Our friend Nick has given up triathlons (he was intensely serious) and is starting to live what I would think of as a more well rounded life. We had lots of conversation about how he spent all his time training even with people he thought were his friends only to find out now that he is not training they don't really care to see him. In the meantime he has laid out a whole new set of goals-and he has a lot to say about creating 1 year goals versus 5 year goals and setting weekly goals, etc.
EZ and I then went to discussing goals last night and that maybe we should sit down and think about 5 year goals and short term goals and the discuss what we have together. These can be all sorts of goals in different areas of life-athletic, personal, work, health, etc. We both decided we needed to spend a few days thinking to ourselves about our own life and different goals we might have and then sit down together to talk about them. I am a firm believer in spreading out your life to not be so 1-dimensional. The whole idea of training so intensely (or working 100hrs a week, or spending all your time with 1 person not leaving time for other people you care about, etc) for something only to not have the time to devote to learning other things or spending time with friends and family or traveling or doing something else you enjoy and all other sorts of things.
Or maybe that is just my philosophy, maybe some people can do mainly 1 thing and feel like that have everything else too. I guess it all comes down to what would ultimately make me (or you) happy right. If what makes me happy is spreading out my interests than that is what I should do, or if what makes me happy is winning a triathlon than that is where I should spend my time, or if I enjoy studying mathematics and publishing papers than focus on that. I think each person has to evaluate for themselves what they would enjoy doing best. But I do think Nick is right in that there a lots of things that I (or people) want to do in life but something always seems to get in the way. I had always wanted to go Europe but EZ and I let school and then triathlons become more important and it took giving that up to say "lets go to Europe" and actually go.
Either way, I think it is important for everyone to sit down every once in a while to think about who they are and what they want out of life and set goals, however small or large or personal or not personal at all they may be.
For my friends and family who like to keep up with the life of the Zack's...
5 comments:
This speaks a lot to me right now! That is very cool that you guys are taking the time to do that! I need to talk to your friend Nick! What type of things does he want to do now that he isnt training and what made him make that switch?
What are some of your goals! I am excited to hear how your talk goes! LOVE YOU
Love the post, but my goals are daily now...get up and shower, remember to brush teeth and keep the kid on the outside and inside happy! That is my goal....I have a goal 18 years from the birth of #2 to have both kids out of the house and make some new goals!!! Hope your well! :)
make sure that if you make goals, that you also create a way to achieve them. most people won't ever achieve any goals they set without a proper path to reach them.
Well said Laurie, a lot of people in the world lack both the vision to create or dream of goals as well as the capability to achieve them. If you don't know what you want you can never get to where you're meant to go.
Well said. One-dimensionality can only be continued for shorter periods of time. For some people, it works well to cycle through priorities over time by being others focused for a while, self-focused, spirituality focused, etc. However, I do believe it's wise to always prioritize all three of these things highly at all times to keep things from getting too far out of whack.
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