The Only Walking Goal That Matters in January

It’s January. You’ve set a goal to walk 10,000 steps every day. Maybe you’ve even bought new shoes.

Here’s what usually happens next: you crush week one, feel amazing, start to slip in week two, and by the third week? The goal quietly dies. You’re not alone. Research from Strava analyzing 800 million activities found that January 19th is “Quitter’s Day,” the date when most people abandon their New Year’s resolutions. A University of Scranton study found that 80% of fitness resolutions fail by February.

But here’s the thing. The problem isn’t you. It’s the goal.

Why Big January Goals Backfire

The classic January approach goes something like this: “New year, new me. I’m going to walk 10,000 steps every single day.”

It sounds great. It feels motivating. It’s also almost guaranteed to fail.

Why? Because you’re asking yourself to be a completely different person starting January 1st. That’s not how habits work. Research shows it takes an average of 66 days to form a new habit, and some habits take up to 254 days. Most people quit before they even get close.

The bigger issue is intensity. When you set an ambitious goal, you need motivation to hit it. Motivation is unreliable. It’s high on January 1st. It’s gone by January 19th when work gets busy, the weather is terrible, and your enthusiasm has worn off.

The One Goal That Actually Works

So what’s the alternative? Here it is:

Just show up.

That’s it. Your only walking goal for January should be to walk. Not a certain distance. Not a specific step count. Just get out the door (or on the treadmill) and move for any amount of time.

Ten minutes counts. Five minutes counts. A lap around the block counts.

This probably sounds too easy. Maybe even pointless. But there’s solid science behind it.

Research from Terra found that people with consistent exercise habits have 36% lower variability in their activity levels compared to those who do intense but irregular workouts. That consistency is what drives real results. The consistent group logged more total exercise over months, had better cardiovascular outcomes, and (importantly) actually stuck with it.

A study cited in JAMA Psychiatry found that people who exercised consistently had a 26% lower chance of becoming depressed, regardless of how intense the exercise was. It wasn’t about pushing hard. It was about showing up.

The Minimum Effective Dose Is Lower Than You Think

Here’s something that might surprise you. The health benefits of walking kick in way before 10,000 steps.

Harvard’s School of Public Health notes that the CDC recommends just 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week. That’s about 20 minutes a day. A brisk walk qualifies.

Even less can help. A meta-analysis of 196 studies with over 30 million adults found that people who exercised just 75 minutes per week (about 10 minutes a day) had a 23% lower risk of early death compared to people who didn’t exercise at all.

Three 10-minute walks spread throughout the day? Just as good as one 30-minute walk. Maybe better, since it’s easier to fit into a busy schedule.

The point is this: something always beats nothing. “Something” can be pretty small.

How to Make “Just Show Up” Work

Knowing you should “just show up” is one thing. Actually doing it is another. Here’s how to make it stick:

Make It Stupidly Small

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, calls this the two-minute rule: scale your habit down until it takes two minutes or less. Your goal isn’t “walk for 30 minutes.” It’s “put on your shoes and step outside.” That’s it.

Once you’re outside, you’ll probably walk. But even if you don’t, you’ve kept the habit alive. A 2025 study found that people who started with minimum viable habits were 2.7 times more likely to maintain long-term habits than those who started with ambitious targets.

Same Time, Every Day

Research on exercise timing found that people who exercised at a consistent time each day were significantly more likely to stick with it. It doesn’t matter if it’s morning or evening. What matters is that it becomes automatic. Tuesday at 7am. Every day after lunch. Right when you get home from work. Pick a time and protect it.

Stack It On Something You Already Do

Habit stacking means attaching your new habit to an existing one. Research from the British Psychological Society found that people who used habit stacking had 64% higher success rates.

Examples: Walk right after your morning coffee. Take a lap around the block after you park at work. Walk while you’re on a phone call. The existing habit becomes the trigger for the new one.

Track Showing Up, Not Steps

If you’re going to track anything, track whether you showed up. Not how far you walked or how many steps you hit. Just: did I walk today? Yes or no.

This keeps the focus on the habit, not the performance. It removes the mental math that can make you feel like a failure when you “only” hit 6,000 steps.

Vima Walk can help with this. You can see your walking history at a glance without obsessing over hitting arbitrary numbers.

Build From Here

Here’s the beautiful part. Once “just show up” becomes automatic (give it those 66 days), you can start building on it. Add five minutes. Then ten. Maybe eventually you’ll hit 10,000 steps most days.

But that comes later. Right now, in January, your only job is to not be part of the 80% who quit by February.

The people who succeed at fitness goals aren’t the ones who go hardest in January. They’re the ones who are still walking in March. In April. Next January.

So forget the big goals. Forget the step counts. Just show up.

That’s the only walking goal that actually matters.