Reassessing Your Goals
I am not a runner. But in order to maintain a reasonable level of health and not feel guilty about indulging in ice cream and dark chocolate on a regular basis, I do, begrudgingly, run. In 2020, one of my goals is to run 1000km. (That’s 620 miles for you folks that still haven’t converted to the metric system.) It’s about the only goal that hasn’t been hijacked in some way by the COVID pandemic and subsequent social limitations. This means I am running, on average, 15 miles a week by running 2-2.5 miles every day.
A few weeks ago about a mile into my daily run I heard a series of howls and screams that stopped me dead in my tracks. I was out before the sun came up to beat the heat and get in my two and half miles before work. And there I was, nothing but me and my Apple watch tracking my steps, when I heard the familiar cry of a band of coyotes. Yup, a group of coyotes is called a band. But this is not the type of band you want to spend an evening, or in this case, an early morning with. So as I put on the breaks, I wondered well, what next? Do I turn back? That seemed premature, or maybe that was the stubborn streak in me talking. Nevertheless, instead of turning around I paused to try to figure out just what direction the howling was coming from. At first the cries seemed to come from behind the wall in the neighborhood on my left. But as I approached where I thought the sounds were coming from the direction shifted and now came from the dark, empty field on my right. A part of me wanted to bolt but the logical part of my brain told me that if I ran and the coyotes were in fact nearby, I was far more likely to be mistaken for food. So, because I wasn’t 100% sure where my new fury nemeses were at, I decided to trudge on, at a reasonable walk. In this way I reasoned, I would still progress towards my goal and simultaneously gain a clearer understanding of where the coyotes were. This would allow me the time to develop a defensive strategy, if necessary. I might even be able to determine at this slower pace that the threat wasn’t even close by but rather was far off. If that was the case then I could resume my faster, not fast but faster pace, without worrying about my howling friends mistaking me for their next meal.
Global pandemics, like howling coyotes, have a way of making you take pause and reflect on the path you are on. But it doesn’t take a pandemic to reassess our goals. Challenges of all sorts, and the natural rhythm of life can too. And sometimes it’s just what we need.
So as we get ready to start the last quarter of 2020, what goals do you need to reassess? Are some goals just a pivot away from being back on track for a year that’s been anything but predictable? Have some goals been tossed aside in the busyness of life? Are there other goals you need to dump because they aren’t the right goal in the first place?
There’s no time like the present to begin, or resume your goals and purpose, even if it’s at a trudge. And don’t let life’s frustrations or critics, no matter how much they howl, keep you from your goals and purpose. Take a moment, reassess, and live out your purpose.
