I have been working on and studying mindset coaching and goal setting. It’s one of the things that has helped me most through my cancer journey. I have been working with my students and sharing some of the things that have been so helpful. One of them is Jon Accuff’s best moments list or as he now called it his awesome moments list.
It’s a list that you make of the best moments in your life. Looking at the past to help guide the future. A list that I continue to add to and it makes me smile daily. I started working with this and then added the past goals that I reached. Oftentimes I reached them without knowing I was reaching them. Looking back at my accomplishments.
One of the things that came to mind was the last time I was in the “best shape of my life”. I didn’t start out with that goal in mind. I started walking to the bus stop that was 15 blocks away. Then I rode that bus to work and got off at the stop that was 2 blocks away. These two blocks were straight up and very steep.
Since I was in high school I have ridden the bus to school. In high school I grew tired of waiting for the bus. I was never very good at getting the time table so I would just go out when it was time to go to school and maybe I’d catch it and maybe I’d miss it and wait for the next one. I saw my teacher walking across the Hawthorne bridge on my way to school. I started to think if he can walk to school, so can I. He had mentioned that he saw me waiting for the bus one day. I realized that he was walking at least 10-15 blocks further than where I got on the bus so I started walking. This started my love of walking as transportation.
Back to not wanting to wait for the bus and starting to walk further. I am also cheap and didn’t want to pay for the short bus ride to transfer to the max at Lloyd Center, which was in the free zone. I realized that if I walked to Lloyd center and got on there and then got off at the edge of the free zone downtown I could ride for free and walk part of the way. Then one day I decided to walk the whole way. I built this up over months. Walking to the max gave me the courage and curiosity to walk further and eventually I walked the whole way to work from home.
I was so proud of my walking the whole way I of course told all my co-workers. One co-worker said that must take a long time. I said 2 hours. She offered me her extra bike and said you could bike and it would be faster.
This scared me a little. I had biked in the country at my mom’s, but never in the city and so I started out small. I biked to the Lloyd center and got on for the fee zone and then biked up that massive hill or rather walked my bike up it. It’s a crazy hill. In fact, here’s a video that made national news when someone tried to drive it down in the snow.
Eventually I decided I could bike the whole way and from there grew a habit of biking everywhere. Folks would offer me lifts home and I would say no I want to ride my bike and decompress. I looked forward to it everyday. This is evidence that I can do this.
When I started walking again after being undiagnosed with Secondary Adrenal Insufficiency I started with a timer on my phone for 2 and half minutes and my walker. I waked until the timer went off and then I turned around. I did this for a month until I bumped it to 5 minutes and then to 10 minutes the following month.
I’m back to dancing now and some walking, but I’m going to start my timer again. I’ll start with 15 minutes and then turn around. Who knows, maybe I’ll start biking again. The other thing I have learned is to have a low, medium and high goal. My low goal is once around the block. The medium is a timer for 10 minutes and then turn around and the high is a timer for 15 minutes and then turn around.
After examining my progress I realize that I have done this with most of my walking. During the pandemic I started walking to the high school track and walking once around and then back home. Then I started walking twice around. After that I started running on the corners of the track and walking on the straight away. Then I ran straight away and walked on the corners. When I was doing this I visualized and remembered Mahomaod Ali saying he hated training but loved running. I was training 3 times a week with my personal trainer on zoom and dancing several times a day. I would like to get back to some of the things while listening to my body and taking care of my SAI. Not being scared of it but also not ignoring or pushing it too much. I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work and usually lands me in bed for days or a week. Baby steps everyone.
Something that seems not good enough can be the motivation that keeps you going for the next 1% level up. Even as I write this I think my goal might be too big.
So my new goal is going to build slowly on purpose.
Let me reframe it:
- Low – walk around the block once a day
- Medium – walk twice around the block once a day
- High – walk three times around the block once a day
I can do this for one month before I level up.
What is your small goal that will help you reach your bigger dream?
