You’ve heard it before we should all have goals.
However, there are times when our goals get us into trouble.
Any strength becomes a weakness when there is too much emphasis put on that strength.
A few years back, I got excited about marathon running.
I had my regular running regimen.
I had my target in place for my first marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon, in Washington, DC.
Everything I read before running that marathon told me that I shouldn’t have a time goal for my first marathon.
Having a time goal, meaning that I wanted to beat a certain time, was a sure way to finish a marathon in defeat.
Yet, I knew better.
In the back of my mind, I agreed that I wouldn’t have a time goal.
Yet, at the forefront of my mind, I wanted to run under 3 hours and 30-minute marathon.
I thought I was fast enough.
I thought I trained well enough.
Fourteen miles into the race, I couldn’t run and began to walk.
Shortly after that, I gave up on my time goal and determined that I would just focus on finishing the race.
Finishing the race should have been the only goal I ever had with that marathon.
But it wasn’t.
I finished crossed the finish line and collected my gear bag, and the prevailing thought in my head was my disappointment at not running the marathon “fast enough.”
That disappointment robbed me from fully enjoying all the work I put into training for the last year.
A few days later, I reviewed the running map of the marathon and sat back in wonder at the feat I had accomplished with finishing the marathon.
Sometimes things go as we want them to go.
Most of the time, things don’t go as we want to go.
We have to be willing to adapt and learn from each of our experiences.
This willingness to learn and try again is the key to our progress.
It’s good to have goals.
However, sometimes we make bad goals.
When we make bad goals, we have to acknowledge it and adjust our focus.
We have to be willing to kill those bad goals, regroup, and strive for better goals.
Every day is an experiment that gives us a chance to experiment, collect data, and move forward.
If, at first, you don’t succeed with your goals, try again with a new or different goal.
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