Ready, Set, Goal!

Did Mark Remy set himself up to fail? According to Remy’s RW post, his Holiday Running Streak was a mere 5 days old, 2 days shy of a week, when it died. Did he set himself up to fail? Was his goal unrealistic? Are we our own worst enemy? In a world were we perpetually beat ourselves up and set ourselves up to fail, I ask the simple question, why?

I may not know the why, I will leave that one up to Freud, but I believe that behind all unrealistic goals are good intentions, the I will do this or that. Unrealistic goals are the goals that we subconsciously set knowing that they are near impossible to complete. These are those pesky ‘I will’ goals. I too am guilty of this recalling times proclaiming that I will go to the gym everyday, run every day, skip a late night snack, or never eat after 7 pm, not even a grape. Seriously? Committing to never eating after 7pm? What about dessert? Or better yet running every day of the week? What about the day of rest? Who are we kidding? We are not robots who could seriously commit to such rigid life standards.

Rather than continually bang our heads against the wall, though it feels so good when we stop, lets vow to set realistic goals. To make goals more palatable, they need to be ‘I’m able’ goals. These are the goals that we could be successful and achieve in the long run. Committing ourselves to 3 or 4 days of physical activity or even better sharing a dessert rather than skipping because the short hand is seven and the long hand is on the twelve is more realistic.

Recognizing the distinction between the ‘I will’ and ‘I’m able’ goals is the yellow brick road for runners and goal setters alike. Like Dorothy we have goals, though it may not be made of rubies, we need to put our best running shoe forward and head out on our very own yellow brick road.