I know what I’m working towards:
Running the More – Fitness Magazines
2010 Half-Marathon.

How do I know that I’ll actually do it? I’m using a technique that practically guarantees success:

I’m simply telling everyone I know that I’m doing this race. And I just told you!

Here’s why this works:

• saying it aloud makes it seem real
• telling others makes me accountable to them
• people ask for updates on my progress and that renews my enthusiasm
• now that I’ve told everyone, I’ll feel like an idiot going back and saying I’ve chickened out

Having something specific to work towards also allows me to plan. Once I know where I want to go, I’m able to outline the steps to get there and just start walking. For this race, I’ve downloaded specific training plans that I’ve added to my calendar so I know exactly what I have to do and when. Now it’s just one foot in front of the other, literally and figuratively.

Over the years, I’ve used this strategy again and again with great success: enrolling in graduate and culinary schools, hiking the Grand Canyon, and, most recently, taking Italian classes.

What are you working towards? Click to comment.

As they say in Italy: In bocca al lupo!

Tags: Marathon, Motivation

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Setting Goals . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.