December 31, 2011

A Lesson from 2011, a Theme for 2012: Run Your Own Race!

I ran marathon this year, I finished, and I won. I won, not because I finished in first place (this guy did), but because I finished, followed my plan, and met my goal of running below 4 hours and 30 minutes. Every year, over 450,000 people in the US line up at the starting line for one of these races….many finish, some don't, and a far fewer number actually become the first to cross the finish line. However, most people aren't running for first place. Most are running just to finish at a "goal time," and the only way they can do that is to run their own race over the 26.2 mile course. The marathon experience, from training to race day, reinforced this lesson for me during the past year. It was something I had to internalize during the PhD process, but there is nothing like the literal "putting foot to pavement" to make something stick.

In doing my end of the year reflection, and thinking about my goals for the upcoming year this lesson stood out to me as perhaps the most important that I learned this year. Not just because of the marathon, but because in this age of connectedness its easier than ever to get caught up in the accomplishments of others and to start trying to run at a pace that's not sustainable for reaching your goals.

I'm fortunate to know, and be friends with, some very impressive people. On any given day I can log on to Facebook or Twitter and see status updates, pictures, and tweets signifying the accomplishments of individuals in these networks. Seeing others accomplish their goals has always provoked me to examine how I'm doing in progressing toward mine. In this era of "social," that provocation comes perhaps a little bit more frequently than you or I need. It's great to want to achieve, and it certainly helps to surround yourself with others who are motivated in achieving their goals, but when you start overly concerning yourself with what others are doing, you lose sight of what you should be doing to reach yours. It's easy to take the achievements of others as a sign that you're getting passed up, or not moving as fast as you should be, instead of what they actually are…the achievements of others.

No one likes to get beat, and when running a race and someone passes you the natural instinct is to try to catch back up, if for nothing more than we don't want to appear to others like we're losing. It takes a lot in terms of confidence in yourself, your purpose, and your path to fight the urge to "catch back up," if its not in your plan. I'm not big on resolutions, but this year I'm resolving to run my own race in everything that I do. Sure, sometimes running the other person's race works out all right, and can even help push you to achieve something you never thought you could, but more often than not it'll leave you gasping for air and coming up short of your original goal. The big achievements aren't usually made through a series of sprints, but usually only come when you have a goal, a plan to achieve it, and you stick to it. What do you think? What was your biggest lesson in 2011? Your theme of 2012? Happy New Year!