Sometimes we look at ourselves and perceive certain qualities that we have as being abnormal or limiting. Especially when those qualities are beyond our control. While I believe it is possible to overcome many of our weaknesses, especially with God’s help, I also think it can be empowering to acknowledge our limitations and make the most of life despite them. And who knows, maybe what we perceive as a limitation can actually become a strength in ways we don’t now understand.

Your thoughts?

(Here’s the article about Tim Howard.)

A friend pointed me to a guy’s Web page that has a bunch of pictures from the Boston Marathon. I guess he ran it while carrying a digital camera. It gives you a feel for what it is like to run the race. It made me want to go run it. One thing that’s neat about it is that every year an estimated 500,000 spectators line the course. That’s over 7 times as many people who will be able to watch the Super Bowl in person this year. Bostonians get so into the race that they hand out water, oranges, and other helps to runners, even though the race has water stops every mile. That’s pretty impressive. The only time I’ve really run in front of a lot of people is in the July 4th parade in Provo, UT…but that’s only because most of them are just waiting for the parade to start. I love the city of Boston, and it’s where my Dad grew up.

Here is the site

You have to qualify for Boston by running a prior marathon at a certain speed, depending on your age and gender (for me, it would be 3 hours and 10 minutes). Anyone want to try for it with me? I’ll help you plan out your training. Dad, that includes you.

I’m the kind of person who likes to make goals, especially at the New Year. It feels good to check things off the list. I remember talking to a friend awhile back who said they sometimes add items to their to-do list after they have done them just so they can have the satisfaction of checking them off the list. That’s how I am, too.

In 2008, Laurel and I made a goal to write a journal entry every single day. And we have accomplished that! Wow, that’s the first time in a long time to have set a New Year’s Resolution and to keep it the entire year! It’s great to have a wife who helps you reach your goals.

This year I have been thinking about a distinction between two types of goals. I’m sure I’m not the first person to think of this, but my goal list has “action” goal and “achievement” goals. Action goals are those things you plan to do each day, week, month, etc. An example might be that you exercise 4 times per week. For lots of people, they are content with that and have the willpower to exercise for the sake of exercising. But for me, I need to also set an achievement goal–for example, to train for a half marathon. That gives me motivation to stay with my action goals.

Some people don’t like the pressure of trying to reach a particular achievement because they don’t want to feel disappointed if they don’t reach it. They want to do what they can control and are content with that. This reminds me of Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte. He worked super hard preparing for many swimming events and is very talented, but it just so happened that he was beat in several races by the best swimmer of all time. If not for Michael Phelps, Lochte might currently have a few more gold medals. He probably reached all of his action goals, but it wasn’t quite good enough to reach the achievements he desired.

So I think it comes down to your personality, but it might be better to focus more on action goals because you have the most control over those. But if you’re like me, you still probably will set some achievement goals to give you a few stars you can aim for to keep you going.

What do you think?