I haven’t written in 12 months and have no good reason or even excuse for it. There were times when I sat down and started but didn’t follow through. Mostly though, I let it sit and slide. Why? I don’t know.
All I know is that every other real goal I ever had, I achieved. For example, I wanted to run a marathon and last year, I did. It took me 6 months and I did it. I got up at 4am one fine Sunday morning and ran the 42.195km for my sport watch to register the full distance. Actually, I ran 42.5km because I couldn’t remember the needed distance at this point of my run and I was pretty sure it was less than that. Better safe than sorry! And you know what? 6 months later I ran a second marathon, this time I participated in an official city marathon with an official time.
I always wanted to run a marathon – just because I can. After all, other people run marathons and if you watch famous city marathons on television e.g. New York, Boston, London, Tokyo, Berlin, … you’ll notice a lot of novice runners who put mind over matter and I wanted to be one of them.
You may think that training to get ready for a marathon takes a lot of commitment or a lot of time. Having trained twice, I tend to disagree. The plan I used to get marathon fit set out running four times a week and most of the time for only 40 minutes. This is less time than many people spend at the gym! I never ran more than 5 hours a week in total and I was happy to adjust the plan to whatever happened in my life. At the faintest idea of a cold, I’d take a day off “due to illness” or I’d postpone my “long” Saturday run because I had a drink or two on Friday evening. After all, I’m only human.
Instead of hard training sessions or super human commitment, all it took was consistency. Consistency in showing up and giving it a good go.
Once I really set my eyes on achieving the marathon goal, I stuck with the plan consistently. The training plan was easy enough to follow in the first few weeks and that easing into the schedule was enough to get me running consistently 4 times a week. Once the habit was established, the training got a little harder each time. There were no big changes, only minor increases in speed or endurance. My fitness had increased at each point, so that physically, I didn’t even notice the change too much.
The main challenge for me was to consistently think of the increase in intensity in positive terms. I told myself that the increased effort levels are good for me which allowed me to consistently give my best at every session. I continued to train consistently 4 times a week and ultimately, I achieved my goal.
My goal right now is to do what I started last year and note down small action which I can take to make the world around me a little bit better. I want to be able to truthfully say that I did my best in looking after myself, my friends and the environment around me.
Consistency is a great tool which will get me there. Thinking about just one small action a week is achievable on an ongoing basis and working four times a week on it is most certainly achievable too.
Now, your turn. What one thing will you change to achieve your dreams?