I finished listening to Meb Keflezighi’s 26 Marathons this morning, continuing my trend of listening to a ridiculous amount of running books (have I mentioned again yet how good Born to Run was? again — go read that). Meb is four-time marathon Olympian and has won both the New York City and Boston Marathons.
His book is full of life lessons (that’s the point, a lesson for every marathon), but I’ll share one that I liked: cascading goals.
The idea is that goals can be flexible. He would approach every race with a “run to win” mindset, but would often adjust the goal along the way. Maybe it would go from winning first place to finishing in the top three or ten. For some races, wracked with unexpected pain or illness, the goal cascaded to reach the finish or be present with the other runners and fans to enjoy this community. None of these were to phone it in or give up, but rather to have goals to stop from giving up. Rather, give the best you can at that moment, whether that’s a podium or simply to make it to the end of the race.
I can fixate on those top-level goals, obsessing over being the BEST once something gets into my head. My imagination runs away with me. I want to have big goals and dreams, but I need to keep learning how to make them a moving target. Maybe I won’t be the best, but I’ll be the best I can be and that may change on any given day. We don’t have control over everything life throws at us, so instead of giving up on goals when they become out of reach, find the next goal a step or two down to chase instead. Just keep moving.
With Love,
Natalie