At 24 years old, and weighing in at many-more-pounds-than-the-average-athelete, I ran a half marathon. Before this, I hadn’t even finished Color Me Rad, a 5km “run” at UBC (that’s a secret I said I’d never tell anyone…… welp.) When I called my mom and told her that I’d signed up for the Seawheeze, Lululemon’s Half Marathon, she said “Oh honey that’s so great! You know that means you’re going to have to train though, right?”

yea right, mom. oh wait…. let’s review. I’m not active. ever. like, ever. I’d rather wait 15 minutes than run the 5.6 seconds it would take to catch the bus that’s about to leave. Well, at least I wasn’t active.

I love lululemon… so much. One thing they do really well is talk about goals. They have so many helpful blog posts, filled with tips and tricks (yes, all those words are different links to posts on lulu’s blog on the topic of goals). One thing I’ve always failed miserably at is goals. I think it’s just because I don’t like creating them.

When I worked at Olive Garden, I trained a lot of the staff there. That meant that I also went through the training myself at least once a month. One of my most ridiculous favourite memories is from the first training session; I always had to read this quote aloud:

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” – Michelangelo

It just made me laugh every time because I’d be thinking to myself “I’m saying this to 17-year-olds who want nothing more than to have some spending money while they still live at home. how is this quote impacting them at all?” Who knows if it ever impacted them, however it was impacting me.

Lululemon gives you some amazing tools on how to do long term and short term goals. If their tools work for you, great! (and I’m a bit jealous haha) I’ve never been a traditional goal setter. I’m a very *very* short term goal setter, but also a very long term, achievable goal setter. I think this started when I realized that there’s a lot in my life that I can’t control. I’ll make goals like “I’m going to do yoga three times this week” or “I’m going to do all of my Christmas shopping in the next 4 days”. I’ll also make the goals that say “I’m going to graduate from UBC with my degree in Honours English and then get into Education and become a teacher”. But even that goal seems unrealistic, because even though I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was in kindergarden, I’d be ohk if my dreams take me elsewhere. If all of a sudden one morning I realized I’d rather be in Student Development or drive a tractor, I want to be able to do that and not worry about missing a goal or letting myself down in one way or another.

The awesome thing is, that even though this may seem like not the most organized or forward-thinking way of going about things, I am still in a pretty great position. I have two awesome jobs and am succeeding in Business Without Really Trying school. You need to make SMART goals that are attainable for you; goals that don’t overwhelm but encourage and support.

Whether you take the more traditional and organized route towards your goals, or a more meandering, short term route, please always be moving forward. I ran the half marathon, first with the goal of finishing (actually) and then with the goal of finishing in under 3hrs. I finished at 2h46 and I’ve never been more proud of myself. I weeped when I crossed the finish line. My dad was waiting for me at the end, and I’d just passed three of my closest friends – I felt nothing but uplifted and encouraged. I did it; I tackled the Seawheeze and I came out on top. Next year, I will train more (reality check: I barely trained. bad news bears), I will eat right, I will not drink something I’ve never had before while running my first half marathon, and I will run it in less than 2.5 hrs. goal set.

Bet van Persie didn’t see that opportunity coming. He really made the most of it – good goal, sir.