Writing Positive Goals for ‘11

Like every good runner should do, I am taking the time to write down my personal goals for '11. As I was going down the list, I wrote down my goal for Boston which as many of you already know will be to run a sub 2:40 marathon time. But then, I stopped and looked it.

Writing a sub 2:40 didn't really make sense because I was in fact writing my goal as a negative. What I was actually saying was that I didn't want to run 2:40 or slower. Clearly, this is not the right way to think about it.

Goals should never be written such that you don't want to do something; they should always be structured to accentuate the positive.

So I struck through my sub 2:40 goal and wrote it as follows

"Bill wants to complete the '11 Boston Marathon with a time in the 2:30s" This is a much better way to write my goal even if I end up squeaking in at 2:39:xx.

 

Thoughts from the Cool Down Runner