For me, the take-home lesson from this past year, is to look at the rest of my life and determine in what other areas I can set similar goals. Goals that will drive me almost to an obsession to get better and accomplish some more things that I really dream of making happen!
Life is out there for the taking. Many people just naturally take to the goal setting process and it becomes a way of life for them.
There are a large percentage of the rest of us though for whom goal setting is not a part of our lives.
Some of us find it so uncomfortable, or have never found something we wanted bad enough to discipline ourselves to get it. Others of us, like me for instance, have found that the simple act of setting a goal would trigger some unfathomable rebellion response deep down inside us and we just wouldn't do it. Strange... I know... But real.
What I learned from this experience is that the goal has to be 100% completely my own, not something that someone else imposed on me or even suggested. But instead something that, deep down inside of me, I really wanted to accomplish whether it made any sense to anyone else or not.
When it was my own real heartfelt dream, then I would chase it until it became an obsession to get it. No pulled muscles, nasty weather, or disbelieving naysayers would keep me from getting it!
What is it in your life that you secretly want that badly? If you don't have something like that, I challenge you to start digging. Find something! Rekindle an old dream! Find something that you have to stretch to get and then create a plan for yourself. Create some charts and track your performance. Reward yourself.
Take my word for it, the sense of accomplishment that you feel from a victory like this will bolster your belief in yourself tremendously!
That's what we need in these times that try men's souls, the self-respect and sense of accomplishment that comes from the victories that we can all have in our lives!
Each one of us is capable of winning and excelling at something in our lives! Whoever you are, what ever your situation may be, you can have a victory in your life! In fact, you can have as many victories as you choose because you don't have to beat someone else to do so.
And...who knows? You might just inspire someone else along the way!
You only have to overcome yourself!!!
Life is out there for the taking. Many people just naturally take to the goal setting process and it becomes a way of life for them.
There are a large percentage of the rest of us though for whom goal setting is not a part of our lives.
Some of us find it so uncomfortable, or have never found something we wanted bad enough to discipline ourselves to get it. Others of us, like me for instance, have found that the simple act of setting a goal would trigger some unfathomable rebellion response deep down inside us and we just wouldn't do it. Strange... I know... But real.
What I learned from this experience is that the goal has to be 100% completely my own, not something that someone else imposed on me or even suggested. But instead something that, deep down inside of me, I really wanted to accomplish whether it made any sense to anyone else or not.
When it was my own real heartfelt dream, then I would chase it until it became an obsession to get it. No pulled muscles, nasty weather, or disbelieving naysayers would keep me from getting it!
What is it in your life that you secretly want that badly? If you don't have something like that, I challenge you to start digging. Find something! Rekindle an old dream! Find something that you have to stretch to get and then create a plan for yourself. Create some charts and track your performance. Reward yourself.
Take my word for it, the sense of accomplishment that you feel from a victory like this will bolster your belief in yourself tremendously!
That's what we need in these times that try men's souls, the self-respect and sense of accomplishment that comes from the victories that we can all have in our lives!
Each one of us is capable of winning and excelling at something in our lives! Whoever you are, what ever your situation may be, you can have a victory in your life! In fact, you can have as many victories as you choose because you don't have to beat someone else to do so.
And...who knows? You might just inspire someone else along the way!
You only have to overcome yourself!!!
To wrap up this article here are the stats from a couple of my charts just for fun!
Cumulative Total Miles By Month
June 1,2010.................0 miles
June 30,2010..............71 miles
July 31,2010..............174 miles
August 31,2010..........268 miles
September 30,2010.....373 miles
October 31,2010.........510 miles!!!
November 31,2010.....550 miles
December 31,2010.....578 miles
January 31,2011.........626 miles
February 28,2011.......726 miles
March 31,2011............826 miles
April 30,2011.............929 miles
May 12,2011..............979 miles
21 more to go!!!
My Personal Records (PR's)
100 meters.............13.56 sec '06
200 meters............28.06 sec '06
1/4 mile...................1:03 min '06
1/2 mile...................2:42 min '07
1 mile...............................6:15 '10
2 miles..........................14:36 '08
5 kilometers................25:02 '08
4 miles...........................31:41 '10
5 miles...........................41:45 '10
6 miles...........................50:13 '11
8 miles........................1:11:47 '10
12 miles......................1:57:26 '10
14 miles......................2:16:57 '10
16 miles.....................3:09:26 '10
20 miles.....................3:48:22 '10
26.2 miles.................5:08:00 '10
(First ever Marathon!)
Best Distance In 1 Hr...7.1 miles
Max Distance..............26.2 miles
Most miles Per Month..........137
Most Miles 7 Days...................45
Total 1/2 marathons/yr..........9
That is so awesome and inspiring! Way to go! Now I'm all motivated to set some goals myself :)!
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