Dilemma: When Your Ideal Self Conflicts Your Inner Wimp

When creating a goal, its important to realize that you are eventually going to get to the point when you are faced with the dilemma of following through with it or not.   You will wake up some morning and the bed will feel more satisfying in that moment than getting out of bed to heading to the gym.  Or that bag of candy will seem more appealing than the mere goal of reducing the amount of sugar intake you allow yourself.  The Dilemma.

If you are anything like me, that little voice in your head telling you to sleep in or eat the candy tends to be more loud and annoying than your will power can handle from time to time. I like to call that voice my inner wimp.  When in a dilemma, caving in is a simple way to stop the anxiety your inner wimp provokes.  So what is one to do?

History books are full of people who have been able to overcome difficulties in their own minds and live out their lives in a way that doesn't yield to the inner wimp. So how do we overcome?  Psychology will tell you that people change for many reasons but for the sake of achieving a goal such as getting to the gym or eating properly, the change has to be seen as an extremely positive thing.  In fact, it must be so overwhelmingly positive that it is seen and felt as the truth.  You must believe beyond a doubt that going to the gym isn't just going to help you shed a few pounds, but it is actually going to save your life.  You must be compelled that, this "going to the gym business" is the only way of life.  The old is gone, the new has come.

Expect some "set backs."  These are normal.  At least I hope so because I have them all the time.  I haven't run in two weeks, but have a marathon this month! That is, a great example of the inner wimp getting the best of me.  But during these times, beating yourself up about it isn't going to help.  Just know that the real you, the best version of yourself is out there waiting, you just have to get back up and start where you left off.  Set backs don't equal you not reaching your goal.  They only appear in the moment more catastrophic than they really are.  It's another example of the inner wimp blowing things out of proportion.

Your Goals Await! 

Outlandish Goals

Without a big goal, I get lazy. (Even with a big goal, I get lazy... more on that later) But I need big goals, ones that kind of freak me out to get me motivated.  This is especially true for running or general exercise.  I like the idea of being the type of person who can show up any given weekend for a marathon and do it no problem, but that takes a lot of work.  So last year I came up with an idea for myself.

I was training for a 50k and as I was putting together my training plan, I noticed my 26 mile run was going to fall right around my 26th birthday.  So I thought, "Hey, would ya look at that, a mile for every year."  I did it, and I liked it, so I thought this would be a good goal to help me maintain the lifestyle of a runner.  The older I get, the more sure I have to be to stay in shape.

A week ago today was my birthday which means a day of celebration and a day of running.  This isn't a new idea, people have done this before me but it's very compelling to me.  They say a male is at his peak athletic ability at age 27, I don't want to miss this year of my life by sitting on a couch somewhere wishing I was the person who could go out and run a good distance, no problem.  So I did 27 miles this year, not nearly as good of shape as I was in last year, but it was still fun and rewarding.  You can check out my run by clicking HERE

Dream big, make outlandish goals, then do them.  It's much more exciting for me to do that, than to making sure I have watched the season premiere of Breaking Bad and its my guess that it's much more exciting for you too.

What are your outlandish goals?