Recently, I began piloting a very intense program designed to help people who are already very successful become even more focused and successful.
Each participant is responsible for setting four extremely huge and crazy goals. The purpose of the program is to find out how much each person is really capable of accomplishing. How much time to you think you waste on a daily basis? This program is designed to fill those wasted moments with purpose driven activity.
Since it is a pilot program I am also participating. I don't feel that I could authentically represent or recommend this process without having gone through the process. The goals are private, but I assure you they are extremely stretching. We have each set a goal to improve our physical, spiritual, mental and temporal abilities.
One of my goals is to run, walk, crawl, stumble and/or dance across 52 miles that cover two of the steepest and longest mountain passes in our local area. For those of you that are familiar with the area, I am talking about Baker's Grade and Mountain Pass. This means that I will be running on the 15 Freeway North with cars whizzing by at an average pace of 85 miles an hour, all the way from Baker California to Stateline Nevada.
Don't bother to tell me that I am crazy, I already know that. I am not in the physical shape I need to be in order to make this run and I only have 90 days or less to make the run. I have run in the past, but never this distance. I have not ran consistently for nearly three years so I have a lot of fitness to regain.
I will use this blog to chart my progress on this goal. I did my second run today. I ran 10 miles in 1 hour and 50 Minutes. It is a little hard to imagine that I will soon go five times as far.
I struggled today. My 40 year old body is cooperating, but there are aches and pains in places that I have not felt for a while. As I ran, I thought about how challenging life can sometimes be and how important it is to keep moving forward when we are facing those challenges.
Our society places a lot of emphasis on speed. It seems we are constantly looking for ways to do everything faster. But faster is not always better. Sometimes we go so fast that we wear out and are unable to continue.
Finishing is a much more important skill and characteristic to develop. To be a finisher we must be able to keep our eye on the big picture and move beyond the pain of the moment. The long term view is one of the keys to sustaining us when we tire or become concerned about our ability to go on.
A lot of people have asked me why I would set such an extreme goal. I usually tell them "because I can" which is intended to be a smart alec remark. The real reason is because I understand that physical fitness brings self-control and long life. As a father of seven children, I have a lot to live for and I owe it to them to be in shape. I want to be around to be their dad and the grandpa of their children. When I am running I think about them and how important it is for me to stay young.
I hope you will check in on this blog often and follow-up on my progress. Please feel free to comment or contact me if you are interested in learning about my other three goals. You can reach me athorn@telioscorp.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
See you on the road!
Andrew
