We are ‘All About Whitianga’, so we’re walking our talk in 2021

Most days there are times when you’d be able to hear a pin drop on our office concrete floor. Our team work away at their desks, staring intently at a screen and hardly moving. So this year we’ve decided to mix things up a little and get moving.

As our 2021 team challenge the All About Whitianga team have decided to walk the equivalent of not only the length of Mercury Bay, but the length of New Zealand. Virtually of course.

Why are we walking the equivalent of New Zealand?

All of the medical and online pointers (read online from the luxury of our office chairs) are telling us that exercise is good and it’s going to:

• Be good for our hearts
• Help reduce stress
• Improve our energy levels
• Assist with retaining and losing weight
• Assist with mobility health
• Boost our mood
• Improve memory
• Increase our productivity
• Help with creativity.

And that’s just to name a few things. Looking at the list, it’s easy to see that these things will benefit our workplace too.

We’ve decided to set the goal as a work team to help keep us motivated and supported, enjoy the team morale it’ll create, encourage us to have more fun at work.

Is this a SMART goal?

Our challenge is to walk the length of New Zealand (from right here in the Mercury Bay), using the Te Araroa trail. As a team, that’s 3,000km! It doesn’t sound like much, (or maybe it does?) when you think we have an entire year. Breaking it down to a specific goal, it works out to 8.22km a day for the combined team to achieve a day. Every day.

We have ticked the boxes using the SMART goal technique and asking is it:
Specific? – walk 3000km
Measurable? – can be tracked with an app
Achievable? – the team believe it is (some more convinced than others)
Relevant? – benefits the team personally and the work place
Time-bound? – 1 year timeframe.

SMART is a popular and established goal setting technique and is able to be used for business and personal goal setting. It can be used to help create a clear, attainable goal, with motivation and actions to support them.

We’re introducing walking meetings

‘Walking meetings’ was an idea we came up with when we first started to discuss the challenge. We have the luxury of working in a beautiful seaside township so why not make use of our surroundings? We also discovered that walking meetings were actually a real ‘thing’. Apparently, Steve Jobs, Harry S. Truman and even Aristotle swore by them. The increased blood flow around your body and the changing scenery is said to be good for creativity and increasing focus.

We are putting walking meetings into our schedule this year, so you might see us on the beach or in town having a coffee meeting (having walked there!).

We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress through out the year!