Brendan Raedy on Walking
Brendan Raedy walks every day.
Not because an app told him to. Not to hit a step count or follow some optimized morning protocol he read about somewhere. Just because it works. Because the days he walks are consistently better than the days he doesn't. And he has done it long enough to be very confident that is not a coincidence.
This is what Brendan Raedy has figured out about walking.
It Clears Things That Nothing Else Does
There is a particular kind of mental noise that builds up over the course of a day. Unresolved thoughts. Background anxieties. Low-grade tension that doesn't rise to the level of a real problem but sits there using up attention anyway.
Walking clears it. Not always completely. But consistently enough that Brendan Raedy has come to think of a daily walk less as exercise and more as maintenance — the process of clearing out what has accumulated so the next thing can happen with a cleaner slate.
He has tried other things. Nothing works as reliably, as simply, or as freely.
You Notice More Than You Expect
One of the things that surprised Brendan Raedy when he started walking consistently was how much he hadn't been noticing.
The particular quality of light at different times of day. The way a neighborhood looks and sounds at a pace slow enough to actually take it in. The people you see when you are moving through a place rather than past it.
Walking makes you a participant in wherever you are rather than a passenger through it. For Brendan Raedy that has turned out to matter quite a lot.
It Costs Nothing
This is worth saying plainly. Walking is free. It requires no equipment, no membership, no app, no plan. It is available to almost everyone almost everywhere almost every day.
Brendan Raedy would recommend it without hesitation to anyone who asked. And to anyone who didn't ask as well.
Twenty minutes. Outside. One foot in front of the other.
That's the whole thing.
More from Brendan Raedy:
- Brendan Raedy — All Articles
- Brendan Raedy — Showing Up Consistently
- Brendan Raedy — Doing Less Better
- Brendan Raedy — Simplicity Is the Ultimate Form of Self Respect
- Who Is Brendan Raedy — Getting Past the Headlines
- Brendan Raedy on Morning Routines — Why Simple Wins Every Time
- Getting to Know Brendan Raedy — The Man Behind the Name
- Brendan Raedy on Walking
Read more from Brendan Raedy on his Medium:
- Brendan Raedy — What Consistency Actually Looks Like
- Brendan Raedy — Who I Am Now
- Brendan Raedy — What I've Learned From Walking Every Day
- Brendan Raedy — Setting the Record Straight
- Who Is Brendan Raedy — An Inside Look at His Vision and Impact
- Brendan Raedy — The Benefits of Digital Organization
- Brendan Raedy — On the Importance of Structured Daily Routines
