2011 Goals

Happy New Year! A time to set goals and realign.  Realistically each and everyday is a new day to realign goals but as a society we use the first of the year to focus. The discontentment in my life also rears up around this time. Actually it's been there for a while. What's my goal? My purpose in life?  When I die will it matter to anyone? Will the authorities only discover I'm dead after the property taxes aren't paid and the lien on the house is sold (I read this really did happen to someone a couple years ago). I want to feel like I matter and that life has meaning.  In the meantime while I try and figure this out, I set goals and try and maintain the necessary balance between insanity and the necessities of life.

My 2011 Goals
1. Boston is my biggest goal and focus through April.  After that, I don't have running goals.  To meet the Boston goal I'm going to

• Run South Mountain Thursday mornings
• Focus on eating better and drop some weight. 8 lbs is my goal
• 2 days a week of core work.   Elizabeth has given me some ideas of core work
• Look at tracking my food intake
• Take vitamins daily(C, D, Calcium, multi)
• 2 chai teas a week (instead of one daily)

2. Organize my scrapbook room.  This should come together in January when I get cabinets finally put in.  Once that's done I will update my running scrapbook, which is a year behind. I'm looking forward to making cards and scrapbooking again.

3. Run two Ragnars and volunteer at Del Sol Ragnar

4. Personal improvement.  My friend Jackie has worked through The Artists Way by Julia Cameron and blogged about it.  While I wasn't in a position to start the 12 week journey at that time, I bought the book and  will be starting it soon.  I recommend checking out Jackie's blog for her journey through the book but also to learn about here BIKE method. It's about finding your Best self, your Inner strength, that Killer instinct, and being able to use your Expressive voice

 5. A couple other goals include meeting Sally Meyerhoff, a local elite runner.  Taking a calligraphy class. Making progress on my 101 things in 1001 days.   Breaking 22 minutes in a 5K. Put together a task list where I can check off my sub-goals and keep me focused



Do you write down your goals?  There is a lot of power behind writing down goals.You don't have to publish them for the world to see.  I chose to do so because they seem more real and I can easily find them.  Here's a simple example of how writing down goals helps and sometimes it just happens.  I follow Sally Meyerhoff's blog and have wanted to meet her.  In 2009 while I would sometimes see her during the race (on the out and back courses) I could never find her at the end of the race.  On 12/26/2010 I wrote down my 2011 goals in my journal and wrote down "meet Sally Meyerhoff" and on 12/31 after the midnight madness race, I finally met her.

Here's another example of where writing down goals.  Last year Jess, at Make Under My Life, talked about how she wrote herself a letter as if she was reading it at the end of the coming year.  At the beginning of 2010 I wrote myself a letter of goals and things I wanted to see happen. I set my intention.  I didn't read the letter until a few days ago and over 50% of the things came true.  Some of the things that didn't come true were things like the housing market rebounding, which I have zero control over.  

I used to avoid writing down goals because I'd focus on what I didn't do and use the list as a tool to beat myself up.  The goals were also unrealistic, like lose weight or be happy.  Or maybe they were someone else's, get a million dollars in net worth or buy a Mercedes. If I can be realistic in setting goals and make sure they are true to me, then I can enjoy the process.  And there is nothing stopping me from changing my mind and resetting them at anytime.

Happy Running!