Graffiti art by Bansky
Sometimes in mid stride I have to modify and adjust my goals. I had a wee bit of a tuff time recently because Saturday Feb. 7th was race day for the 100 miler that I was training for. I did not make it to the race. It was not that I couldn’t have made it, but I chose to modify my goals mid stride to make my life healthier. Coming up with my goals, and then modifying them or my game plan to achieve them is a constant and living process. I am always making new goals. As I set out to attain them I hit different obstacles or road blocks that bring about a necessity to make changes. Here are a couple of examples
- I originally only wanted to lose around 90 lbs because I just didn’t think getting into the hundreds was possible for me since I was so used to being overweight. I kept with that goal but the closer I got the more I realized that the hundreds were possible so I modified my goal.
- Many times I have had to change my goals in the middle of a race. I may have been shooting for a specific time to reach a check point in the race but saw that I was not going to make or that I was going to make it early. I modified mid stride and kept on.
- I make small goals to help me maintain my weight but I find out that those things are making me gain or live a little unhealthier than I want. What do I do? I modify in mid stride.
Does this make sense. I am not saying that we give up on the original goals. I am just saying that as we seek to attain our goals we should always evaluate how we are doing and adjust as needed. Maybe our goals or expectations were unrealistic or maybe they were TOO realistic.
What has this looked like for you? Do you set goals to high or to low for yourself? Do you reevaluate you goals periodically? How do you modify in mid stride?
My angle on weight loss 
What a very timely post my friend. Because that is exactly what I am doing today, doing a bit of modification myself. Then again I think you already knew something was up when I last talked with you. I think that joining WW was the first step in this change. We all have to do what’s best and what works for us and I think that’s why we do end of changing, eliminate or mostly modify the goals what we originally set for ourselves.
i honestly believe that all the goals I have set are realistic for me. I also set short term and long term goals for myself. That way I kind of don’t lose sight of my ultimate goal of living and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I also think that there is really no particular time that I do modify my goals. When I do realize that if a goal that I set is no longer feasible or is not working out the way I though it would, that’s when I will tweak it in and change it to something that I feel will work. If that makes any sense.
Man, I do really like this post. As always very thought provoking and something that we all can relate to on this journey we all have embarked on. I don’t mind “change”, because it’s all the change that adds up that amounts to a lot more worth than if there was no opportunity for “change”.
Well said Rob. Thank you for adding so much to the post. Glad you started WW. It WILL work for ya. Just follow the guidlines. I am glad I could provoke some “journey thinking” for you.
I think that it takes a smart person to realize that a particular goal just isn’t working for them and needs to be modified. It makes sense because the closer you get to the goal the more you change. So the goal may not be pertinent anymore…I know what I want to say, but the words aren’t coming out right. You know what I mean right?
I know what you mean and you are making perfect sense. Thanks for your contribution to the post
Jason, Jason, Jason, you inspire me daily!!!
I think you are a pretty amazing person.
Thank you for your entries every day!
Thanks for you encouragement. It is nice to have kind words coming in
I think modifying goals is necessary to obtaining a healthy lifestyle. When we’re at the beginning of our journey, we have these lofty goals we set for ourselves. As we move forward, if we don’t think we’re where we need to be in order to achieve that goal, it’s much easier to give up and say we tried than to take a step back and modify the goal. The fact that you were able to do this several times shows that you have good self-awareness.
I get excited to start “new journeys” and do set big goals for myself. Sometimes they work out, but I know that during the times they haven’t were times when I didn’t re-evaluate and adjust my goal.
I get what you are saying. I also love to start, but following through is another story. HAHAHA The times where I did not achieve what I wanted to are the times I gave up instead of modifying. Thanks
I understand what you are saying. Last year, when I first started even THINKING about races, I wanted to go all out and do a sprint triathlon. In the middle of my training, I decided that I didn’t enjoy swimming and biking very much, but I loved running. I had this tremendous desire to improve my running, but my training didn’t call for it. Thus, I decided to drop the tri and pick up a 5k.
Good choice. Always wise to go with the activity that interests you most. You can always go back to the Tri’s if you want to. 🙂
Way to modify your goals 🙂 It’s so hard when you’re too rigid with your goals (and yourself!) I had a similar thing happen a couple years ago (just posted about it, actually) and on “race day” I was pretty upset. Just have to remind yourself that the process is the important part and you learn a valuable lesson from learning to modify your goals (and not beat yourself up!)
Yes you do. YOu learn so much during the process and in the end it is the actual process itself that means the most. Thanks vani
The most important thing is to set realistic and achievable goals. Setting the bar too high will lead to disappointment and eventually failure.
Thanks Ken. I appreciete your contribution. Thanks for stopping by