"Why am I doing this?"
"What is the purpose?"
"How is this helping me?"
"How is this helping others?"
"Do I really need to do this or that?"
"What does it matter if I were to quit?"
"Who cares?" etc...
And many times I just give up and do something else, or nothing at all. Don't get me wrong, sometimes nothing at all is a good thing, but the few times in my life that I have done nothing at all, feelings of boredom and even some level of depression started to take over. Without some purpose to the things that I do, they end up empty and void and meaningless.
I believe that God has a plan for me. Plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me hope and a future. Of course many of you will recognize this from Jeremiah 29:11. I have no intention of giving a bible study here, but suffice it to say that God has a plan for me. This gives me purpose. It gives meaning to the things that I do. I have a purpose on this earth. Whether or not the things that I do (my goals) are God's will for my life is another entire blog or book, but I try to be in God's will and fulfill His purpose for my life.
So, you see goals are important. I have now set this goal of running these silly half marathons all over the country, and I have gone so far as to make my goal public, so I am kinda stuck at this point. But that is not even the half of it. Now I have to figure out what are my other goals in this process? Do I intend to better my finishing time every event? Am I intending to finish under 1:40:00? Will I focus on simply finishing each race? Is my goal just to not get injured? Am I trying to make some statement? Do I intend to become a competitive runner? Make a name for myself? Quit my job? Increase to full marathons? Or ultra marathons? Am I in it for the bling? (the medals given to finishers). Is it all about the travel and seeing the country? Are there specific places I want to see? Will I support a charity and accept donations for this charity and allow the running and blogging to help create awareness? So many questions.
This is no easy venture. Running a half-marathon is not really all that difficult. (Although I look like I am about to pass out in the above picture.) It is the logistics of trying to go to 50 states in 50 months. This is why this was such a hard sell for my wife. Consider this. A plane ticket, round trip to every state. Let's just say $500. Every month. A hotel room for at least one night, say $200 every month. A race entry every month ~$100. And that is just the money. It becomes even more complicated when you start talking about going away, leaving the family every month. The good news is that most of these races are on the weekend, Saturday or Sunday. It is still somewhat difficult. Keeley has gymnastics meets on many weekends. Noble has cross country meets on many weekends. Play dates, sleep-overs, birthday parties, etc. For instance, Noble is having his tonsils out tomorrow. He will be recovering this weekend and I will be in Tulsa. This is not the most popular choice for my family. Then, if you can get past all of that, you still have to choose the races. There are so many. Some of them are themed and some on trails and some at night. Some are in fun venues, others are local races to support some local charity or event. There are bucket list races, and must-do races. Many of these races are at the same time. One race that I am considering is in Alaska in June. One of my friends (yes, I have some friends) just asked me if I would consider another race in June in another state. How do you choose. I was thinking of running a Disneyland race (California) in January. This is a themed race, a StarWars race with characters, etc. I thought the kids would love to go to that one and maybe even run the 5k. But they cannot go this year, so I am off to Arizona in January instead. Maybe we can do the StarWars race 2018. It is exhausting logistically. It would also be nice if the family could go to all the races, but they have too many things to do. I would even enjoy having my mom ride her bike along with me at every race for support, but she has a life.
So, back to my point. I need goals for this. It is not cheap, it is not easy, it is not quick, nor painless, so what am I doing this for and what am I trying to accomplish? I am not sure I have the answers to these questions formulated yet. I can tell you that I do not know God's will for my life, but I do know that He can use it all for His glory. I NEED a goal, and apparently a series of goals within the main goal. I have found that this is the only thing that will keep me focused and pushing through the part when it gets hard... and it WILL ALWAYS GET HARD! You might have guessed that I am not just talking about running anymore, but all of life. What are your goals? Are you actively working toward those goals? Is whatever you are doing on a regular basis progressing you toward your goals. If not, then you are moving farther away from them. I pray that God will use me in this journey and use this journey to further His kingdom. I also pray that He will help you in a similar way with your goals. Now I gotta go run.
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