“Goals.There’s not telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. There’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them.”
Jim Rohn
The times in my life when I have felt the most alive and inspired have been when I set an attainable goal and focussed my energy on reaching it.
Setting goals inspires motivation. Without clear goals set, there is no direction. I had forgotten this simple truth! I had been going through my workouts last month dragging my heels. Now that I’m at my goal weight, the motivation to continue on this path is a struggle sometimes, because my goal was to reach a certain weight.
This is a lifestyle, and in order to continue working out and eating healthy I need to set goals along the way…benchmarks to work towards. It took me awhile to reach the goal of running 5K several times a week, but now that I’m here…it’s not a challenge anymore. I needed a new challenge. Recently I set a goal to run a 5K in under 30 minutes. For me, this was a tough-to-reach goal as my comfort zone lies within a slow jog at this point. Seriously people, at the running track it is not uncommon to get passed by a power walker.
After setting the goal of running 5K in under 30, I woke up every morning excited to work out. Would today be the day I would reach the goal? When I wanted to stop or slow down, I knew I had to press on because I wouldn’t allow myself to have a slower result than the day before. I shared my goal with others so I was accountable. When I reached my goal, I was so happy! 5K in 29:31. Within a few minutes after reaching it, I thought: Huh, now what…time to set a new goal.
My new goal is to run a 9 minute mile, and then to sustain it for 5 K. I’ve also started strength training again using Jari Love’s “Get Ripped” DVDs three times a week so I can build some muscle in my un-muscley arms and legs. Good-bye Grover arms (except my grover arms come with an under-arm waddle).
Do you have a goal you are working towards? If you don’t, I want to encourage you to set one today and enjoy the process of working towards reaching it. If your goal is a big one, split it up into small goals and enjoy the pride when you reach each small goal along the way. Small changes & small steps, add up and produce huge results in the long run.
From my heart to yours,
Christine
Reclaiming LIFE 
So true! The goal weight thing never really worked as a motivator for me because weight loss is so SLOW, but goals of what exercises I am able to do are so rewarding! I love the feeling of having a really good workout where I really just leave it all on the treadmill or at the track or whatever I’m doing.
What did you do to increase your speed once you were able to run a 5K three times a week? Did you run in fast/slow intervals? I’m jogging about 4.5 mph on the C25K program, but my ultimate goal is to finish a 5K race in under 30 minutes, so I’ll have to increase that up to at least 6 mph at some point.
I started out with run/walk intervals of 1 minute run, 2 minute walk. Then gradually increased my running time until eventually I was doing 10 minute run, 1 minute walk. The body adapts and strengthens so quickly! Eventually I could run a whole 30 minutes without stopping, but that was a real push for me. I just kept pushing. The more I pushed, the longer I could go next time. Until finally I could run 5K without stopping. The mind was my biggest hurdle…I had to push out that voice that said “stop, you can’t go anymore!”
When I set the goal to run the 5K in under 30 minutes, I knew I would have to run it at around a 6.3. I started off at a 6.3 and upped it to 6.4 for the last mile to make sure I would make the time. It was hard! To get me to where my mind said running 6.3 was doable, I spent two weeks doing sprints. I would run 1 minute, then up to 2 minutes, then up to 5 minutes at a 7.0, and walk 1 minute at a 3.5 in between. I worked on upping the amount of time I could run at a 7.0.
When I got back to the goal of running 30 minutes at a 6.3, it didn’t feel so fast as I was getting used to pushing through a 7.0 for a few minutes.
The day I ran that 5K, I just gave my mind zero permission to stop. Another big motivator in my mind was thinking about my sister who used to be an avid runner, but now can hardly walk because of MS. I thought to myself, my sis would do anything to be able to run again, I can endure this small pain for a half an hour.
So many of the roadblocks are in my mind. It’s amazing what one can accomplish when you replace that “no I can’t” voice with a “yes I can” voice. Sounds corny, but it’s true.
Angela, it’s so awesome you are doing the C25K program! That’s incredible. Enjoy the pride as you reach every small goal along the way. You are amazing. I’m off to go read your blog! Have a great day!
Christine