Last month, I read a story called “500 Miles” in the American Diabetes Association’s magazine, Diabetes Forecast. When I read the title I thought “aaahhh, another person doing something insane to create awareness about diabetes”. (I have nothing against people who do insane and wonderful things for charity but I feel I can’t be part of it because I’m just ordinary).

After reading it I was “wowed”. This chap came up with an extraordinary challenge but then developed a plan that turned this extraordinary challenge into a manageable everyday task. He also made it interesting for himself focusing on what happened on his walks.

Also, at this time I was reading a lot about New Year Resolutions, goal setting and the best way to achieve those goals. A lot of what I was reading about this was apparent in “500 Miles”. How it’s not enough to make the resolution to, for example, lose weight in 2012. You have to dissect that goal down to a daily task, like say, a 3- minute walk or to pick one fat-laden item from my daily diet and either replace it with a low-calorie alternative or just remove it altogether. Then pick a date; in one month or two months’ time to review how well you have progressed and if you need to add another task to achieve your goal.

“500 Miles” also made me realise that we all probably do extraordinary things in our ordinary lives!