by Jackie Prosise

What is the purpose of a goal?

According to the Oxford dictionary, “a goal is the object of a person’s ambition or effort: an aim or desired result.” That sounds so clinical and falls short of what a goal can and should be.

The setting of a goal is the moment when a person starts a journey to a new destination. It should be the entry point of a desire to make changes in one’s life. I have found that most people do not set goals as an entry point… they set what they see as the final destination. An example of this is the person — who has not gotten off the couch to walk past the end of the block — declaring a goal of walking or running a marathon.

The final destination of a marathon is admirable but this far-off goal is what we call in our family a “pie crust promise”; easily made and easily broken. A goal to be of any benefit needs to be realistic to the person and have a very high percentage of attainability.

Using the example of the couch potato, an attainable goal might be walking 1 mile a day for 15 days. The distance is realistic and the time frame undaunting. WALK Magazine recently had a challenge of walking 2 miles a day for 30 days–a total of 60 miles. A perfect goal-setting exercise — a short distance within a good time frame. Those participating seemed to enjoy the goal. But there were those who were developing angst. Why?

Posting that they had walked only 1 mile or a mile and a half or missing a day due to work, family, or illness. The rigidness in looking at a goal as a “must happen” is the easiest way to excuse oneself from pushing forward. The mile completed still started the person on the path of 60 miles, maybe in 30 days or 32. Missing a day does not negate the benefits gained from the other 29 days. The person still started a journey to a new destination. Celebrate the effort! Celebrate the 29 days! Celebrate the fresh air of the mile!

What is the difference between the people walking/running 1 mile and those who complete a 5K, 10K, half marathon, marathon, ultramarathon and even multi-day ultramarathons? ABSOLUTELY nothing!

Every single person who enters a race started out by getting off the couch and walking or running 1 mile for 15 days. Where they differ is how they use goals in their training.

Recently I attended a 24-hour race with my daughter: a race on a 1-mile track for 24 hours to see how far you can go. When speaking with the ultra-racers there, a common theme emerged — they all had a goal. They differed by individual. One gentleman, named Craig (age 72), had the goal of staying awake for the entire 24 hours. He has completed 48-hour races and stayed awake, but when it comes to 24 hours, he always finds a reason to nap. Another athlete, Bill, just wanted to do one more mile than last year. He trained all year to get just one more mile.

Goals were not achieved by my daughter, Jenn (a 50-mile trail race finisher), and another racer, Rebecca (an Ironman finisher). Jenn had complications with breathing making it difficult to continue. Rebecca had shoe issues that blistered her feet. These ladies adjusted their goals for this race. Jenn went to 31 miles and Rebecca finished 27 miles in 10 hours. What is important is how they responded to the “failure” of their goals. They did not fail!!

How did they not fail? They were not there 24 hours and they did not get extreme mileage. But these ladies started using their experience to understand what they would do differently on their next attempt. They acknowledged that there would be another try and there would be changes made. They talked with the successful walkers and runners for pointers. The goal was not ended by one setback, it was merely re-evaluated into smaller parts.

Do I have a goal, NO. I have lots of goals: 1. get in X mile(s) a day, 2. shoot for as many days in the month as I can, and 3. if I don’t make a day then I will make up the mile(s). My next racing event will be a 50 miler on trails. My fourth goal is to do 1 mile more than I did in my last race.

If I succeed, I will celebrate. If I do not succeed, I will celebrate the journey to a new destination 1 mile at a time, because there will be a new destination on the horizon.

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Jackie Prosise, from nothern Ohio, has been race walking for 10 years. Of the many races she has completed, she prefers long distances. Jackie avidly promotes health and fitness through walking. Contact Jackie at bjprosise@sssnet.com.

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