuses and you can walk even if you don't feel like walking.
You go in a sauna and you don't care that it's hot.
Your expectations and limiting beliefs are ruining your potential.
So here are some rules that you can play with but you aren't bound to these.
You can create your own.
Never step on a crack in the road as you walk.
Come back with three ideas to write about from a book or audio book.
Get 15 minutes of sun on each side of your body.
Alternate 5 to 10 minutes of walking meditation and 5 to 10 minutes of learning.
Finish one chapter of a book or module of a course.
Write one section of your newsletter or write a few content pieces for the writers out there.
Just try one out. So step number four is to go on the walk and have a trigger for going on the walk.
Because the walk is the easiest part but getting yourself to go on the walk is the hardest part.
If you have a trigger like I did with nicotine and whenever I had a craving I opted for going on a walk, then use that moment to immediately get up and go on a walk.
This could be like the moment you feel bored or uninspired in your focus work session.
That's another reason I go on a walk now is like if my work starts to suffer and I've only been sitting for an hour and a half and I'm supposed to knock out four hours of focus work, I'm going to get up and go on a walk so I can realign and set the intention for my next work block so I can get straight into it.
Because if I didn't do that, then I'd probably be sitting there for two hours getting less work than I'd be able to get done if I went on a walk, realigned, came back and actually had pure focus.
Now, if you don't have any motivator or trigger, then you need to just reduce the action that you are going to take into the most frictionless and small action you can take right now.
It's like the whole tip of going to the gym is to just put on your shoes, to put on your gym shoes.
And by then it's like you've already invested some energy into it.
You might as well get in the car.
You might as well go to the gym then.
And if that's too difficult for you, ask yourself why you can't even control your body to the point of walking a few feet and putting on a shoe.
And then at the same time, just break it down further.
Can you walk to your room?
No. Can you at least stand up?
No. Okay, move your foot.
Still no. And at that point, nobody can save you except for yourself.
So that's it. Start walking.
Have a good rest of your day.
Check out the links in the description.
If you want more on walking creativity and focused work in the one person business, buy my book, The Art of Focus.
Just check out the links down there.
If you like them, click on them.
Thanks for watching. Bye.
