do you need to walk 10 k steps a day

DO YOU NEED TO WALK 10 K STEPS A DAY

here is a graph of my steps each day during a recent week in february
on thursday for that week i walked 7269 steps
not quite 10000 steps that we all think we need to be doing each day
that was a day i volunteered in the garden which commonly is the day i have the most steps each week
unless
i do a long hike

but do i really need to walk 10000 steps a day 
no
it seems 

the 10 k steps came from the 1964 tokyo olympics where a company sponsored a new step measuring device called manpo kei which means 10 thousand steps made in english

it wasnt based on any scientific information 
it was just an advertising gimmick

it got all incorporated into our culture that we needed to do 10 k steps a day as other companies developed these step meters

now enter the iphone and other electronic devices which seem to have that 10k as a goal on them

someone my age which is 72 doesnt get much improved benefit from walking 10 k steps a day 
it seems around 4500 might be ok 
7000 may be a little better
thats the number of steps where i feel good doing each day

thats also the number 7000-9000 that decreases the risk of  early death by 60-70%
bumping up that number to 10 k doesnt really make much difference

so my goal is 
7500 a day
eat a healthy diet
get adequate sleep
stay active mentally and socially
be happy
then
do a step exercise i like eg gardening or hiking

im so happy i found this article linked here since i just hated trying to push myself to 10 k each day
i was and am now satisfied to get my 7500 a day max
but
if only do 4500 steps im ok with that

the organicgreen doctor