Looking Ahead to 2018

Happy New Year!!!!

Yesterday I blogged on my 2017 goals and how they went. It's just as important to reflect on your goals (even if they didn't go so well) in order to grow. I think the reflection phase is often more important than the actual goal setting in many ways. Of course we want to achieve our goals, but if we achieve all of them then maybe they weren't pushing us hard enough. If we achieve none of them, then maybe they were unrealistic and too hard. 

Every year my husband and I have had a Goal Setting party with our running team on New Years Eve. This year we did it a little early so I had extra time to adjust my goals after some feedback from teammates as well as listening to their goals. I realized that sometimes I set a goal with really good intentions, but I'm so rigid and so eager to check off the goal, that I often lose sight of the intention or purpose of why I set a goal. 

A big example this year is that I set a goal of running 1000 pregnancy miles (not one of my New Years Resolutions, but something I saw other people shooting for and wanted to do so also). This goal kept me very motivated throughout the difficult running days during my third trimester, BUT this goal also caused a lot of the struggles I'm dealing with now.  There is no question that I should have hung up my running shoes at about 970 pregnancy miles because by the time I got to that mileage, my baby was big, sitting very low in my pelvis, and causing a lot of discomfort that my body said "no more". I stubbornly persevered for the sake of the tangible goal even though the intention behind the goal was to stay fit and healthy during my pregnancy so I could make a quick comeback. 

I can't predict what is going to happen in the next 365 days! I'm not even sure where I'll be living... So the big question:

​How do I set a goal, and measurable steps to get there, if I don't know what tomorrow will bring? 

So for 2018, I'm focusing more on the intention rather than an annual goal. A year is just too damn long to know what you are able to do, or not do.... Some days or weeks, or months you can handle a lot more than others.... and your goal should reflect that need for flexibility in some way. You want your goals to be limitless, not limiting... 

My Three Intentions for this year:

1. RUN FASTER
2. EAT HEALTHIER
3. LIVE BETTER

Yes, I'm very aware none of these are exactly measurable... I'll get to the measurable part. Under each intention I have written down some things I intend to do to achieve the above, but not necessarily every day... Just always doing the best I can. I'm putting this somewhere that I will see every day.

With one of my Christmas Gift Cards, I joined the cool kids club and bought one of Lauren Fleshman's Believe Training Journal's. Seeing people post pictures of their week got me used to the format it offers and made me start visualizing my own training and my own goals in this format. 

I've set the BIG GOAL that will probably take more than one year (but you never know!)

2:43... Gotta have that buffer

Then I set another smaller goal that I'm willing to be flexible on if it's not serving the ^^BIG GOAL^^
Running a sub 3:00hr Boston at just 8 Months Postpartum with all the setbacks I already have had is still *possible* but I want to be smart about it and if it's better for me to train through this marathon instead of doing a full taper, than I'm willing to do that. I'm going to give it a shot! Boston is very unpredictable in terms of weather, so I'll control the variables I can, and leave the rest up to God. 

And here's where I set a goal to set myself up to achieve those other two goals. In a strange way this is the *big* 2018 goal. The thing I am going to do EVERYDAY. It's measurable but flexible. 

It's quite simple actually. Every day might look exactly the same for a while... but some goals (like morning and night routine) might not need to be goals once I get in the swing of things and I can start setting goals like "Myrtle Drills" or "Do Laundry" (see previous post). No one can be perfect all the time there will be days I missed my alarm, or didn't have time for a smoothie, or had a day off and decided to forego something. THAT'S FINE!  I can adjust my daily goal to my daily needs so that I'm never failing. What if I'm sick? no sense in running 12 miles if it's not serving me. I can set a goal like "2 hour nap" or "see the doctor" if that's what will be best for me. I am going to let the list of intentions DRIVE the daily goals. Also, If I so choose, I can have 4 daily goals, or 5! If I'm really lacking motivation? I can set the goal of getting changed into my running clothes. I know this seems like I'm over simplifying things... but maybe that's the point? How often do we put off the simple day to day tasks? If we really believe it's the little things that make the big things possible, we should focus on the little things and the rest will fall into place.

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January 1st: Keeping it Simple. Getting after it.

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