We did it! We actually did it!

At the start of this year, I couldn’t even run a km let alone 5, let alone 22 but a couple of weeks ago, we crossed the finish line in our first half marathon with a completion time of 2:12.

Who knew that actually setting a goal WITH a timeline was what it was going to take to get us there? Something I have realized along the way is that I haven’t actually put a lot of goals in front of me recently that were tangible and time-based. Lose weight, be better organized, get the admin part of my business in order, make a meal plan, eat healthier, keep that work/life balance, volunteer, speaking engagements…these have all been recent “goals” that I have put on myself that almost are destined to fail given that there is nothing attached to define the success.

So with this half-marathon under my belt, I realized that I need a training schedule similar to what I did for the run to get things in order…and maybe..not try to do EVERYTHING at the same time! I need to take ONE goal, figure out the timeline and work towards it…one step at a time. If you try to do it all, again…#majorfail…

The best line I ever heard was actually from a Weight Watchers meeting..that it’s very easy to unsucceed…It starts with a LAPSE (where you give yourself an excuse as to why you did it), then it heads to RELAPSE (where you think, well I’ll start again next week or what’s one more time) and then you head to COLLAPSE (where you start to think, I messed up so might as well give up).

So figure to keep the pressure off, I need to figure out 1-2 goals for myself WITH a timeline that I can work towards achieving over the fall and Christmas season. Think not eating all the Christmas baking before I actually give it out to friends could be a good one but would like to work to something a bit more achievement based would be better.

I was recently at the Blogher Writer’s Conference in New York where I met a lovely woman by the name of Eilyne who was at the conference to look at getting her project/blog published. She was a Starbucks addict (would head into the coffee giant 3-4 times a day) and chose to take a 100 days without Starbucks to see if she could actually do it. Well she did it…and what she found in the interim was a whole bunch of things she had been hiding from simply by heading to Starbucks. We talked about what’s next for her now that the project is done and I suggested she challenge people to see what they can do in 100 Days. 100 Days hey? 3 Months? I think I might be up for that challenge…its creating a goal and setting a time limit. I will keep you posted on what that goal might be..in the meantime, think about what you can do..maybe even in 100 Days and join myself and Eilyne in the challenge.

If you’d like to check out Eilyne’s blog, it’s here and she in real life is a super lovely person.  http://nostarbucksfor100.blogspot.com/