Goals of Stone

Hey All!

Just finished up a 6 mile ruck this morning and had some thoughts about goals during it I wanted to share with all of you. This year I created quite a few personal and professional goals for myself (will be discussed more in-depth in a later post). One of my goals was to run 500 miles for the year.

Just to be clear, I have been "running" for several years, but by running, I mean I would go for a 1 - 5 mile run once to three times a weeks, maybe. This should go without saying, but 500 was a lot, definitely for me. However, a lot of my other goals were pretty big, so I figured why not.

I had been slacking big time in-part to laziness and injury. After running the Newbo half, I told all of my running friends I was till going to try and make the goal. Very soon after saying that, I decided I was going to do a GoRuck Tough. A GoRuck if you're not familiar is a event where you do some exercising and then ruck (walk wight a weighted backpack). The Tough event means it's about 20 miles or so overnight.

I did not want this to be a "wing it" thing like I did with the half. During the Tough I also have to have 30+lbs in my pack. Figured I definitely better train. Anyway, during my ruck today, I was kind of feeling like shit about turning my back on my goal of running  because I simply cannot train for both with as many miles as I have left.

As I was feeling kind of shitty, I realized that I'm still being active. I'm still improving myself. That got me thinking about, can goals change? Once you make a goal is it written in stone? I started playing through my goal list in my head and decided that some can change and some cannot. Some are written in stone and some are not.

For example: My goal of graduating, was not optional. It needed to be done and there was only one way to go about it. Passing my paramedic test had to be done, whether it was when I did or having to retake a class. Those had to be done and there was only one way to do it. Other goals, such as fitness goals can be different, in my opinion.

I simply chose 500 because it was a little over a mile-a-day and wanted to challenge myself this year. The GoRuck challenge is still doing that (more than running if you ask me). Now, if I were to be training for a marathon next year, would rucking help me? Not as much as running. Would be beneficial to change my goal at that point? Probably not.

My point is, I think some people set goals, get behind and chose to do focus on them anymore or any aspect of that goal. Just because we get behind or find new hobbies and interests does not mean we can't still be winning and achieving things in life. Certain things have to be done and it is what it is. Other things we can control and enjoy. We should do those things because things we cannot control can consume us otherwise.

Hope you all enjoy!

-B