Small Step Sunday: Set a Goal

Goals are important. They help us organize our thoughts, energy and time to achieve what we truly value. Without a clear idea of your goals it's much harder to make any change. Set a goal for yourself today. It can be a small one or a huge one. It's often helpful to set a big, scary goal (like running a marathon) and then break that down in to smaller goals that can be achieved along the journey.

Once you set a goal, let someone know about it. Post it to social media. Tell your parent, spouse, child, best friend, co-workers, etc. Identify people in your life who will be supportive of your goal or who have experience in achieving something similar.

I'm going to announce a new running goal to the world right now. Once my foot heals, I would like to work on training for a marathon. I'd like to run it sometime in December depending on my health, my schedule, and the races that exist.

I know my first small goal is to run another half marathon before then. Another small goal will be to research the various marathon plans, invest in one, and follow it closely. Up until now I've been combining plans I find online into my own mishmash, but I wonder if that caused this injury so close to my races. I have another goal to find a different pair of shoes that support my foot better, and this will help me achieve the marathon goal. Once you get started it's easy to break these big dreams down into sequential steps.

The last part of this challenge is to write down your goal and any small steps it takes to get there and put it somewhere visible. I keep an online to do list for all my work and personal goals. This is helpful for me because when I'm at work and checking my list I'm keeping my personal goals in sight as well. I hope some of you might reach out and share your goal with me!