(2 minute read)
Setting personal or professional goals can propel us at a pace far beyond our previous norm. When created with purpose and intention, goals can narrow our focus and remind us of what’s important.
The paradox is, that they can also get in the way. The goal you’ve written down and begun committing to can shift from being a driver to an uncomfortable weight around your neck. Without realizing it, your mind can shift into a defensive mode, striving to keep the status quo, and formulating reasons on why you should cease striving for this ludicrous target!
“If it’s important you’ll find a way, if it’s not you’ll find an excuse.”
(Gary Ryan Blair, ‘Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain’)
In achieving a recent record for the half-marathon, Sara Hall channelled the feeling she was wanting to achieve, rather than focusing on the time-splits required to achieve the goal. “I decided the goal wasn’t a time but a feeling…flying along, stride fluid, flanked by amazing women, loving finally getting a cold day to run.”
Hall understood that to achieve her desired time, she needed to enjoy the process, and the feelings associated with running at a fast – yet sustainable – pace. She added, “Sometimes you have to reframe your goal, because I never want to have a goal that’s robbing me of my peace.”
Hall has been known to literally throw her watch away into the crowd mid-race because the reminder of the outcome was getting in the way of being present and competing.
While the evidence and research for setting ambitious goals continues to stack up, there are always two caveats to be considered; 1) Is this goal / ambition consuming me to a point of obsessive un-healthiness? 2) Will I be ok if I don’t achieve it?
Goal-food for thought.