I bought a Fitbit^®. For those of you who have been say, on the moon, a Fitbit^® is a small device that when tucked into your pocket, counts the steps you walk in the course of a day—all 24 hours of it. This latest craze recommends that you walk 10,000 steps in those 24 hours. Easy right? Ha!

Being a Red, it is important for me to be challenged and I thought this handy little piece of technology would do exactly that. Ha! again. I have owned said product since February 18^th and have yet to walk 10,000 steps in a day. The closest I have come is 8,044 steps and that is the day I had to visit the Apple Store’s Genius Bar and ended up walking from one end of the mall to the other, and paced for 3 hours while my repairs were being made.

In the normal course of the day, and because my job is sedentary, I walk around 3500 steps. Challenged by the Fitbit^®, I now force myself to get up several times a day and “pace” out 100 steps. I walk to the store rather than drive, and I make sure to take extra steps while doing housework, etc. Still, with all of the increased walking, I am getting only around 6000 steps per day.

What does all this have to do with Color Code you ask? Read on…

Every night while preparing for bed I mumble things like “I can’t believe it is so difficult to walk 10,000 steps” or “Really? All that walking and I’m at 6452 steps!”

I realize my mistake the minute I look into my Blue husband’s blue eyes. “Well”, he says, “if I were you…”

Before I go on, let me just say this. You people out there think that in a Red/Blue relationship, the Red is the boss. Ha! again. Blues have a way of making Reds capitulate to any demand. We might have our dander raised, but if we say anything, it just means MORE DISCUSSION. Point Blue.

But, to give him credit, my husband never, ever begins said discussion with “You should …”

Why? He may be judgmental, but he isn’t stupid.

Instead, he begins expressing his opinion by using one of these seemingly innocuous openings:

“If it were me…”

“If I were you…”

“I usually…”

Example: I’m at a stop sign, stuck with 3 cars behind me, and unrelenting traffic in front of me—no way out. This is when he can’t resist calmly stating, “I usually go the other way where there is a light to make a left turn.”

Or: We are on a cruise to celebrate our anniversary. I have done nothing but hug a garbage can all night. Soothingly, he whispers, “If I were you, I wouldn’t think about being seasick, and then you won’t be. It worked for me.”

Yes. He is still alive and not resting at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

Now…back to the story.

Where was I? Oh, yes.

“Well, he says in his thoughtful, analytical way, “If I were you I would calculate how many steps you have to take and then, based on your stride, convert it into miles, and then just get out there and walk that many miles.”

I stare at him, dumbfounded. “Really?” I think, “You’re saying that walking more will increase my step numbers?” I mean, he could have just told me that the sky is blue, or that candy bars are fattening, or some other tidbit that every single person on planet earth already knows.

Still, because (while it doesn’t sound that way now) I adore him, I don’t tell him that I’m impressed with his firm grasp of the obvious. I just continue to stare. Undeterred by my bemused look, he promptly uses his college algebra, solves for X and then proudly lets me know that to get 10,000 steps I have only to walk to the golf course and back everyday.

I can’t resist. I tell him, a bit sarcastically, that I have this small piece of technology in my pocket to solve for distance. What I’d like is for him to solve for TIME.

“Well, you just have to make the time. Maybe you can set your alarm to wake earlier,” he shrugs and goes back to his book. Problem solved.

Blues follows the rules. They are highly disciplined. Once they make a commitment, they are dependable and deliberate. My husband believes that if you are meant to take 10,000 steps, you should just get out and take 10,000 steps.

Me? I’m tempted to put the Fitbit^® on my dog’s collar and curl up with a good book. But, the numbers and the challenge to achieve them nag me, and so I march forth on my quest for 10,000 steps. CC

Teresa Glenn has been working with the Color Code since 2006, where her main focus is product development. She has been in the publishing and product development field for over 20 years. Teresa is a core Red with a strong Yellow secondary.