Earlier today, I discovered a great weekly blog link up created by Melissa Durham of Live Love and Run.  It is called The Weekly Chase and is a forum upon which to create goals for the week ahead. 

I’m a huge fan of setting goals.  I have yearly goals, monthly goals, daily goals, and so on.  I’m also a big list maker, where I write down my different goals.  If you were to walk into my office, you would see lists everywhere.  I have a yoga list, a running list, a blog list, etc. 

Goals come in many different forms.  In yoga, we are taught to create intentions around our practice, because that intention gives our practice form and focus.

Creating goals in our daily lives gives our lives form and focus. 

Sharing goals with others makes us accountable to work toward those goals whereas if we keep the goals to ourselves, we may be more likely to abandon them. Nowhere have I seen greater proof of this recently than with the Run to the Finish Green Smoothie Challenge.  20 friends of mine joined the challenge with me, and our daily roll call kept people going who may have otherwise dropped out .

Below, I am listing my goals for the week, and because I am sharing them with you, I am much more likely to remain accountable for them. 

1)      Continue my plank a day:  I perform many planks during my yoga practice, however, most of them are shortly held as part of my sun salutations. Inspired by Fitfluential, I have been reserving at least one plank a day to hold as long as possible.  Plank is one of the best overall body strengtheners we can perform.  Especially as a runner, I rely on the core strength that plank provides.   

2)      Veganize my home!  I am going vegan in July – at least for the month.  I have been a vegetarian since high school and have been vegan on and off since 2008.  My sister, who is also a life-long vegetarian, is going vegan for the month of July an asked if I wanted to do it with her.  I am “almost vegan” right now, but have not been fully willing to remove cheese and eggs from my diet.   My excuse to eat eggs and cheese has been that I need the animal protein while training for my distance runs. But let’s face it.  If Scott Jurek can be vegan, so can I.

3)      Run my fastest mile ever!  The Runner’s World Run Streak has gotten me running every day for the past 29 days, after a very long post marathon running hiatus.  I have always paced myself through instinct and perceived exertion and I don’t wear a GPS.  Totally barbaric, I know!  When Pavementrunner talked about his fastest mile last week, I felt inspired to see how fast I could go if I went all out.  However, since I don’t wear a GPS, there is a certain amount of planning involved.  One day this week, I will make a date with the local track and a stopwatch and go for it!   

4)      Stay faithful to my fall half marathon training.  I would love to see a PR in the fall, which means I have to be faithful to my training plan, especially the days designated for speed work. 

5)      Be mindful of my words. Words have power.  I can use words to put negativity out into the world or I can use my words to put out love.  This goes for the written word as well as the spoken.  The kids and I have gotten off to a bumpy start of summer vacation.   There has been a healthy share of fighting, complaining, and defiance in this house.  And while I understand that they are going through a schedule adjustment, I need to have a teeny bit more compassion and mirror that understanding in how I talk to them and how I talk about it with others.  I have caught myself one too many times complaining about my kids to the other moms at the town pool.  It’s time to go the love and guidance route and stop my own whining!  

6)      Schedule more time with my kids.  Hmmm.  I wonder if what has been going on in #5 has anything to do with the fact that they have heard “I just need five more minutes at my laptop” from me more times than I can count the past two weeks.   And before you know it, five minutes turns into an hour. Yes, I am losing a huge window of time now that they are home with me for the summer (no camp) , but I will have to adjust my work hours to early mornings and late nights, and limited times during the day.  I need to set hours when I completely unplug and have to trust that my Twitter friends will still love me even if it takes four hours for me to reply to a tweet.   

What are your goals for the week?  If you need accountability, feel free to leave your goals in the comment area of my blog.  Or, you can link up with Love Love and Run.  Your goals don’t have to be fitness related.  They can apply to any area of your life where you are seeking growth – and hopefully an area that once nurtured, will help you live the life you love.

Namaste, Divas!

© 2012 Ilene Evans 

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