Episode 22: How Walking Can Change Your Life with Derek Halpern
Derek Halpern is the founder of SocialTriggers.com, a thriving business that sells software, online courses and digital training. In this episode, he talks with James and Phoebe about the seemingly unremarkable daily habits that help people become extraordinary in business. More specifically, how walking can change your life! Derek says that there’s a myth that people who succeed often do it at the expense of something else in their lives. He believes this couldn’t be further from the truth.
He started to notice that successful people had the full package: a beautiful family, a remarkable business, and their health.
“Seeing their success proves on thing. It’s possible to have it all.”
Fitness and being healthy is one area of importance for successful people, and walking is one way that people can achieve this. For this reason, Derek started his own walking challenge (see “INTERVIEW LINKS”).
For the last 16 months, Derek has been walking about 10,000 steps each day. He started because his doctor gave him the news that he had a heart condition.
In his research, Derek discovered amazing side effects of walking.
“People are more focused. They’ve got more energy. They feel better about themselves.”
He adds that as an entrepreneur, you can come up with the best ideas when you’re walking. Recently, Derek was having a bad day and chose to go for a walk through Central Park in New York City. He says that noticing people having a good time gave him a different type of perspective.
“At that moment, I felt better about what was happening”
Derek has also used walking as a way to improve his creativity when trying to come up with sales copy.
“You take your mind off of the thing that you’re trying to solve and all these things happen in the background that can make you come up with that new idea”
Walking specifically in new surroundings can “assault” your senses with new information. Derek prefers walking outdoors, as opposed to on treadmills or treadmill desks inside.
“Whether it’s (the) walking, or the outside, I’m happy about it”
To make walking a daily habit, Derek believes that you need to find something you’re already doing, and change it slightly. He use to go to a coffee shop across the street every morning, but now chooses one that’s 6 or 7 blocks away.
He also reminds people to stand up throughout the day. Setting an alarm on your phone to move every 45 minutes is one way to do this.
Phoebe quotes a study by The University of Utah whereby walking for only two minutes per hour every day can reduce your premature death rate by 33%.
Derek says the challenge he set up is designed to help people walk more, by setting small goals, without overwhelming them.
Tools like Fitbit and the iPhone Health App can help you track your daily steps.
As Derek has gotten more successful in business, he realizes it’s the seemingly insignificant things that set people apart. He notes that Beethoven, Tim Ferriss and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner have all credited taking walks as helping them achieve success.
“If something as small as going for a walk can help so many different successful people, why aren’t you doing it?”
INTERVIEW LINKS:
