Hope is not a Strategy.
On race day, everyone would like to win (or set a PR). If we go to the start of any race and ask the runners on the line, would you like to win today, the answer will be ‘Sure…why not?’ Everybody wants to win on race day.
But what was each competitor doing over the last year to prepare for race day? What were they doing on that hot morning last July? What were they doing on the rainy Saturday during Winter recess when that bed felt so warm and so comfortable? Have they been stretching consistently, every week, for a year? Have they watched their nutrition for the last year or for the last couple of days?
Competitive running is a year round, long term process. Most of the important things that are in your life now or in your future–AP Chemistry, getting into and through college, writing a novel, starting a company, building a charity, becoming an architect–whatever you want to do that is significant, it takes time and sustained effort to achieve your goal. And since those goals are a long way off, it’s easy to put off running the first mile–writing the first page–opening the book for the first time. Just like on race day, everyone would like to do well, but only those that did the work have a realistic expectation of excelling. The others are just hoping. ‘Would you like to win today?’ ‘Would you like to get into Harvard?’ ‘Would you like to write a novel?’ ‘Would you like to start a company?’ OK, so what’s your plan to reach that goal?
Everyone wants to win on race day, everyone wants to PR on race day. Not everyone is willing to do the work and the planning, or develop the dedication, to prepare for that success.
Your coaches can’t run a single mile for you, and we can’t take a single test for you, but hopefully we can give you some support and some tools to help you set–and then achieve–your goals.
Below are links to the downloads for the Word document of the goal setting form we discussed, as well as the presentation we talked about at lunch on April 25, 2012.
Don’t hesitate to ask your coaches for help–that’s what we are here for! We want to help you down the road to your goals.
