Here we are on August 20th and I’m knee deep in my work of doing the impossible. In just under 6 weeks, I will go after my impossible goal: an age group win at IM Chattanooga.
I call it an “impossible” goal on purpose. Not because I don’t believe it’s possible, quite the opposite. The benefit to being unrealistic in my language about the goal is that it doesn’t give my brain the opportunity to seize up and tell me all the reasons why it won’t happen. If I lead with “impossible” I take away the desire my brain has to scale back the goal, to lessen the goal to something a bit more comfortable.
That’s the goal setting space I lived in for the first several years I raced triathlon. I made goals like…”I just want to race my best” or “I want to race stronger than I did before” and to be completely honest, these were all just BS excuses to not set big (scary!) goals.
All of that changed when I set my impossible goal this year. It’s impossible because I’ve never done it before and I’m going after it anyway.
Of course along the way, the obvious question comes up: “if theres a chance I might fail, why go for it?” Because the alternative to failing at the goal is failing ahead of time by never even trying. Giving up on the goal without even giving it a solid effort.
NO. THANKS.
The comfort of a smaller goal is an illusion. The energy of a big goal is what I live for.
I’ve got just under 6 weeks, (40 sleeps to be exact!) to continue to be in the work of making the impossible my reality. Has it been easy since I set my impossible goal? Nope. The daily physical and mental training is tough stuff. But racing an Ironman isn’t easy. If I’m going to be ready on race day then I have to train for the tough stuff everyday.
40 SLEEPS.
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