Day 13: 23.5 miles/1:24
“Every focused step you take brings you closer to your goal. Minus the goal, you are simply out for a walk.”
Every day that I take a step toward my goal, with my goal in mind, I am moving closer toward it. Progress is not always easy to measure; however, when you have a goal and passionately work toward it on a daily basis, it is impossible to not move toward it. It is only when you do not have a goal or take a step toward that goal that you are not moving forward. Your daily walk—the activities you take on daily—must be in direct correlation to your journey. Otherwise, you are simply out there doing stuff.
Brandon and I have discussed this many times. I am not certain that he has yet landed on his goal yet. I do know that he is going through the mental, visual exercises that help him see what success looks like. I sense that he is still looking at his daily accomplishments as more about maintaining momentum as a form of progress and less about driving himself to a specific goal or outcome. But, the life and challenge of an addict may be that simply winning the daily battle over addiction is the biggest task at hand. The idea of creating a goal and driving toward it might be too much to ask since everything relating to addiction was the daily quest to get drugs or, in recovery, the daily quest to avoid them.
Taking action towards a commitment and goal is what drives you forward. I recognize that Brandon’s case may be, in some ways, similar to others — that life has been so stressful and failure laden, it is hard to imagine making a commitment to and succeeding with a goal. On top of that, once a goal is set, understanding how to live and make a daily commitment with purpose and intention in your activities will help ensure you get there.
This is the beauty of the goal in the first place. The goal is not whether you can. For it is your goal that actually establishes that you will. When it comes to your goals, I understand that you don’t know how you can accomplish it. But, you know you will accomplish it if you make the commitment to do so. It is the same with my 100 Pedals commitment. While I do have a vision and commitment, I am not sure how I can get there or, what the challenges or obstacles to getting there may be. I have no idea what could potentially attempt to derail my plans. But, I am committed to doing everything I can to fulfill it, period. And I am going to work on that commitment every single day with purpose and focus. The key is having a vision, setting the goal, and then taking the daily actions necessary to achieve it.
