Goals put a target out there. Goals give me something to strive for. However, goals on their own will fall short even if you hit them. But if you leverage and capitalize on them to form habits, they are gold.
Every year I set about 50 different goals in a number of areas ranging from family, ministry, and physical. If you are like my wife, that stresses you out. One or two goals is plenty. But for me, the more the better! I don’t let them own me, but rather, I let them fuel me. Do I hit them all? Nope. Do I hit more than the person who doesn’t have any? All the time!
Last year I had a goal to run 100 miles. I was using the Runkeeper app, and by the end of the year I had come up 4 miles short.
Are you kidding?! 😖 I know what you are thinking. That must have been so discouraging to be so close and then not hit it. Well the answer is yes and no.
Yes, I wish I could have snuck out to run a few more times. Sure I see the gap between where I landed and what I had targeted.
But it didn’t feel like a failure. It felt like getting 96% on a test. As a C student, this is way above my average. I ran 96 miles! I am choosing to see this as a half-full-way-to-go-let’s-do-it-again-next-year thing.
So this year I set the goal of 150 miles. A 50% jump but based on how the year before went, I was able to adjust my goal.
The result? I just surpassed last year’s goal, and it isn’t even August! I knocked out over a 100 miles with only 7 of them being run in the first quarter of the year.
So what goals do you have? What are you getting after?
