Goals

I'm not a big "goal" person. I don't usually make goals and then try to reach them. Rather, I would say I'm more of an "inspired" person. When I want to achieve something and I'm inspired, I simply head in that direction. While I have much to say about inspiration and why I believe it's one of the most essential things to living a great life (that's what I do in my coaching career anyway), this post is more about goals combined with inspiration and how I've come to understand how important setting goals are for this particular journey I'm on at the moment.

Last night at the gym I had set a goal for myself to run on the treadmill for 4 miles. I knew I could do it because I've done it a couple of times before. However, I had already taken a pilates class and didn't know if I'd have enough energy to do a run of that length. (As a reminder, I've only been running for a month so 4 miles is definitely an effort for me.) Anyway, I wasn't able to run the entire distance. However, I had a goal in mind. I set the expectation for myself and knew that I was going to make it, even if I had to walk some of it. And so, I did end up walking some.

During my walk/run I noticed another woman in the gym who was at one of the weight machines. She was sitting there, noticeably uninterested in what she was doing. As I watched her sit at the machine, she lazily did a couple of reps and then simply stopped, seemingly without a bit of energy. It was as though she was oblivious as to why she was at the gym at all. I have no judgment about the woman because maybe she was just there to hang out. It doesn't matter to me. But what it did remind me is that I've tried before to lose weight by working out and have been much less successful than I've been during this past month of intentional commitment. I've made a goal for myself, not only to just workout and lose weight, but I have also committed myself to completing a half marathon in about three months. There's no moving that date. There's no waiting to cram in my training until the last minute. I have to be ready. And since I've never been a runner, I have even more motivation to reach my goals. So each night when I'm working out, my goals help me push myself just that much more. And my feeling is that it's been a great help.

Tonight, I'm writing this post before I go to the gym. My goal is to run 6 miles tonight. I haven't attempted that before, but tonight I'm not doing any other workout other than the treadmill. So I'm committed to achieving the goal I'm setting for myself tonight.

This month's effort has shown me something important about myself. I've realized that I can do anything that I want to do. It's not so much that I have to work really, really hard. More so, I think that whenever I decide what it is that I want, set an intention, set the goal and work towards it, I can simply achieve it.

I will let you know tomorrow if I was able to do the 6 miles...