Month: March 2011

My first 10K is 6 weeks away. I’m intimidated by the idea of running a 10K, even though I’m already signed up for a 15K and half marathon, because I’ve gotten comfortable with 5Ks (I’ve run 6) and the first step up to racing a new distance seems the most terrifying.

I’m also coming off of one week of being really sick and one week of being on vacation. Just getting back into running, let alone starting to train for a new distance, seems daunting.

But today I remembered something I wrote when I was in the midst of getting out of debt. I wrote that to achieve any goal, you need to have three things: patience, passion and a plan.

Everything begins with passion –  the passion to achieve a goal, whether it’s becoming debt-free, losing weight or tackling a race. That passion will fuel your plan, which is a written roadmap of everything you need to do to achieve your goal. Patience is what helps see you through all the doubts and roadbumps you’ll encounter along the way.

I love Zig Ziglar’s quote: “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” For me, a written plan gives strong legs to the passion I feel for tackling this 10K – I just spent my lunch break creating my training plan. It gives me something concrete to aim for, every single day.

I may not hit what I’m aiming for all the time – sometimes my humanness will get in the way – but I know I’ll succeed in the end because I’ve aimed at something.

And whenever I have doubts, I’ll just remind myself that I already have everything I need to crush this race. Patience. Passion. A plan.