#50races_50states

I love goals. Your goals, my goals, our goals. Talking about goals, setting goals, achieving goals. Scoring goals is cool too, for those who share my nostalgia of launching a shot into the back of the net!

I teach, and preach, goal setting. By combining commonly known goal setting approaches into 4 steps, I’ve developed a framework that many have used to successfully achieve their goals. It has been a pleasure to watch dozens of incredible humans follow the steps to achieve an important goal or milestone in their life.

Goals aren’t just for your professional career. You can have some fun with these in your personal life too! A sample from my personal collection is a multi-year goal that I call #50races_50 states.

A few years ago, I wanted to somehow honor a big milestone birthday that looms large for many of us. I decided to create a goal of completing a road race in each of the 50 states between 2015 and 2025. This goal combines my love of fitness with my love of travel! It also gives me the opportunity to revisit places in our country that I enjoyed, explore new places and set foot in the 3 states I’ve never visited for the first time (Hawaii, Michigan, Oregon).

I set two absolute requirements for the races: I must pay a registration fee and I must finish. That’s it! No restrictions on distance or time of day or surface. Bonus, sometimes there are finisher medals, like the one pictured!

• Specific – Complete a road race in each of the 50 states
• Measurable – All races come with a distance! 5k, 5 mi, 10k, etc.
• Attainable – For distances over 5 miles I create a training schedule
• Realistic – 50 races over 10 years averages out to 5 per year
• Time Bound – starting in 2015, ending in 2025

There we have it! A goal that is positive, challenging, uses the SMART goal approach and shared for accountability often over the past seven years since I started. Things were moving along ahead of pace, and then COVID-19 happened.

Two years of no road races. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. I was stuck on State 27 from November 2019 to October 2021! Watching those months tick by without progress was certainly disheartening. I had a few people suggest that 27 was good enough and to let this goal slip away.

If you know me well, you understand that suggestion is laughable. Absolutely no way. But there has been a need to adjust the timeframe on this goal. Just a small pivot to start: my first reset on this goal is to extend to 2026. Should I start to get pressed for travel and time I’ll pivot again!

It’s important to be flexible with goals. These aren’t carved in alabaster and should be able to be adjusted as we make progress.

Since resuming late last year, I’ve completed 5 states and have 2 scheduled for September. Will I have failed if I reach my 50th state finish line in 2026 or even 2027? Not at all. The goal to complete a road race in each of the 50 U.S. States will still have been achieved! With flexibility, determination, and accepting a pivot for once in a lifetime circumstance, goal achievement remains a possibility.

What is a big, amazing goal that you can set for yourself? Please message me if I can be of help as you begin to create your goal! Distance running is not required!

Cheers!?