goals

My husband still has his training plan up in our bedroom from the Ironman we did in St. George. I am proud of his achievement, and also proud of my ability to write a training plan. He only had four days a week to offer to training and while he could do long bikes on Saturday, on weekdays, he didn't have much more than an hour, maybe an hour and a half if we pushed it. I did my long bikes on Friday so that someone was with the kids on Saturday at least some of the time. I think the longest week he put in was about 12 hours, and usually more like 8.

But it worked! And this is what I think. I think almost anyone can do an Ironman. I'm not saying competitive, but finish before the cut-off. If you are willing to give six months to that goal, you could do it. You may not want to do it. You may think it sounds like the least fun day you could ever have. That's fine. My point is the importance of having a goal and then having a visual way to record your goal.

My husband's chart is like a calendar. Each day there was a workout that he finished, he marked a big "X" over it, day by day. At night, he could see that he had come one day closer to finishing his goal. The last few weeks it was pretty cool to realize how many workouts he had finished and how few he had left until "the day." I think everyone needs to have some way of visualizing the incremental approach to a goal. Kids do it with the chains that they cut off. Adults need the same kind of thing.

Goals are hard to see. It is hard to imagine how you are getting closer to a weight loss goal or a goal to eat healthier or a goal to write a novel or a goal to get your diabetes numbers closer to the curve. Make a chart and cross off the smaller steps toward the future. You will be surprised at how much this will motivate you. It's part of the reason that I think races give away medals to finishers. It is a concrete symbol of the race itself, which of course is ephemeral.

Set your goal and get moving toward it today!