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Archive - June, 2009
Goals
What are goals? I once said that dreams are merely goals not written down. How true that is! If you have a dream but fail to put them on paper and give them legs and a time line, then your dream will most likely, go unfilled. But the power of putting it down on paper is astounding! You can reach your goals and even exceed them, but they need to have legs.
How do you give them legs? Write it down, break it down and give it a date to be completed. This is it, as easy as pie, well at least in theory. One of the most famous acronyms for goal setting is S.M.A.R.T. What do these stand for? Here goes:
Specific - Make your goal as specific as possible. For example, if you say I want to get in shape, that is too broad. A better goal may be, “I want to weight 165 pounds by the end of the summer” is specific.
Measurable – Using our example from above, if you weigh 190, you know you have to lose 25 lbs and can measure your progress with a scale.
Attainable – If you weigh 190 and want to lose 150 lbs, well this would be unattainable, not to mention unhealthy. Make it you can do in a healthy manner.
Realistic - Again, losing 25 lbs in two days is not realistic. As much as I love to play basketball, at 44 years of age and being 5’10″ tall and saying I want to play in the NBA is not realistic. There are limits to what we can do, but there is so much we CAN do!
Timely – Give your goal a time limit. In our above example, if you want to shed 25 lbs it might be attainable in 18 – 25 weeks. Set a goal and give it a time frame, this becomes your action plan.
So get busy and set some goals, need ideas? Check out the post below this one and see what I have planned for the summer. For a great resource on goal setting check out this link: Goal Setting
Good luck and please let me know how your goal setting goes!
My Goals
In the above post I talked about how and why we set goals. How can one talk about goal setting if they do not practice what they preach, so here are my goals for the summer. I have several other goals, but these are short term, less than a year, goals I have set for myself this summer.
- Train for a marathon (Begin first week of June, continue until October)
- Complete Marathon in October (October 3)
- Complete my first novel (September 1)
- Plan Lessons for first Semester (I teach seventh grade history) (August 25)
- Get my “get-out-of-debt” plan implemented (August 1)
All of these have due dates as you can see, very important. For more info on goal setting click here: Goal Setting
I’m Going to do it!
Have you ever gotten to a point in your life where the day-to-day just isn’t cutting it? You know what I mean, you live your life, kids, job, spouse, church, that occasional trip and night out, but where is the challenge? Sure, you have some challenges in your job, but honestly, you could “mail it in” and people would be happy. Now I’m not advocating that way of life, but I think it is the reality of life in the United States. Most of us are fortunate to have what we need, if not what we want, and we seek challenge and meaning in different areas of our lives.
I have chosen to run a race close to home, The Crossroads Marathon in Odessa, Texas on October 3. The race is perfect for me, close to home, run in October so I can train during the summer months when I am not teaching and the track is flat, VERY flat!
So follow my training here, I’ll let you know the good, bad and ugly. If you want to join me in person on the web in virual training, let me know, I could use a training buddy! Need help on how to train? Go to www.halhigdon.com for great advice and training schedules.
That is certainly true for me, I have come to the point where I am looking for something that will truly test me in many different capacities. I need to be challenged as to my discipline, my physicality, my stamina and my mental toughness. I need to know if I do indeed measure up to my image of who I think I am. I can think of no better way to do that than to run the ultimate race (at least for most of us) the marathon. Twenty-six miles, 385 yards of nothing but sweat, pain and asphalt. I started training this week. The first week didn’t go as well as I had planned, a little heat exhaustion the first long run of six miles, but I won’t give up!
