How are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions? How are you progressing towards your running, racing or personal health goals? One month into the New Year do you feel like you’re dropping off?
We know that goals have to be measurable, specific, have time frames and be written down. A key to keeping ourselves focused and in the right mindset is to keep your goals before you. Each day, you should view and review your goals – even if informally.
Post your goal statements on your bathroom mirror, refrigerator or car dashboard. The more you integrate your goals into your thought patterns the more likely you will do even the simplest of things to accomplish them. When you see those goals ask yourself: what one thing have I done today to reach that goal? If you don’t have an answer, take the cue, go do one thing. Every step counts.
For instance, a reminder on your dashboard may be what keeps you from over eating at a restaurant. That last glance at the bathroom mirror note may set you off for the day with a specific attitude. Maybe the one on the refrigerator note is the one that will get you out for that workout after a long day BEFORE you stop and eat… because you know you aren’t going to run after you eat in the evening.
A couple years ago I shared “Nobody Blocks” with club team members. (If you weren’t there… ask Coach Dean about these.) The term as well as intent was to reflect that nobody blocks you from your goals. Stick that thing on your refrigerator and change out the reminder notes regularly for variety.
When it comes to your daily workouts, often, a single workout can seem insignificant. Though a single workout may not make or break you, they ALL can. It is the cumulative effect. Getting too lax on doing even those easy runs (in order to get miles under your belt or just burn calories) all add up and we need to do them. Remember, all workouts should fit into your big picture goals. Even an easy recovery run is there for a purpose. It does lead you one step closer to your goals. That reminder can be a key to your incremental improvement.
For the more intense workouts, it’s good to stop and focus on what you intend achieving in this workout and why! It is the “why” that keeps us going. There are enough excuses NOT to do something or get something done. We have shown with our Best Excuses exercise that there simply is NO limit to excuses for not doing something. The most important thing to know is – it only requires one reason TO do it to achieve something special.
The Running World According to Dean 
I have a feeling that by posting my goals on my blog, in addition to a regular calendar, will help me even more stick to what I have planned. It’s a matter of being held accountable.