Here's the funny thing I've noticed about goals since beginning my fitlife journey nearly four years ago: Only before you decide to pursue goals do they feel insurmountable.
It's like when I decided to start hiking and set a goal to climb Sandia - a mountain rising more than 5,000 feet above the City of Albuquerque, nestled the Rio Grande Valley. It may sound dismissive of the accomplishment, but to be honest, by simply making the decision to climb that mountain, the mountain became smaller in my mind.
It is the same with weight loss. Three years ago before I decided to lose weight, I figured losing even 100 pounds without medical intervention would be out of the question - and at more than twice my normal body weight I needed to lose 200. Absurd! Ridiculous! No Way!
But there I was, in the silence of my heart, filtering out all critics, including my own ever-present internal critic, making a decision to go for it. Almost immediately, once the decision had been made, there was no doubt in my mind. I was going to overcome obesity and more than halve my body weight come hell or high water!
When I met my partner Khizer two years ago, he spoke of running a marathon one day. By keeping his dreams in the "one day" category he was safely on this side of setting a goal. Running a marathon for someone who has only once in his memory run something like ten miles might seem impossible. It is this feeling of being made a fool by countering the impossibility and failing that prevents many from making decisions that could change their lives forever. But earlier this year Khizer made the decision to run in Albuquerque's Duke City Marathon, and suddenly the finish line to him seemed much closer to him than it had before. He's now training and has completed several long runs. He ran 20 miles on Saturday and told me of his training, "This really isn't as hard as I thought it would be." I'll be there as he accomplishes this seemingly insurmountable goal October 20. His dream, because of his decision to run, is about to become reality.
The moral of this story is this: Once you make a decision, your choices will fuel that decision. As inspirational speaker Tony Robbins says, "It is your decisions, and not the conditions of your life, that determine your destiny." It's so true! No matter your conditions or how far off your heart's desire may seem from where you are right now, you must believe that you are as close as your ability to make that decision to go for it allows you to be.
In other words, dream big. But when you're ready to make your move, decide bigger!
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