Keep it moving!

When you’ve made the decision to get started on your goals, you’ve got to do two things. First you’ve got to make a plan, then you need to stick to it.

When I decided I wanted to run a 5K, I searched around and found a training plan called “Couch to 5K” at coolrunning.com. It promised to help “couch potatoes” become real runners within two months.

Getting started was amazingly easy – the first work-out alternated jogging for 60 seconds and walking for 90 seconds for a total of 20 minutes. Woohoo! I knew I could run for one minute. I was so thrilled to progress in the plan, adding minute after minute to my runs. Until week four.

All this time, and I can only run five minutes at a time, max.

So what? That’s what the plan says to do.

But I need to run three miles straight – like 30 minutes – about a month from now.

So what?

What if I can’t do it? What if five minutes is all I can do?

So what if it is? There are no firing squads poised to take out the stragglers.

I kept moving and worked my way through the rest of the plan. On the day of the race, I ran the whole thing. During the next several months, I ran four more 5K races, some with real runners (I came in 98th out of 100, but so what? I smoked that 8-year-old girl in 99th place by a full 20 seconds). Last fall I trained with my daughter Margaret, age 10, and on a cold and rainy October morning, she ran her first 5K.

Getting started was hard, but it was worth it. Keeping moving was tough too, but a lot easier than starting again after a stop. The best part was looking back and seeing that I’d overcome my fears and taken myself to a new level not only in my health and fitness, but in my self-confidence.

This reminds me of Philippians 3:12 – “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”

Don’t give up on your calling. It’s worth the work! Just keep moving.

What goal are you reaching for? Write a comment or email me at ken@hiddenspringscoaching.com.
  

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It’s time to get started!

Do you put things off? Even the important stuff? I’m learning that sometimes procrastination is really a kind of fear. I’m afraid I don’t have everything just right…. See, I don’t have all the details figured out…. I’m not sure I’m quite ready.

Why is that scary? Because I might fail. I might look silly. So… I don’t move ahead. I don’t start.

That’s sad, isn’t it? But it doesn’t have to be that way. One thing that shoves me into motion is a simple question. It’s easy enough to ask myself this question, but it’s even more effective if someone else does. The question is: “So what?”

Here’s what it looked like when I was invited to a 5K Run/Walk a couple years ago. I’d never run before, so I knew I’d be one of the walkers. A few weeks from the 5K, the fear began to mount.

I’ll be stepping along with the old ladies and moms with strollers while the healthy young people zoom by.

So what? What does it matter if I walk and others run?

They’ll think I’m a fat old guy who’s out of shape.

So what? What does their opinion matter?

Well, I guess it doesn’t. But… I don’t have the right kind of shoes.

So what? It’s three miles. A guy could walk that far in his socks.

Yeah, I guess these shoes will work.

I ended up going to the 5K Run/Walk and getting caught up in the excitement. I actually ran the first mile or so. Then, after the paramedics revived me (just kidding), I walked the rest… with men, women and children of all ages. In all kinds of shoes.

When we got to the finish line, people clapped and shouted congratulations. It was a little embarrassing. They were cheering the walkers.

So what?

Well, we didn’t run the race.

So what?

I guess I would like to run one of these races.

So – what are you going to do?

I suppose I’m going to need to train for one. But the next race is in eight weeks.

So what?

I guess I’ll need to get started right away.

Whatever you’re putting off, maybe now’s the time to get started. You’ve got lots of excuses, but so what?