The Satisfaction of Goal Achievement

Last weekend, I traveled to Jackson, Mississippi to run the Mississippi Blues Marathon as part of my SMARTIES Goal.  It was the first of four marathons I plan to run this year in my quest to qualify for the elite Boston Marathon.

I am pleased to report that I met my goal of running under 3 hours and 30 minutes.  I also broke my March 1st goal of running under 3 hours and 20 minutes.  My time for the race was 3:18.00.

While I still have my work cut out for me to qualify for Boston (I must run under 3:05.00), it was very satisfying to meet two of my goals for the year so early on in January.

Having experienced the defeat and deflation of missing the mark by 70 minutes after my second marathon, it felt pretty good to narrow that margin down to only 14 minutes after my 9th try at the distance.  Most importantly, I ran my best time ever by over 12 minutes.  Getting a new "PR" (personal record) was one of the highlights of the day for me.  It definitely made the hard work feel worth it.

The Self-Action Leadership (SAL) philosophy teaches that self-competition is more important than competition with others, and that it is the only authentic form of fair competition. No two people are exactly alike in this world, so the concept of fair interpersonal competition is really a misnomer.  If you can honestly say to yourself at the end of a day, race, project, school year/program/degree, etc., that you have given your best effort, then you are, at that moment, consummately successful in that area, and there is no comparison in the world that can or should tarnish the joy and exultation of that priceless self-knowledge.  The SAL Theory and Model is designed to always focus your mind primarily on becoming your best, not on bettering the performances of others.

This is not to say that competition with others is bad or should be entirely avoided.  Interpersonal competition has its place, but that place must always be secondary to the intrapersonal competition that motivates you to become your best.  For example, it felt good to know that I finished 28th place out of 827 finishers on Saturday, but I wasn't about to let the fact that 27 people beat me dilute the enormous satisfaction I felt at having just run a marathon 12 minutes faster than I have ever run before.  In next week's post, I will share the journey that led me to change my thinking to focus primarily on self-competition instead of competition with others.

In the meantime, I wish to thank all my readers for being my "Accountability Partners" for my Boston Marathon qualifying goal.  Knowing that I am committed to report to you after each of my marathons this year has already provided me with much positive motivation to invest my best efforts to achieve my goals.  It is helping me, and I thank you!

In consideration of my performance on Saturday, I have adjusted my new goals moving forward as follows:

March 1st Marathon in The Woodlands, Texas: Run under 3 hours and 10 minutes.  Also, lose 15 more pounds prior to race (I've already lost 10; I have 20 to go to be in top form).  This goal will prove the most challenging for me because discipline and temperance with sugar, soda, and other less healthy foods has never been my strong suit.

June 14th Marathon in Provo, Utah: Run under 3 hours and 5 minutes and qualify for the 2015 Boston Marathon.  Lose an extra five pounds to weigh in at #160 or less on race day. (I weighed about #180 on race day last Saturday)

October 4th in St. George, Utah: Break the 3 hour barrier.      

Combatting "Insanity": My 2014 New Year's Resolution

In last week's post, I taught the principles of SMARTIES Goals.  As promised, this week, I will share with you my 2014 New Year’s Resolution, which is to qualify for the elite Boston Marathon, and describe it as a SMARTIES Goal.

I must confess to cheating a bit in that I actually started working on this goal three years ago.  Fortunately, this kind of cheating is encouraged!  You don’t have to wait for the New Year to set goals—especially SMARTIES Goals.  Furthermore, goals that are challenging and important sometimes take several tries before you accomplish them.

I am a runner.  I ran my first race at age 6.  In high school, I was a State Champion in cross-country.  In college, I was an All-American in track & field.  I have a lot of experience with running and racing.  After I turned 30, I wanted to start tackling longer races – half and full marathons.  In 2011, my brother challenged me to qualify for the elite Boston Marathon with him.  His challenge helped me turn my goal into a SMARTIES Goalby adding Specificity, Measurablity, and Accountability.

I worked hard and ran a lot of miles in preparation for my Boston Qualifying race in Salt Lake City in July 2011.  Unfortunately, I fell short of my goal.  Nay, I speak too lightly; I fell embarrassingly short.  I was completely and utterly humbled by the marathon distance and missed my mark by nearly 70 minutes!  I’ll never forget the deflating experience of running past my wife and other family members who had patiently and cheerfully waited over an hour longer than anticipated for me to pass by.  My body, mind, and ego were so bruised that I stopped running for four months!

The final “S” in the acronym SMARTIES stands for “Sane,” and refers to goals that you re-set after failing on previous attempts.  As discussed last week, the definition of insanity is: Doing the same things over and over while expecting different results.  In order to set a "SANE" follow-up goal, I had to examine what I had done – and had not done – to prepare in 2011, and then make changes to my future training to avoid getting the same result. 

My brother Joe did qualify for the Boston Marathon in 2011, so I asked him what he had done to train.  First, he completed an intense 60-day strengthening video course which, ironically, was called Insanity®  Second, he had run several marathons before.  Lastly, Joe had invested great time and effort over multiple years participating in long-distance bike riding and racing.  He had even competed in the grueling Leadville 100-mile mountain bike race SEVEN times!  As such, both his mind and body were well conditioned to lengthy and arduous physical challenges. 

Following in the footsteps of someone who had qualified for Boston, in 2012, I completed the 60-day Insanity video course myself.  I spent much more time running outside instead of running too many miles on the treadmill.  I also ran FOUR marathons in 2012 to condition my body and mind to competing at long-distances.  The results of these changes were significant.  I ran 48 minutes faster than I had in 2011! While I failed again in my goal to qualify for Boston, I got much closer than I had before.  I felt GREAT about my race and was motivated to keep trying until I met my ultimate goal.

Last year was an unusually busy year for my family and me that included a move, a new baby, and the completion of my graduate studies.  Now that I am settled, graduated, and not expecting any newborns in 2014, I am ready and motivated to try again to achieve my elusive goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  But, is it a SMARTIES Goal?

First, let’s review the components of a SMARTIES Goal as introduced in last week’s post:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable & Accountable
Relevant
Time-bound
In competition primarily with yourself
Engaging
Sane

SPECIFIC: Qualify for the Boston Marathon in (at least) one of four 2014 marathons: Jackson, Mississippi;  The Woodlands, Texas;  Provo, Utah;  & St. George, Utah.

MEASURABLE: Run under 3 hours and 5 minutes (requirement for Boston).  Time goals for specific marathons include: Jackson in January (sub 3:30), The Woodlands in March (sub 3:20), Provo in June (sub 3:10), and St. George in October (break the 3 hour barrier).

ATTAINABLE: Check.

ACCOUNTABLE:  My wife, four friends, and YOU, my readers, are accountability partners.

RELEVANT:  My goal is relevant to my physical and mental health. Nothing like a vigorous run to clear your head, soften your heart, and lower your cholesterol.  

TIME-BOUND.  There are specific dates for each marathon.

IN COMPETITION PRIMARILY WITH MYSELF:  Check.  No goals to beat anyone but my own personal best time and the clock.

ENGAGING: Check.  I love to run and to race.

SANE: I have made several additional adjustments to my training regimen this time around.  For example, I started both my cardio and strength training several months earlier than I did in 2011 or 2012.

This weekend, I compete in my first of four marathons for the year.  My goal is to run under 3 hours and 30 minutes.  Wish me luck.  More importantly, I wish YOU luck as you begin the process of setting your own SMARTIES Goal for 2014.

If you’d like to share your SMARTIES goal, e-mail me at jordan.jensen@freedomfocused.com.  If I get any responses, I will share them in my post next week, along with my results from the Mississippi Blues Marathon in Jackson.