Monday, August 11, 2008

Goals - It is a Marathon not a Sprint


I have been thinking about Goals lately and how exciting it is to make them and how easy it is in the short term to keep working towards those new goals. You feel good about yourself knowing that in due time you will be; thin, in shape, debt free, bilingual, and or anything else that you may seem worthy to achieve.

Than something breaks the new pattern of training, reading, saving or whatever it is that is required to obtain that wanted goal. Business, family, friends, or some other seemingly important thing encroaches on your time and or resources and you quit training, dieting, etc.. Sometimes you get back on track towards the goals but most times the goals fall to the wayside and we revert to our old patterns of living. Time passes and soon another year is gone and we are no closer to achieving our wanted goals than we were at the same time a year ago when we made the goals.

I have some goals that I have been wanting to achieve for some time:



  • Lose 20 lbs

  • Run a 10k race

  • Become Debt Free

  • Learn a Second Language

A few are easier than others, but they all share the same characteristic, it takes time to achieve these goals. I didn't get out of shape and gain weight in a day and I won't loose weight and or get back in shape in a day. So, we go out and go hog wild at working towards our goals, we push ourselves, we over exert ourselves and we end up feeling miserable and dreading the next meal and or the next work-out. Than through those unbearable pain glasses we are wearing we start looking at how long it will take and we feel discouraged and quit altogether.


I believe it is all a frame of reference we have in our minds, that if we think about training, dieting, saving, etc., for a whole year we become overwhelmed and think what is the point. I will never be able to do those things and suffer for a whole year and we give up.


I have decided to achieve the following goals in the next year:



  • Lose 20lbs

  • Run a 10k Race

I choose those two goals from the list above because I feel they are easily achievable in a calender year. I will try a different approach and that approach as Buddha would say is the middle path. (Avoiding the two extremes)


I'm going to change my habits little by little so that the pain is not so great that I quit. I will eat healthier and if I slip, so be it, but I will go back to eating healthy. I won't beat myself up that I had a brownie, but will tell myself that it is okay as long as I don't make it a habit. Same for running, I'm starting out very slow and I will tell myself repeatedly that over time I will be running like the wind.


We all start out too drastic with our goals and that creates too much pain and we end up reverting back to our old ways. I will try and change gradually with a manageable pain threshold and work consistently for the long haul for my goals. Slowly and easily pushing myself so that I enjoy the next year. It may take me twice as long to achieve these goals than if I killed myself, but isn't life as much about the journey as the destination. No matter what and with God's good grace I will be a year older, so as I might as will get there and have something to show for my time on earth.


Wish me luck and forge your own destiny - make and work towards some new goals.

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IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling

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The Armor of God - Ephesians 6:10-18

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.