Head Over Heels: “If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”

November 8, 2009

“If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”

I have to admit I've been slacking a bit lately in the running department. Maybe it's the cold weather or the shorter days, but for some reason I've been having a very hard time finding motivation lately. As I said earlier, I'm an excuse-pro. But the no-can-do attitude has to go if I ever expect to accomplish anything. For example, I really want to run a marathon. And, not just any marathon: One day I will run the NYC Marathon. But, if I keep staying in bed for an extra hour instead of getting up and going for a run, I'll never run that race. It's incredibly important to set goals for yourself, but it's even more important to set goals that you can actually achieve in the present moment. For example, my end goal is to run a marathon. By no means could I go out and run 26 miles right now, but I can go out and run 3. Now, if I tell myself to go for a 3 mile run today (which I did this morning), and a 3 mile run 4 times in the next 7 days, then next week I can go for a 5 mile run. After that 7, then 9, then 11...you see where this is going. If you push yourself within your current limits, soon those limits start to expand and your goal becomes easier to reach. So, if you put in the proper prep work and training, you'll really be able to stand one day on that start line and know that not only do you belong there, you are going to cross that finish line smiling.

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Welcome to Head Over Heels!

Like many 20-something women, I woke up one morning exasperated. It seemed like every day I would find a new passion, a new dream, and get excited about yet another project, just to find that they would all crash and burn. I wanted something that I could control and that would be all mine.

Because our 20s are a time of exploration and discovery, it's very hard to find that path that directs us exactly to our dreams, especially because our dreams have the habit of evolving overnight. I had worn myself into a tizzy of exhaustion, disappointment, and an overwhelming sense of having no control over my own life. And that's when I went for that first run.

Two minutes later, I arrived back at my apartment steps, panting. As long and as torturous as those two minutes felt, they also gave me a sense of liberation, a feeling that had been severely lacking in my life. The next day, pathetically still sore, I again put on my sneakers. Three minutes, yes! This routine was repeated daily throughout the summer and now, I'm a half-marathoner! My ultimate goal, a marathon, still looms in the distant future, but the even bigger goal is one I can actively work on every day: learning to gain control over my own life and learning to fall in love with myself one step at a time.