Motivational Mondays (July 27)

Well, it's almost Tuesday - might be for some of my readers - but I wanted to get out a motivational post anyway. I was away all day so I wasn't able to update this trusty blog.

In my Lopers meeting Sunday, we heard a bit of talk about running equipment and such. You see, every week we have a 30-minute meeting before we go running and Sunday's talk was about running shoes and shorts and socks, etc.

But before we got to that, one of the speakers told us to think about our goals and to focus on the end result. It's something that was good for me to hear because it reinforces what I've been doing for some time.

I like to focus on the end result and not the day-to-day or week-to-week steps I take. There can and will be setbacks, no matter what plan you are following. Whether you are trying to run a marathon for the first time or trying to reach a certain weight, you will encounter highs and lows.

For me, one recent experience I had was my half-marathon in April. I didn't train the best I could have as I had setback after setback, with injury, illness and work robbing me of valuable training time. But I trained hard when I could, focusing on the ultimate goal which was to run the half marathon. I did and was able to overcome my obstacles. Had I become frustrated with not having had the time or health to get in my planned training runs, I could easily have decided not to have run the race altogether, and I would have robbed myself of one of my best achievements to date.

Same goes with weight. Between March and November of 2006, I lost 60 pounds. But between November '06 and February '07, I lost exactly zero pounds. I went for nearly three full months of not working out regularly, not losing weight and not following through with all that I had learned before.

If I would have looked at myself in, say, late January and become frustrated with my lack of weight loss and/or exercise, I could easily have quit. But I had made it a goal to get my weight to 199 and I damn sure wasn't going to let a setback - even one that lasted nearly three months - get in my way of achieving the overall goal. Otherwise, I'd still weigh more than 200 pounds, probably closer to 250, and would be living as I had before.

You will have setbacks.

You will have difficulty achieving your goal.

You may as well get that out of the way now, understand that so you can deal with it when obstacles and setbacks attempt to derail you.

But you have to be mentally strong. You have to have the right mindset.

"I will lose the weight."

"I will run my marathon."

"I will reach my goal."

Set your goal. Focus on the goal. Work backwards from your goal to figure out the proper steps you need to take in order to reach that goal.

And don't give up.

Because you'll only cheat yourself.