Do you envision possibilities?
Do you think about what the future could hold?
Do you take steps to apply your dreams to reality?
Recently, I've been dabbling in dreaming.
What are the possibilities that my future could hold?
Where do I want to be in 10 years, or 5 years, or even next month?
How do I get from where I am to where I want to be?
Dreams are beautiful. They are shiny with delicate hope infused in their cores. They don't walk on the ground with the humdrum or commonplace, but rather, they float above our heads. We could see them (figuratively), if we just look up.
But how do we take hold of a dream and bring it to pass? We are on the ground and dreams are above us. How do we get from here to there? Simple. We. Need. Goals.
Goals are ropes that give us the ability to catch dreams and climb up to them. They allow us to flesh out steps between where we are and where we want to be in the future.
Much like taking a road trip in the car, we need more than just the starting point & end destination. We need a plan. Do we want to travel by highway, interstate, or back roads? Do we plan to stop along the way for gas, food, sleep, or other breaks? How long will we be gone?
When we set goals, we mentally start at our end point and work our way backwards in what needs done, before we can move forward to achieve our goals. I'll be taking us through some steps in setting up goals for success. After each step, I'll give a concrete example for how I applied this step in one of my recently achieved goals: biking 2,018 miles in a year.
Step 1: See the Dream
At the start of 2018, my mom asked me if I would be doing the 2018 bike challenge. I had planned on biking 5 times each week for (ideally 5 miles each day average). I asked what the bike challenge was and she said it was to bike 2,018 miles in 2018 (go figure, right?) I first rejected it as impossible. I couldn't bike 2018 miles in 365 days. That's impossible! Right??
Step 2: Count the Cost of What It Will Take
Well, it turns out one would need to bike 40.36 miles a week for 50 weeks to achieve this goal. Yes, there are 52 weeks in a year, but 2 weeks of grace will be appreciated on days I'm under the weather or traveling or whatnot. So if I bike 8 miles, 5 days a week, this goal seems plausible.
Step 3: Make Plans
I have a stationary recumbent bike, so I can safely multi-task. I can do my language studies, study the Bible, and check social media & email from my phone as entertainment and a distraction when I bike. As the year has progressed, I've learned an enjoyable way to while away my biking is to watch a movie or tv show.
Step 4: When Necessary, Tweak Plans
Even though I originally envisioned biking 8 miles each day, 5 days each week, I've tweaked this goal partway through. I needed to average 40 miles a week, but I don't have to bike the same amount each day. On busy days, I might just bike 1 mile. On my days off from work, I might throw on a movie (or two) and bike for several hours.
Step 5: Consider What You Want the Outcome to Be
I kept debating whether I should bike more miles at a lower resistance or fewer miles at a higher resistance on the bike. I got input from a few trusted advisers (my husband and my best friend). We determined that biking more miles at a lower resistance would burn more calories whereas biking fewer miles at a higher resistance would build more muscles. So I decided my resistance would be set on the low end of the middle range of difficulty.
Step 6: Track Your Progress
Each day, I record how many miles I have biked. My health app on my phone allows me to track time, distance, and calories burned. Each week, I tally my total amount biked (to make sure that I'm on track with my weekly goal of 40-ish miles) and add each week's tally to my monthly total biked. In my paper calendar, I can see my year at a glance with my monthly numbers, or I can see each's month's stats.
Step 7: Challenge Yourself
I am a bit competitive, so at the end of each month, I tally the total I biked, my best day biking, and my best week biking. I note my quarterly record too. This allows me to know at a glance, how close I am to beating my best day & week ever in biking. (I'll need a movie marathon to help me bike more than 36 miles in a day to be my current record)
Step 8: Track Your Completion Rate
At any point in the year, I could tell you how far I have biked (for example, 1,170 miles biked), but I also know how many miles I have left to go (848 miles left).
Step 9: Keep Dreaming
Before this challenge, I could not have joined my husband in a multi-day biking adventure, but as the year progressed, this new dream moves from impossible to plausible to doable. As I achieve my current goal, it opens up possibilities for future goals.
Step 10: Have Fun & Don't Forget to Celebrate!
I enjoy biking. I enjoy challenging myself to beat my personal bests. I enjoy watching movies while I bike. And when I complete this bike challenge, I will celebrate with my friends & family. Sometimes you'll want to select a definite goal ahead of time, other times, you'll just know you'll want to do something to celebrate. But it's important to take time to acknowledge the time, energy, and effort that you put into achieving your goal.
I am a big fan of big dreams. I can't bike 2018 miles in a day (that's over 84 miles per hour for 24 hours!!), but each day, I can chip away at this goal a little more. By the end of the year, I will have done something that I initially thought was impossible.
This can be applied to more than just exercise goals too.
