Have you worked out yet today?
I have. Afterwards I treated myself to a big juicy cheeseburger at the Dairy Dell in town while watching a YouTube video called "How to Lose Belly Fat." LOL.
FYI: While I make every attempt to embrace a healthy diet, I'm not a slave to "clean" eating.
But to the topic at hand -- goal setting. You all know that I have only 9 months to prepare for the climb of a lifetime, the daunting Allalinhorn in the Swiss Alps.
I climbed its sister peak, the Breithorn, on July 14, 2016.
A picture of the Allalinhorn is always in my mind's eye. I'm literally "keeping my eye on the goal." My mountain guide once told me, "Set yourself up for success. Give yourself a small yet achievable goal and go for it. You ultimately set yourself up for failure when you can't reach those unattainable goals. You have to embrace a program completely, as in no half measures. You cannot embrace the nutrition and not the fitness and vice versa. Remember, you will get out what you put into it. So be devoted and wait for the results."
I like to say I have a healthy addiction to vigorous exercise. I continue to set new goals to reach for in the gym. Climbing the Alps 6 years ago was an amazing sense of accomplishment. It sparked something in me to embrace a lifestyle of fitness and health. I'm not afraid to speak my goals on this blog so you can hold me to them and mock me when I fall short. Just kidding -- no mocking allowed. Shaming is another matter :-) If you are able to walk, run, climb, bike or whatever, your body is doing you a favor. It means you have legs, that you're not injured, that you are alive. As Paul said in Acts 17, "In him we live and move and have our being." It's all the pure grace of God. He is the one to whom all the thanks and praise is to be given.
Yes, I am anxious about next summer. I am not at all confident I will have enough upper body strength to successfully scale the Allalinhorn. I may have to be content with easier peaks. The truth is that few people reach their goals effortlessly. True, some people have tremendous talent in certain areas of life. But most of us have to work very hard for what we have. That is what makes life so amazing. Something in the human spirit sings when you go farther than you ever dreamed of going.
Be honest. Is your goal-setting where it ought to be? Do you have overly ambitious goals? Goals that are not ambitious enough? Or are your goals just right? (Obvious Goldilocks reference.) For where I am in life right now, I think I'm on point. By God's grace, I'm gunning for the Allalinhorn next summer, and even if I don't succeed it will make the next 9 months interesting for sure!