Defining Your ‘It’: Dreaming, Thinking, Setting Goals

What is ‘IT’ to you?
running motivation
Do you know what you want? Is there an inkling in there? Are you not totally sure that it’s what will make you happy, but it might? Are you afraid to say it…maybe even think it?

Setting our sights on something can be scary…sometimes speaking goals puts too much weight on them. But it still could be worth putting the weight on the words and striving towards ‘It’…striving towards something.

Having a concrete goal and writing it down has proven to be one of the most effective ways of actually achieving something…funny how the a remarkably ‘simple’ act is instrumental in a potentially insurmountable outcome.


Because even if you don’t exactly get to the ‘it’ you originally thought of…getting there is a journey and if your ‘it’ evolves over the trek that’s okay. Redefine it. But still go after it.

Heck, even if you fail…and you might, there are no promises, it’s a risk…at least you tried, right? At least you won’t have to wrestle with the regret of not knowing.

Goals can be scary to share, but the people who DEFINE their ‘it’ and write it down somewhere, even if in secret, are far more likely to continue on that journey towards it. They have better chances of achieving their ‘it’…but even if they don’t, at least they don’t have the regrets of now knowing what ‘could be’ if they never tried.

Define it…Redefine it if you have to…go after IT.

running for cake

Or is this more your style?? 😉

(Hey, even if your ‘it’ for the moment is cake…if it gets you through the workout I call it a win! hehe. Not all goals have to be so HUGE or long term…mini-goals can be set and achieved too!)

1) What’s and ‘it’ you have?

2) Do you write your goals down, or have a little to-do kind of list?
I have way too many lists, mostly because I seem to get lots of ideas in strange/random places and I don’t want to forget about them. 😛

3) Do you bait yourself to finish certain tasks/workouts that will get you headed towards where you want to go?
All about the carrot in front of the horse…works surprisingly well too! 🙂

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16 Replies to “Defining Your ‘It’: Dreaming, Thinking, Setting Goals”

  1. I totally agree. I encourage my athletes to write their goals and sometimes even have them write stores where they achieve “it.”

  2. I’m guilty of not vocalizing my goals for fear of not achieving them. Thanks for reminding me that nothing’s ever going to happen if I don’t take the risk! 🙂 Off to write down my goals now.

    • i’m sorry but i have to call BS on that…hello u took a whole BLOG out on one goal for one of the most altruistic reasons!! so going forward, keep on vocalizing them. 🙂

  3. haha. one of my goals is definitely to eat an entire cake and gain 0 pounds. wishful thinking right!?! like i said…a dream goal 😉 i think this is a good topic for me because i have been thinking a lot lately how i am the one constantly holding myself back. sometimes i feel like i take 2 steps forward and then one step back because i start second guessing my abilities…definitely something i want to work on in 2012! how are you doing friend!?! we should maybe start like an injuries anonymous club right!?! so we can all complain to each other?? haha. hopefully you are healing!!! 🙂 🙂

    • inventing the calorie-less cake…why is science not spending more time on the REAL issues here!!! 😉 ugh, ya u and i and out little injury issues…but don’t worry, i know eventually we’ll get back out there. we just gotta stay positive and keep doing wat we’re doing…happy healing thoughts ur way! 🙂

  4. ooh yeah. I definitely know goals can be intimidating! I’ve written mine and spoken it aloud to a few people, but it definitely scares me and there’s still this little part of my brain that likes to say “yeah right. not gonna happen, you’re too crazy”. I’m not even the person who decided that should be my goal in the first place haha! But I think the greatest thing that comes from sharing your goal with certain others is that those people believe in you (even if you’re not quite ready to believe it yourself) and will help you acheive it – sometimes you really can’t do it if you keep it to yourself! And yeah, I totally bait myself. sometimes the bait of “think how bamf you will feel about yourself after you finish this workout” is enough, but sometimes froyo has to be involved 😉

    • loving the bait trick…it’s usually either food, or in the middle of a tempo if i’m on a roll and feeling good i start to get a little greedy and say, “dang, this hurts buuuuut, just keep it up for a bit longer cuz how sweet will it be writing down a faster time average in ur log!” haha.

  5. I have 1.5 million lists. Soo guilty of that. I have goals, a vision board, mental lists….I do think it helps me to a certain extent, but I feel scattered sometimes.
    I am a total bait chaser– nothing wrong with a little motivation 🙂

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