Attainable Goals
I sit on my bed tonight thinking about my elementary school jog-a-thon. It was a fundraiser, but as a fifth grader it was easily the biggest competition of my life. A competition between myself and the school record of 16 laps in 25:00 minutes.
So I sit here with the flat of my feet against the golden wood floor, with my eyes trained on shelves of childhood books, and I think about that jog-a-thon. I am trying to remember when my dad stopped running alongside me. What made that tradition a one lane race?
Then my mind started contemplating the maths. I really love math by the way. I think I would take Calc II at university if I could.. also chemistry. I love chemistry now too.
When I was in 5th grade I could run a mile in 5 minutes and 45 seconds. So, to complete my goal of 17 laps I would need to run at least four, 6:00 minute miles consecutively. The event did this thing where if you hit the start line at the 25:00 mark then you got to walk the next lap free and count it. I was banking on that free walk lap to achieve the school record.
This is when I snap back to my conciousness and realize how absurd that goal was. What was even more absurd is that I was able to run four miles in 25 minutes. I ran 16 laps. I was about 70m away from the start line when that firetruck blared its horn. Honestly, thinking about it right now, as I write this, makes me feel pity for 5th grade me. I also made a decision out of a state of exhausted delirium that I would regret for months to follow. I stumbled up to a random lady to have her mark my card. I begged her to let me walk that lap. I was on the verge of tears. Later, my running coach told me that she was actually at the line marking cards for participants. She said that she would have let me walk the lap. I would have made a new school record, instead of just tying the current one.
I was so devastated because I fell short of my expectations and dreams. I did not celebrate the end of the jog-a-thon with my friends. If you look at the photograph of my classmates cheering and laughing in the spray of the firehose, you will see me off to the side. My shoulders are slumped. I am looking at the ground, holding a bottle of water next to my best friend. I am sure that I ruined that moment for her too. I probably ruined the day for my family also. I feel a lot of shame when I consider how my behavior affected those people that day. While I did not lash out, I still internalized everything and became very depressed about it. I had to go home early that day.
Also, since I had not trained for this event and I pushed my body to such an extreme I really could not move for days. I still remember how painful it was when my father tried to rub the knots out of my calves.
What I find the most interesting is that after all these years, this is the first time I have recognized that I set a very unattainable goal. In addition, falling short of that goal affected my happiness and well-being.
Attainable Goals
- Evaluate your abilities, motivation, and drive. Your goals should be realistic for YOU. You are the means to which you will find success, so do not overestimate what you are capable of!
- Make it time-bound. Setting a goal 10 years in advance can be discouraging and difficult to maintain motivation for. It is more rewarding to find success within multiple short-term goals than one huge long-term goal. (plus life is crazy!! you cannot control it!)
- Plan for completion through MINI GOALS! I LOVE mini goals. I write them down on a post-it almost every day and cross them off when done. Usually they consist of things like go ride my horse, or call grandma, ect. Mini goals should be incredibly short term and ongoing. Every goal has work items you need to complete to get there. So identify them, and then go conquer them. It will bump your self confidence up!
- Don’t establish goals off of other people! Media is a huge temptation here because it is very decieving. People show the highlights of their life, and often not the hardship. Telling yourself that you want to look like an instagram fitness guru and setting a goal off of what they have achieved is not healthy. Obsession will ensue and you will lose motivation since the long term goal is so unrealistic and short term goals are inexistent.
- Specific goals. “I want to get in shape” is too broad to guarantee satisfactory achievement. A better goal would be “I want to walk for 30min, 5 times a week”. It may seem too easy, but that is the point!! The goal after this may be to jog instead of walk. Or, to go enroll in a gym membership and to sign up with a personal trainer. This is a healthy progression and it will set you up for long term success and dedication to your goal.
- Balance. Only take on as many goals as you can juggle with your lifestyle. Focusing on a few short-term goals will make you happier overall as you are able to achieve them around your time.
- Keep track of progress and thoughts! This is best done in a written, documentary, fashion. When you’re losing hope, you can glance back to see how you felt when you first began. Plus, you can read about all the short-term goals you already achieved.
