Roots: Issue 1

Roots: Grounding your running, mindfulness, health and wellness

ISSUE 1

 As we embark on the journey that is a new year, I always think it is important to take the time to think about what we want to accomplish. It is important to think about the coming year, but also take the time to check in on the current trajectory that your life is headed.Do the inner work required to find out what truly excites you. 

REFLECTION

Before you can chart a course forward it is wise to look backwards and evaluate the past year or years to see how you have done. Be honest with yourself, it’s not about judgment and feeling bad about what you didn’t do. It’s about growth.

  1. Write a list of things down that you wanted to accomplish last year?

  2. With that same list evaluate how you did on a scale of 0-10. (0 being no progress and 10 being goal achieved)

  3. For your goals that you did achieve what allowed you to do so?

  4. For the goals you did not achieved what were your road blocks?

One great piece of advice I read last year is that when you are rating on a scale of 1-10 you can never choose the number 7. The 7 is a very non committal number. Its high enough that things are ok and there is no major issue or real reason for changing, but its not high enough that things are great. Don’t you want to be striving for great? Keep this in mind next time you are rating anything.Knowing what has and hasn’t worked for you in the past is a great way to help put systems in place for you to succeed in the future.Now as perceptive as you are, you have probably deduced that this doesn’t just apply to you fitness goals. You can and should apply this reflection and goal setting process to all of your goals. 

GOALS

Now here is the hard part. This one requires some thought. Do you know that most people in today’s world are so out of tune with themselves they don’t know what they want, what makes them happy? Do you?Think about it for a while and write it down, what are things that you can do which will make you happy this year, what can you get excited about doing? The deeper you go on this the better. It may help to think back over years past to try and reconnect with something in your younger days.Here is an example, thinking back to when I was younger I would spend all day in the woods playing in nature running around exploring as happy as could be. So setting goals for myself that allow me to reconnect with my inner child who loves adventuring in nature allows me to be authentic and truly get excited for the work that I know I need to put in.Now write them down and make a list.Most people are great about setting outcome goals. “I want to run my first 10k!”Ok so you have decided your goals, now how do you go about achieving them? Well as it is often said “Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail”. So you need more than just an outcome goal. 

BREAK IT INTO MANAGEABLE MILESTONES

If for example you want to run a 10k, you will be more successful focusing on the small steps between now and the race than just thinking about the race.In order for you to run 10K in a couple months, you need to put in the work. Set a running plan and stick to it. If your plan is to run Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, treat each of those runs an their own specific goal.Put your schedule on the fridge and put a check mark beside each completed run. These check marks will give you a boost of confidence every time you look at them.When you put in the daily work and meet those millstones, the outcome goal of running 10k will take care of itself.Also, and this has been a big turning point for me…. when it’s not all tied to the outcome (if for some reason you don’t achieve what you set out to do) you can look back at the process and know that you gave it everything that your could. 

ACOUNTABILTY

You greatly increase your chances for success when you put systems in place to hold yourself accountable. These systems can take many forms such as:

  • Signing up for a race (for some this is enough incentive)

  • Tell your friends / family / co-workers / partner what you want to achieve and why

  • Pay for training (shameless plug) but hey if you have paid for the training your more likely to do it than if you have invested nothing in it other than the 5 min it took you to find a plan on the internet

  • Find a group of like minded people with similar goals and surround yourself with them (for me this is North End Runners!), FIND YOUR TRIBE!

  • Set milestones, big goals are daunting and can be sometimes be far away, setting smaller milestone goals can help keep you on track

So that’s a rap for ISSUE 1. If you enjoyed it please let us know in the comments.Share this with someone you think could find this useful and Subscribe so you can get our next News Letter. Also let us know if there are topics which you would like to see discussed in future issues.P.S. Here’s my accountability. My goal is to write one of these every two weeks for you guys…. So here we go!

Rick Canning