Set Goals

I like to give myself goals.  And that is it..  The end of this blog post.  Goals..

But really, we need to set goals for ourselves. Otherwise, we just cruise through life.  I know some of you are thinking about how much you like putting on that cruise control and just cruising through life. Sounds like settling to me. You've settled for norm or for what someone else has told you is good enough.  Yeah, you think about maybe starting a diet or getting into shape, but it really doesn't go much further. The process of imagining yourself doing the healthy eating and running makes you feel really good, and you might even have the gumption to pack a healthy lunch that next day and maybe go for a run later.

You find yourself hungry or you might've went out to eat instead.  You go for that run, but that next day you are so sore.  And besides, I did it for one day.  I should reward myself with pizza for lunch because of how hard I worked out.  Maybe I will run again later... nope.  I am too sore.  Maybe I will start working out again once I have lost some weight.

Have you done this?  Why didn't this person succeed in their hope of losing weight or getting in shape?  They didn't have goals.  Too much having the desire to do something, but without a plan and goals, it is just a dream or a hope.  I hope I will be able to run a marathon.  Someday I will be in shape.  There is no follow through.

Trust me, I've done the example above more than I would like to admit, but what I am trying to do now is be better about how I make goals.  Earlier this year, I decided I wanted to be better at burpees.  I hated burpees.  I am pretty sure I have blogged here about how much I hate burpees.  So like anything in life, the only way to get better at them is to do more of them.  A lot more of them.  I know that with my personality, just setting up a training program wasn't going to work for me.  I needed to do something that people could help me stay accountable for.  So I got the crazy idea to do a burpee mile.

Me with my crazy idea

If you are not sure what a burpee mile is, you do a burpee and then jump as far as you can.  You keep doing this until you've completed a mile.  I knew I couldn't just go and do it.  For me, to make this dream a reality, I had to set goals. I knew I needed to train for it.  So I emailed Joe and told him of my crazy plan and asked him to write me a training program to help me get ready.  I also set a date on when I was going to do this crazy thing.  I also told EVERYONE.  I put it on Facebook. I talked about it at the gym.  People knew I was going to do a burpee mile.  When I was training, people would come comment or work with me.  People asked me how it was coming together.  All these things helped me stay accountable.  I knew I could do it.  And I did.

Right now, I am working towards losing weight.  I have tried and failed at it many times.  I really didn't have a set goal.  I was just going to try to eat better.  I kept failing at it, so I finally put myself out there and asked for help.  I asked my coaches at CFR to help me with nutrition and accountability.  I also told everyone about my goals and posted a really embarrassing photo of myself with my shirt off.  I also go weigh in twice a week and talk about how the week went and what I need to do better.  They hold me accountable.  Guess what?  This time the weight has been coming off, AND I am more motivated to eat healthy, because if I don't, I have to tell people why.  My friends also all know I am working on losing the weight, so they are all cheering me on and helping me achieve this goal too.

My new goal I have in the works.  This goal is something to help me with my weight loss.  I am going to row a half marathon.  I've done a few 5K's on the rower, and I have realized I can take the training I had learned when I was running and apply this to rowing.  So I had the idea.  I knew what I needed to do to make it a reality.  I started telling everyone I am going to row a half marathon in June.  I posted on Facebook today about it.  I talked to our endurance coach about a plan on how I can achieve this.  We came up with an idea on how many miles I should row in a week and how I should increase the mileage.  I now have a game plan.  I have accountability, and I have a date.  In June, it will be a reality.

My Noble Steed

My point to this post is not to tell you how awesome I am.  I am a pretty big deal....  RIGHT!  PLEASE LOVE ME.  But I am telling you this, because I know it works.  I have dreamed big many times in my life without any follow through. I have a lot of regrets, but I know this process works if I stick to it.  Make goals.  Write them out and how you plan on achieving them.  Ask for help.  Make it hard to fail when so many people want you to succeed.