Goooooooal!

I kind of can't believe that my event is almost here! Less than two weeks to go... it's insane! I am so excited and nervous and jittery every time I think about it. I don't remember being this excited about achieving a goal since the day I turned in my Master's thesis back in 2007!

Speaking of goals, this has really served as a good reminder about the importance of goals, specifically measurable ones that have a timeline associated with them. Of course I have this goal of someday *finally* being paid what I'm worth, or at some point traveling all over South America for weeks on end, but this race - and thinking back to my thesis - make me remember how important it is for my mental and emotional (and in this case physical) health, to set my mind to doing something, assigning a timeline to that decision and putting in the work to achieve it. Setting goals is something we all think about, talk about or at minimum hear about. Some people in my life actually set and achieve them, but I think for the most part, most people take the idea of a goal for granted, or think of it as some kind of formality. As I type this very paragraph, I am further realizing that I think a new part of my life will be choosing, very strategically, goals that will make me a better person.

Along that same line, I believe that, in my darkest times, those training sessions where I was only one mile into a six- or seven-mile walk, and I was more sore than usual, or more tired or more winded or more thirsty or tired or hungry (or fill in the blank here) than usual and I just didn't think there was any possible way that I could walk all that way, or raise all that money, I gently reminded myself that my big mouth had told everyone I know (and some strangers too) that I was doing this half marathon. In the moments when, (and yes, I am ashamed to admit there were these moments) reminding myself that the cancer patients and survivors I am walking to honor and raise funds for, couldn't stop their fights with cancer and therefore neither could I stop my training, in those times when that just didn't seem to cut it, ACCOUNTABILITY is what did. Knowing that people were going to ask each week how my training was, and, ultimately, how my event went, pushed me through it all.

So, it seems, for some of us, purely setting a goal isn't quite enough. For some of us - myself in particular - setting a goal and then blabbing all over the world about it, creating that social pressure (aka accountability) is key. While I think that I should love and value myself enough that being accountable only to me would do the trick, I'm just not there - yet - and I need that extra peer pressure.

So, I am interested in suggestions for my next goal. I wonder if I should continue focusing on this fitness goal, perhaps shooting for another half marathon at a quicker pace, or taking up a new activity. Or maybe I should focus on something else altogether? If you're reading, please provide a suggestion. I can't make any promises at this point about what I'll end up choosing to work on, as I think that I need to complete this goal in its entirety (I'm almost there!) and then choose the next goal. But your ideas will provide more food for thought, and I'd definitely appreciate that!

Besos,

Liz