Making up for lost time

It’s easy to set goals. It’s not easy to establish a way to reach those goals.

At the beginning of the year, I declared two New Year’s resolutions — read a book every month and write a blog post every month. And here we are, on May 1, five months into 2016, and I’ve failed on both accounts.

Actually, saying I lasted until May 1 is an overstatement. Technically, I failed on the blog posts from the very beginning. I dropped the ball on reading when I didn’t finish “Season on the Brink” at the end of March. Whoops.

But I think the reason I haven’t stuck to either goal is because I didn’t specify how I would do it, and knowing how you’re going to accomplish something is half the battle. I didn’t set aside time each day or part of the week that would be dedicated to either one of these things. I never said I would spent “x” number of hours each week reading or writing. I didn’t automatically start reading before bed every night like I thought I would.

I simply wasn’t committed.

It’s not that I don’t want to do either of these things — there’s a reason I chose both to be my New Year’s resolutions — it’s just that both are really easy to get bumped down my priority list for more pressing tasks like grocery shopping and running.

Speaking of running, that’s something I’ve somehow been great at setting goals for and creating a roadmap for how to get there. Every time I’ve signed up for a half marathon, I’ve established a training schedule to increase my mileage leading up to race day. I set a goal and identified a way to accomplish it.

So, now I’m playing catch up and translating my running strategy to this blog. I’m dedicating at least three hours every week to updating it, and I’m posting four times (including this one) to make up for January, February, March and April. Let’s consider this January.

I’m thankful for the positive feedback I’ve received about this blog — even when I haven’t been updating it — and I know it deserves my attention. If I can give people just a small glimpse into what it’s like to “live with one”, then it’s worth my time.