Welcome to my blog! Despite using the web for basically all my life, I never really established an online presence. This blog will be my first attempt at it. I might even improve my writing skills along the way!
I read the most recent post on Coding Horror titled Nobody’s Going to Help You, and that’s
Awesome. Jeff Atwood recommended the book 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a lot; his description of this book caught my interest, so I decided to buy it for my Kindle and check it out.
The book basically gives a really quick run-down of tips backed by various science studies that we can quickly use to improve areas of our lives such as happiness, decision making and stress. 59 Seconds is very concise, so reading it won’t require a large investment in time at all. The book is definitely worth a look if you have a few hours to spare. However, I’ve found from my past experiences that the value from these kinds of books comes from the effort you put in.
One of the chapters discusses “Motivation” and how we can avoid procrastination and achieve our goals.
Successful participants broke their overall goal into a series of sub-goals, and thereby created a step-by-step process that helped remove the fear and hesitation often associated with trying to achieve a major life change. These plans were especially powerful when the sub-goals were concrete, measurable and time-based.
59 Seconds recommends a quick way to plan a goal and maximize success rate. The act of telling others your goal seems to boost the chances of success as well. I really want to apply what I learned, so I followed the method described in the book to form a goal and now I’m going to use this blog to publicize it to the world.
Without further ado, I will present my first goal:
Overall Goal
My overall goal is to finish the Royal Victoria Marathon half marathon (Oct. 9, 2011) with a time of 1h 50 min or lower
Complete Date
Oct. 9, 2011
Sub-goals
Sub-goal 1
My first sub-goal is to run a total of 300km.
I believe I can achieve this goal because I already run 30km+ per week. To achieve this sub-goal, I will log each of my runs and run at least 30km per week. This subgoal will be achieved 2 days before the half marathon (Oct. 7, 2011).
My reward for achieving this will be inviting up to 5 friends out for a meal.
Sub-goal 2
My second sub-goal is to run 10km in less than 45 minutes.
I believe I can achieve this goal because I can run 10K in ~1h. I just need to train a little bit more. To achieve this sub-goal, I will get a watch and time one 10K run every two weeks. I will try to improve my time on these runs, aiming to drop 5 minutes each time. This sub-goal will be achieved by Sept. 30, 2011.
My reward for achieving this will be something cool ordered from the internet < $50.
Sub-goal 3
My third sub-goal is to go for a 22km run.
I believe I can achieve this goal because I can currently run 12K reliably. To achieve this sub-goal, I will gradually attempt some longer runs. I will run a 14km, 16km, 18km, 20km and finally a 22km run. This subgoal will be achieved by Sept. 30, 2011.
My reward for achieving this will be a picnic at Beaver Lake.
Benefits in Achieving this Goal
1. Improve my health by losing weight and improving my cardio
2. Reduce stress, increase focus and quality of life through exercise
3. Prove to myself I can set a goal, follow through and accomplish it
Going public
I will go public by telling my friends, family and posting it on my blog
Overall Reward
Buy myself a Windows Phone 7 smart phone
Written
Aug. 7, 2011
Now that I have bravely told everyone my goal of running a half-marathon in 1h50min, I will routinely post updates on this goal. I will also create and post other goals of mine here as well. Phew, this was quite a lengthy piece of writing for my first post; I guess it’ll get better once I get use to this blogging thing. I wish myself best of luck in achieving my goals.
Pingback: Goal Update | Fred Song