The Struggling Runner - The importance of setting right goals

Jay has been struggling in his runs for many weeks.?

For months he’s been?wearing his running shoes,?doing his morning stretches,?drinking his orange juice,?and going for his runs.

He has a fixed target every day: 10k in 60 minutes.?

Without fail, he has been missing that target every day - and that too by a huge margin.?

1. He’s not been able to run 10k in 60 minutes
2. What's more, he’s never been able to run for 10k
3. Forget that, he’s never even been able to run for 60 minutes

I’d like to reiterate the gravity of this margin. He set out to run a certain distance in a certain time. He never ran that much distance. He never even ran for that much time.

Most days, Jay would come back from the run, and between recurring periods of stamping himself a failure, he’d think about his loss. He’d analyse his runs, try to figure out what he could do differently, work on his diet, buy better shoes, read books and so many other things.

Nothing has worked so far.

What's worse, the failure has been weighing on him. He has started missing runs. He finds it more and more difficult to push himself to go for a run. He doesn't see the point of it all.

This has been the story of Jay's runs so far. There is one more story I need to mention here - the story Jay would tell himself.

The story he'd tell himself

Somewhere in the middle of the run (around 3-4 kilometers in 30-35 minutes), Jay would usually start feeling quite exhausted. He’d then do a quick analysis:?

1. So far I’ve run at an average of 7k/hour.?
2. I am already very tired.?
3. There’s no way I’m going to finish 10k in the remaining 25-30 minutes.?
4. I’ll try harder tomorrow.

Even before he'd realise, he would have stopped running.

For weeks together Jay used to do this calculation in his mind.

• Sure, initially this calculation used to start in his head within the first 10-15 minutes. Slowly it advanced to 20, then 25, then 30+ minutes. But it was always the same framework.
• Sure, over the weeks his average speed increased from 5km/h to 5.5 to 6 to 6.5 to 7. But he was still significantly far from the required average speed of 10k/hr.

The realisation that changed his complete outlook

One day, while thinking about the same figures, a different perspective came to Jay’s mind. “Wait a minute. After 30 minutes, my average speed is 7km/h. That much I know. Did I actually at any point in my run even run at 10km/h?”

He changed his smartwatch setting to display speed instead of distance on the home screen. Next day he ran his run with that setting. Throughout the run he noticed that in those 30-odd minutes he never even ran at a speed faster than 7.4 km/h.

He NEVER ran at the minimum required speed - even for a second.

If he never even hit that speed, how was he supposed to run 10k in 60 minutes?

As soon as this reality dawned on Jay, he saw so clearly the reason why he had been failing so miserably throughout:

The biggest culprit in my big streak of “failures” has been my GOAL

Every day, as soon as he’d realise that he’s going to miss the goal, he’d feel dejected, and he'd stop. He had been trying to achieve a goal with two stringent constraints:

1. distance: 10 km
2. time: within 60 minutes

What's worse, he had been admonishing himself every day for not achieving his goal.

I have been setting a goal that's been too stringent. My goal has been setting me up for failure.

Every day Jay would note that he is not meeting his target and he'd give himself an F. What he didn't realize was that every day he was making progress in his journey. He was looking at the picture too closely. As soon as he zoomed out, he realised the folly in what he had been doing. Every day he had been improving. Yet, instead of treating them as wins, he had been stamping them as losses.

But our friend Jay is not one to cry over spilt milk. With much better understanding of where he had been faltering, Jay resumed his runs with a new outlook.

The new outlook

Now Jay broke down the entire goal into stages.

Goal 1: Run for 60 minutes

Initially, speed doesn't matter; distance doesn't matter. I'll try to run for 60 minutes continuously. When I started, I could only run for 10 minutes. From 10 I have reached 30-35 today. That's already a significant improvement. Let me keep working on improving my stamina. If I keep going step by step this way, I’ll be able to run for the whole 60 minutes.

Goal 2: Run for 10k

Next, I will focus on running for 10k - even if that takes me more than 1 hour. I'll need to build my stamina further, but I think if I give myself enough time and do enough practice, I will reach there.

Goal 3: Run 10k in 60 minutes

Then I'll focus on running faster. As long as I am getting faster, I'll not worry about whether I have reached my goal or not. I'll focus on progress, not on the destination. Eventually, I'll be able to run 10k in 60 minutes.?

Where does Jay stand today?

Jay still can't run 10k in 60 minutes. But he is not struggling anymore. He feels pleased with the effort he puts in everyday. He doesn't stamp himself a failure. He feels good about what he has been able to achieve. The runs are no longer a burden. He actually looks forward to his next run every day. He now enjoys his runs. He feels good about taking breaks. He understands that rest is equally important. He sleeps at night content with the understanding that he is improving. He knows that there is still a long way to go, but he feels proud of how far he has come.

----------------------------------------------

So, tell me:

Have you set a goal like "740 in 3 months" for yourself? Can it be that the goal is actually a hindrance to your progress?

How do you feel about your GMAT prep every day? Do you enjoy it? Do you feel content while going to bed, or do you feel guilty? Do you celebrate your progress, or do you chastise yourself for not reaching the goal yet? What's the story that you tell yourself every day? If you zoom out a bit, is there another way in which you can look at your prep journey?

----------------------------------------------

I write about GMAT and learning with the hashtag #OwnYourLearning. If you found this story helpful, consider following it.