Maintaining Your Goals

The fall season is officially upon those of us who live in the Pacific Northwest; and while we have been blessed with a beautiful fall season the sun does take longer to great us in the morning and says good night much much earlier.  For myself this means my motivation begins to follow the suns lifestyle and begins to diminish along with the amount of light we receive through out the day. Following right along with the motivation goes my goals and sometimes even my belief that I can accomplish them.

This morning while preparing myself for the work day and accomplishing my usual social media viewing I came across a quote by Jordan Belfort the author of The Wolf of Wall Street that struck a cord deep within me:

"The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can't achieve it"

It is easy to make up an excuse as to why you cannot do something; much easier than actually doing it.  We've all been there.  We have all said "oh its too dark to go for that run", or "going back to school is too expensive I can't do it" with the key note excuses of "I just don't have the time", "that costs to much money", or "I am just not good enough to do that". What many of us forget is that these are just hurdles or as Jordan Belfort calls it "a bullshit story" that can very easily be over come if you are willing to take the chance.

Goals do take work.  They take time, effort, money, strength, and sometimes even tears to accomplish but that is the point of a goal.  It is a marker or a dream to something bigger and better.  Goals are important as they keep you focuses and dedicated.  Yet it can be easy to loose sight of those goals.  When you do feel yourself loosing the sight or always having a story as to why not, remember that you are the only person that can affect change.  You are in the drivers seat and it is up to you to move past those stories and find the belief in yourself to accomplish your dreams.  

This morning Jordan Belfort reminded me to continuing pursuing my goals and for me that means not giving up on setting them.  For myself to always strive for something new and to continue believing in myself that I can accomplish what I have set out to do.  To believe in the strength that resides within; through that belief you will find a way to continue pushing forward and realize that those stories are not as exciting as the ones you obtain from accomplishing your goals.

My goal for this month is to complete my first marathon and push towards qualifying for Boston. 

What are some goals you have set for yourself? Do you have a dream for someday? 

Post Nationals Hangover

The post race hangover a phenomenon until the past week I had only heard about never experience. Now this isn't your typical hangover, I have had my fair share of those, this is a physical, mental, and emotional hangover.  Ok, so yes some of you may be saying that sounds like any other hangover I have had from consuming one, two, or three to many adult beverages but this post race hangover is one for the ages.  A hangover that is built up of months and months of intense physical training, early mornings, cold swims, and a nervous energy that is always right on the surface.

It is one that one that for myself has been building since September of 2013 when I actually qualified for Nationals.  It was a year of scrounging up the money for a new bike, bike shoes, race suit, oh wait water is really cold I probably need to get a wet suit, need to track your mileage: alright time for a Garmin, those shoes that no longer have tread on them: time to replace those, figuring out how to eat so that I had enough energy to continue putting in long training hours, cramped up on a bike ride ok time to buy some electrolytes, this list could go on and on as my fellow triathletes and/or athletes out there can relate. 

Then all of the sudden it is the day before the race and before you crawl into bed that night you briefly wonder where in the hell the year went.  And finally the gun goes off and you take off in a mass of arms and legs and for the next two hours time slows down as it is just you out there; for the next two hours you are 95% in control of what is going to happen (the other 5% is attributed to some random catastrophe that could potentially happen--knock on wood).

Immediately after the race I spent the next solid two hours running on a high.  I felt great!!  Despite being fantastically thirsty I felt great like I could back out and do it again.  Even after that high settled down I still felt like I had after any other race; tired, my feet, legs, and joints were sore, and my stomach was a little bit of a disaster but nothing out of the ordinary.  

It was two days later, in the middle of the night, my hangover hit.  And let me tell you it hit me like a ton of bricks--as most hangovers do.  With head pounding and stomach reeling I curled up in bed hoping that it would pass the next morning.  Sadly, I woke Monday morning feeling as though I had been run over by a semi truck.  Everything hurt and the energy it took to shower for work was astounding.  It was all I could do to wash my hair.  I believe I made it through four hours of work, most of which I spent staring blindly at my computer screen, before I decided this was ridiculous and went home.  

Within minutes of being home I was asleep and proceeded to stay that way for the next three hours, where I then woke up, ate some food, and was back sound asleep before 9 pm.  Yes, the sleep helped a lot however the next couple of days still didn't feel normal.  It took a lot more energy to do the things I normally do and I am finding that my body doesn't seem to be recovering the way it was even a week ago.  It is as though it is in slow motion, taking its time to go through daily activities. 

 I am constantly tired and unmotivated. Running, which normally comes easy to me, is a chore.  I feel as though I have put all I can into something and now that is over I am not 100% sure what happens next. Even with the knowledge that the season is not over, as am racing a 70.3 in September and my first ever marathon in October, I have been struggling to move past the fact that I currently do not have an end goal.   For the past year I have had this goal and this date that I have been aiming for and now I don't totally have a plan, so many questions have raced through my mind the last couple days; What do I do next year? Which races do I enter in? Do I fully switch over to the 70.3 distance or do I go for it again in the Olympic distance and try to make it to worlds?  When should I do an Ironman: maybe I should do it next year? What is next? The down and dirty of it is that this whole week has been a funk for me.  

As a goal oriented and driven purpose it is hard for me not to have an end goal; certain dates in which I have to have accomplished something; yet as I am sitting here writing to you the excitement starts to build again.  I may not have a hard goal line just yet but I still have a purpose and a direction it is just the little things I have to figure out along the way to get me to that end goal (whatever that may be). 

While this week has been a long one and I still feel pretty worn out each day has improved and I know that it will continue to improve; hangovers can't last forever! :)  

10 day "You" Challenge: Seven Wants

                                     

As I sit here in the Denver International Airport watching the hustle and bustle of employees in bright yellow safety vest moving bags from cart to plane, as planes come taxing by my window, and the air tower gives the go ahead for the plane on the tarmac to take off I wonder if I can actually come up with seven wants.  While a much brighter subject than the eight fears of the last challenge sometimes it can be hard to categorize what you actually "want" versus what is merely a desire.  There are many things that I want, from new shoes to winning the lottery but when thinking of my wants I am realizing that what I actually want is more than just a new pair of shoes or nice dishes in the kitchen.  

So here it is..... my seven wants:

1. I want to take my dad heli skiing.  It is the one thing he has never done and has always wanted to.  Growing up he never hesitated when I needed new skis, a trip somewhere to go racing, and every year (sometimes twice a year) he and I would watch the weather find out where it was snowing, pack up the car and take off to go ski the steep and deep.  He has been my number one ski buddy since the day he put skis on my feet at the young age of two and since I can remember I always told him that when I made it big I would take him heli skiing.

     

2. Help my mom go back to school.  My mother loves to learn and grow.  She is constantly doing whatever she can to gain more knowledge and has ALWAYS wanted to go back to school. 

3.  Pay off my student loan.  Graduating from Gonzaga University left me with a decent sized loan, while I am luckier than some it still is large enough that I can't really afford to pay it off.

                          

 

4. Travel.  There are so many amazing places out there. I would love to be able to easily visit them.  To be able to participate in triathlons all over the world.  These events are held in some of the most serene and beautiful places and it would be my joy to be able to participate.

5. Spend the rest of my life with the people that I love.  Yes, this may seem silly and you are probably thinking well duh who doesn't want that.  But there are some amazing people in my life, people that every day I look forward to seeing and talking to.  Their presence has made my life better and I want more than anything to continue spending ever day with them.

                         

6. Continue my education and growth through my career.  I just recently started a new job that I love.  It is challenging, I am constantly learning and growing with it and look forward to continuing to do so.

7. Keep improving my strength and times in my triathlons.  I have put a lot of work into them and as I am still fairly new to the sport I want to continue improving.  Maybe stand on the podium with a 1st place in my hand.  Oh and also I want to complete an Ironman before I am thirty/before I have kids. :)

        What are some things that you want??  What are some goals that you have???