Do You Set Goals For Yourself?

Sunday morning is usually my day for a long run, something north of 7 miles generally, but this Sunday forces conspired against me and I ended up having to do my workout on the elliptical trainer in my room. I need lots of distraction on the elliptical, so I turned on the tv and saw that the NYC Marathon was on. Working out while watching the marathon was unbelievably inspiring. By the end of my 45 minute session, I was determined to run next year’s marathon (no I have never run a marathon before), and sure enough, yesterday I entered myself into the lottery.

What does this have to do with setting goals? Well for starters, I now know that I am going to run way more over the next year than I ever would have had I not signed up for a marathon. This year I ran 2 half-marathons, and training for those two races got me into the long-run-on-Sunday habit. Trust me when I say that there is NO WAY that I would have gotten in the habit of running 7-12 miles on Sundays, if my training program did not insist that I do so. And now, it’s not just a habit… it’s sort of an addiction.

Setting goals raises your game. It helps lift you out of your comfort zone to achieve things you never thought you could. So whether your goals are small and attainable or big and scary, I encourage you to write them down and think about what steps you are going to take to achieve them. You will find that your decision making will start to be shaped by having those goals in mind, and that little by little, the goals will not seem nearly so scary.

Do you set goals? If so, do you write them down or do you keep them in your head? What are some important goals that you’ve reached over the last year?