Running Your Own Race

by Karen D. Swim

Yesterday, many of you shared your own goals and thoughts.

Adrienne Van Houten is headed on a fabulous cruise but upon her return plans on hitting Curves. "My goal is not a set weight amount to lose, but to stick to it and make it work for me."

Ellen Wilson had a small goal of getting film scanned yesterday but offer remarkable insight about goals. "Sometimes if I look too far into the future it freaks me out and I can't get anything done. Or I get depressed. Or both!"

Amy Palko is finishing her long-held goal of attaining her PhD and offered these thoughts: "Now that it's coming close to the time when that goal will be achieved, I'm having to sit and reassess precisely these questions of what it means to me. And it's a difficult answer to articulate. It's tightly bound up with pride, ambition, career opportunities, skills acquired. But it's also taken on something new, as the achievement of this goal will now allow me to move on to set some new goals, and that's what I'm getting really excited about!"

Andre Blackman has a passion for the health of others as well as his own. "I've started back into the gym just so I can feel a little better about myself as well as maintain my health. Had a wake up call not too long ago and it's time to stop playing around!

I also have goals about transforming the way we all think about our health in this Digital Age - this post is exactly what I needed to read today!"

Goals give our lives structure, a reason to keep moving forward. Like the mile markers in a race, goals tell us where we are and how far we still must run.

In a marathon there are hundreds, or thousands of runners lining up for the same race. All will start in the same place and all will cross the same finish line. However, the journey from start to finish will be as different as the reasons and training plans that got them there.

Runners may finish in 2 hours, 4 hours and some may take 8 but for all that finish the victory is the same. Crossing the finish line is the completion of a goal no matter how long it takes you to get there.

We can draw inspiration from others who have accomplished similar goals, but we all must run our own race, and in our own way. By all means get a training plan, learn from others who have walked the same road, but adjust as necessary to fit your unique needs and style.

On my first trip to a running store I stuck out like a sore thumb. I felt like a Clydesdale among a herd of gazelles. I was not long and lithe, and had not been running for 20 years. I had just started getting in shape and could aptly be described as chunky and spunky. Yet there I was lacing up my sneakers just as they were and training for a distance that many had run. My enthusiasm for my goal was not dampened by others who had done it better and faster. This was my goal and I would finish it.

Whatever your goals are pursue them with enthusiasm. Lace up every day and take a step as you make them happen. Don't be discouraged if you find yourself at the back of the pack, just keep moving, you'll get there. And if you're a front runner, run your race! Don't be held back by the conventional wisdom of others, it is your race, own it!

Have you ever been discouraged from pursuing a goal? How did you overcome the challenge?

Photo Credit: Brownpau, Flickr.com

Getting to the Starting Line - What Running Taught Me About Goals and Wants

by Karen D. Swim

Lose 10 pounds. Write a book. Have a successful business. Travel the world. Go back to school. Buy a house. Retire early. Become a millionaire. Run a marathon.

Do any of these "wants" sound familiar? We all have them, that desire to do something, be something or go somewhere. We may even have a long list of wants, and we may have titled it "Goals." Why do we accomplish some things on that list while others languish? How do we move our "want-to's" to goals and then accomplishments?

"If the Lord had meant for man to run, he'd have given him four legs or at least made him late for a bus." --Red Smith, Sportswriter

Not many people want to run 26.2 miles just for the sake of doing it. Those who do may not always make it to the finish line. I mean let's face it, what possible sane reason would you have for deliberately choosing to train for months and then spend a perfectly good Saturday or Sunday running for 3 or more hours for a lousy t-shirt and race swag?

Training for and running a marathon requires commitment. If all you have is "want-to" you may not make it to the starting line let alone the finish line. Desire without meaning only has the power to get you started. You may last for a week or two but one day desire will simply not be enough to get you out of bed.

Goals are "want-to's" with meaning on their bones. Ah but not just any meaning will do, it has to be meaningful to you. Do you want to write a book? Run a marathon? Lose weight? Develop a $1M business? Gain 1000 followers on Twitter? Have 35,000 people subscribed to your blog?

All of the above may be perfectly good want-to's but now you must ask: Why? When the goal is achieved, what will that mean to you? Is that meaning so vivid, and so significant that you're ready to make sacrifices to attain it? Do you simply want it because your mentor, husband, friend, or guru said you should want it? What does not attaining it mean to you?

I ran my first marathon because I did not want to die. More specifically I did not want to die too soon or worse live long but with a plastic baggie filled with prescription medication. The image of being old and sick motivated me to change my life. I had never run one mile let alone 26.2 and honestly I didn't even know enough to understand the goal I set. I only knew that I was running for my life. When desire waned, meaning carried me on.

"A goal properly set is halfway reached." -- Abraham Lincoln

This is not a magic formula for attaining goals. It is however a method that will allow you to choose the wants that really matter enough to you to pursue. Will you have challenges? You bet! Is it possible to fail? Absolutely! However, meaning gives you fuel to recover and try again.

As you review your own goal list, have you set goals or desires? Is the goal big enough, meaningful enough and vivid enough to risk failing in order to achieve it? As you look past on past accomplishments, what made the difference for you?

Photo Credit: © Dawn Hudson | Dreamstime.com