Last Thursday I ran down a lonely stretch of two lane road in
Southern Mississippi after a day of wrangling 20 teenagers on a mission trip as
we tried to paint a house in the rain. (Yes, it was the outside. Yes, you can
paint in the rain.) If you know me very well, you know that when I'm on a
mission trip (any trip, really) I like to relax in my free time. In other words, I
lay around like a slug, sipping a coke, eating potato chips, and reading or
watching TV as I doze in and out. In other words, not run. So how did I find
myself running down Highway 63 in the Pascagoula River Bottoms on a
muggy Thursday afternoon after working all day? Well, the answer to that goes
back almost a decade...
Most people don't know this, but before my wife and I were married
I went to counseling for several sessions. I knew that I had some issues I
needed to work through, and wanted to get through them quickly, so I sought the
help of a Christian LPC. For those naysayers and snorters-at of counseling (of
which I was one for a long time), I looked at it like this: I wanted to
get to a certain place in life, but didn't have a road map to get there. So, I
hired a guide to show me the way help me find a few shortcuts.
While in counseling, I learned the importance of writing down life
goals, then reviewing them from time to time. It turns out that I have a fairly
long list of goals (some specific, some not-so-specific) that I would like to
accomplish. My goals range from activities I would like to try (no skydiving!),
to career goals, family goals, traveling goals, etc.... So they can be pretty
random. For example, two of my goals are to live in a houseboat and to learn to
surf, which are totally doable since they make ocean houseboats. (Take that, you
unnamed person who says you won't live in a houseboat with me and chuckles at
my desire to learn to surf because we live in Texas and far, far away from a
beach. You know who you are!)
Over the years, writing my goals has evolved into a yearly
process, one in which I look at my life goals, reflect on all the areas of my
life, then decide what I would like to accomplish that year. Bear in mind these
are not resolutions- I don't beat myself up if I miss a goal, and I put forth
effort to make them simple, measurable, and doable. For example, one goal this
year is to lower my blood pressure. Instead of writing "Lower my
blood pressure" on my goal sheet, I wrote, "Quit putting salt on
chips." That's a small step that over the course of the last few months
has worked. My blood pressure is now in the normal range. (Yes, I measure it
daily. What good is a goal if you can't measure progress?!)
When originally I made my goals, I was in good shape. I ran, swam,
and biked a lot, so I wrote that I would
like to run a 5K, 10K, half-marathon, and a marathon. Before I took on grad
school, a full time job, and a family, I knocked out the 5K and 10K in a few
years with little planning or effort. However, for the past several years
"half-marathon" has stayed on the list without being crossed off.
Back in January, one of my church's youth workers asked if I was sharing my
goals this year since I had done it for the past few. She laughed and said,
"Make sure to put that half-marathon on there again!" Of course, I
knew I had to do it then, not because my pride was wounded, but because I had
some "encouragement" to motivate me! Just a few words can be the nudge a person needs to get
started on something big!
Lo and behold, a month later, I find myself using my Runkeeper app again, running (with walking
mixed in) three times a week, and feeling a little better. (Did I mention that
my pants aren't as tight as they used to be?) Am I still out of shape compared
to myself when I originally made those goals? YES. Are my ankles bothering me
enough that I'm worried I may have to switch to biking? YES. Do I feel kind of
sheepish that it's taken me several weeks to build up to 1.5 miles? Not really.
When I fired up my Runkeeper app for the first time since May 9,
2013, I reviewed my stats. I started using Runkeeper on January 5, 2011. If you
scroll through the workout log, you'll see lots of 1 to 2 mile runs, with the
occasional 3 or 5 miles run thrown in for fun. It doesn't look like a lot if
you only look at the individual workouts, but over time they add up. In the two
years, four months, and four days that I used Runkeeper before my 1.5 year
hiatus from exercise, I logged 139 workouts and ran a total of 432 total miles. 432 miles. That's more than half the width of Texas from west-to-east. I'm
no expert, but to me that's quite a bit. It's certainly more than I would have
guessed I ran in that time period. All those days of small runs added up, one
after the other, and they made an impact.
Knowing that I've accomplished 432 miles makes running 13.1
miles seem pretty easy. I'm not a pretty runner, and by no means a fast runner,
but I can do it (if my ankles hold up)! Best part? That knowledge bleeds over
into other areas of my life as well. Big project at work? Healthier marriage?
Raising kids that will be independent, potty-trained, productive citizens one
day? Paying off a mortgage? All doable! You just have to keep at it and never
give up! Remember when I mentioned counseling? One hang up I had was being so
all-or-nothing that I was sometimes paralyzed by career moves because I
couldn't do something big all at once. The great news (which is why I made the
life goal list at the suggestion of my counselor) is that I don't have to do it
all at once. All I have to do is keep making strides toward my goals, no matter
how big or little.
So what's your goal? Dream big, put it in the comments, and let's
keep working towards it!
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