Setting Goals

    I will be one of the first to tell you how important it is to set goals. I have seen goals do some miraculous things in my life. However, in writing my last post I realized that sometimes things are much easier on paper than we think. For instance, at the New Year I decided that I wanted to train to run a marathon. I didn’t really think much of it, I just had run in High School, I had heard of some other people being able to do it, and I decided some day it was something I wanted to do. Well then a few weeks ago I was suddenly hit with the urge to set a goal to run a marathon. So I looked up what marathons are in Utah, and when, and decided the Salt Lake City Marathon in April of next year would be a good target. It seemed realistic at the time. I even took it a step further and found a half-marathon here in Spanish Fork that I can run in September. I decided that I could do that. “Its only 13.1 miles,” I told myself, “besides I ran that much for practices in high school sometimes.” I am now going to point out some things about these goals and see if we can diagnose what was good and what needed some work.
    One thing I didn’t think about was how long it had been since I really ran. Yeah, I had done a couple of mile runs – but thats no half-marathon! I also didn’t take into consideration how much time it takes to practice and build endurance to be able to run that far. For instance, I started running every other day – thinking this would give me enough time to get into shape. What I have found, is that after a few weeks instead of being dead after just under a mile, I am dead at 3 miles. I need to increase my endurance a TON before I am ready to run that 13 miles.
    Another thing that has come to my attention is that I have a desire to do this. Enough of a desire that I put my goal out where the public “could” see it, and made my goal known to those around me. However, when my alarm goes off in the morning and I haven’t had enough sleep (or even if I have…) I don’t (yet?) hear myself say – “Good morning world! I want to run!”
    The final thing I didn’t do was sit down and write up a full plan. I got as far as run every other day so that I am able to run 13 miles by September. Is that really measurable? Its time-bound, but not measurable as I have been running and only increasing miles when I set myself a goal of “Tomorrow I am going to run X”.
    So were these goals unrealistic? I don’t think so. I have come leaps and bounds and I am going to run that race on Sept. 6th. Will it be easy to get there? – No. Will I have to start running every day? – Yes. Will I have to set specific milestones of where I want my fitness level so that I am ready in time? – Yes. Can I do this? – YES! I have been keeping to my goals that I set – they just weren’t specific enough. The plan was mostly thought through – not quite all the way, but I think I caught it with enough time that I can get this all figured out! I hope you can find points here that will help with your goal setting. Remember, think through the whole picture. Try to actually envision the work that will go into meeting that goal, not just the feeling of accomplishing it. And set out specific milestones so that you keep on track and can achieve it. And Good Luck!