We’re officially two months into a new year, and what a great year it has been already. Now is probably as good a time as any to pause and reflect on progress. How are you coming on your goals and objectives for 2006?
I imagine some of you saying to yourself that sixty days isn’t long enough to really tell anything and that there’s still plenty of time left during the months ahead to surpass all of your objectives for the year. Don’t fool yourself. The experts say sixty days is plenty of time to develop a pattern. In fact, the pattern you’ve established in the past sixty days speaks volumes on your commitment level, your drive, and your potential within Agel. If you’re happy with the first two months of 2006, congratulations! If you’re not, change the pattern.
A few years back, some friends asked me to run in a marathon with them. At first, I didn’t feel I could since I had torn my Achilles tendon five years earlier while playing volleyball. But as I thought about it, I realized it was the perfect opportunity to get myself back in shape and try something new. So, at 50 years young, I made a commitment and began training for my very first marathon.
I knew, in order to finish the race, I needed to do something physical everyday. I needed to develop a training pattern that would prepare me for the challenge ahead. It took a real concentrated effort, but I applied myself to the task and made sure there wasn’t a day that passed that I didn’t do something to help prepare for that race. Sometimes, I trained with my friends. Sometimes, I trained alone. Sometimes, I trained when people were telling me I was foolish. “You’re too old.” “Those things aren’t worth the effort.” “You’ll never win, so why try!” Do these comments sound familiar?
I learned from the experience that some people actually feel threatened by your initiative to improve yourself. When you take control of your circumstances, some people become insulting, perhaps because they feel insecure with being satisfied with mediocrity. They try to pull you down so they won’t feel quite so bad about themselves.
Maybe I would have listened to the detractors and given up on my dream if I hadn’t been focused on my objective. I remained fixed to my purpose and applied myself every day toward attaining my goal. It wasn’t easy, especially when those who had initially encouraged me to try gave up. Since I had never done this before, I felt a little like giving up myself. But I wasn’t running the marathon for them. I was running it for me, so I continued my training alone.
Dr. Kerry Johnson, author of The Science of Self-Discipline, offers some explanations as to why some of us have problems sticking to a course of action. It’s not that we are “bad” or “weak” people. It’s just that we haven’t learned how to control our thoughts. “Self discipline is too often viewed as painful self-denial that only the most dedicated among us can achieve. The truth is we all have the power to be disciplined in our approach to life by taking our mental focus off the short-term pain of an activity and simply concentrating on the pleasure of accomplishing our objectives.” I believe this is why the first of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits is to “Begin with the end in mind.”
Did I win the race? No. That wasn’t the goal. The “end” I had in mind was to finish the race. I wasn’t the first one across the finish line, but because I endured and remained committed to the goal, I also wasn’t the last. And do you know what? I got the same t-shirt and the same medal that everyone else who ran that day did. Afterwards, one of my children said to me, “I’m not surprised you finished the race, dad. I was surprised you decided to do it in the first place.”
Your efforts and activities today will have a direct effect on all of your tomorrows. I kept my focus on the exhilaration and accomplishment of finishing a marathon, not on the pain of training for it. And because of that, I celebrated the same feeling of triumph as anyone else who ran the race; something my detractors NEVER experienced. The first marathon is always the hardest. Since the first race I’ve run in many more marathons and it does get easier each time.
Agel is an opportunity that can touch more lives than just your own. It gives you power to transform all those around you as you attain your goals. While a marathon for me was a “satisfying personal accomplishment,” what you have to offer is so much more! You have a duty to those you care about to decide today how you’ll proceed and then do something every day in your quest to restore health and hope.
Focused on Your Future,
Craig Bradley,
President
