I have been thinking about this, and it is something I’m trying to improve in myself. My conclusion so far is that if I know my decision has been based on what I determine to be sound principles and on what I feel is right, then I can be confident in the face of criticism.

That doesn’t mean my confident decisions will always be ideal. It also doesn’t mean I should be unwilling to accept advice from others. On the contrary, I may even seek advice (and listen openly to advice I didn’t ask for) but have the courage to do what I feel is best, whether or not others agree.

What are your thoughts?

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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090104/ap_on_go_pr_wh/distinctly_bush_analysis

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?

Speed Limit Sign

I’ve been trying to ride my bike home from school once or twice a week. It’s about an 18-20 mile trip, which is why I only go one way. But it’s invigorating to be in the open air and to get up some speed. Today when riding home I was coming down from the foothills on 4500 South in Holladay where there is a very steep downhill. On the side of the road was one of those speed limit signs that has a radar on it to tell you how fast you are going. When I went by, it said I was going 44 miles per hour. Not sure if it picked me up perfectly as a biker, but it said the car in front of me was going 43, and I was pretty much keeping up with it. So I don’t know if I should admit this on a public place like this, but the speed limit was 40 mph. So I may have been breaking the law on my bike. Other than feeling bad about that, it was pretty fun, I have to admit.

See more details at http://www.benjerry.com/features/i_voted/index.cfm?utm_source=chunkMail101408&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=chunkMail101408

Another place you can read about Mendenhall is this article.