In recent years I have heard a lot about vision boards as part of goal setting, I have even created some the past two years. But this year I decided that I needed to do this a different way. Thus, Vision Blog! This way I can include more explanation, for myself, but also for you all (to help keep me more accountable).
Often I start my vision board with a word or thought of the year. And I have decided that a Vision Blog should be no different. So the word of the year is....
I chose this word, victory, after reading a random post on facebook. Don't even remember exactly where I saw it. But the gist was that it might be good to stop chasing Personal Records and start chasing Personal Victories. That is my vision for this year, to find the personal victories. I think the hashtag #PV might become a "thing" for me this year, as I reach for and find my personal victories.
So that's the general theme of the year, but I do have some general and specific goals in a couple of areas, and ideas to get there for some of them.
Let's start with some things outside of athletics.
HOME AND FAMILY
One thing I have noticed since I retired is that I feel like I am drowning in STUFF. Craft supplies, books, clothes, costumes, keepsakes, you get the idea. Every box, bag, container that I can sort, organize, store or get rid of would be a personal victory. I have decided to start by targeting a couple of rooms and further targeting a specific segment of one of those rooms (sewing patterns).
Related to the goal above is not to collect lots more stuff, not only for myself, but for my family. We are committed to buying less things for our children and grandchildren and instead spend our time and money giving them "moments." You know the kind of things I mean, everything from afternoons on the playground to fairly elaborate trips. We already began this journey at the end of last year and earlier this year, by committing to workouts and races with my daughter, giving my Mom a trip for Christmas, taking our granddaughters on an overnight trip to the indoor waterpark, and planning trips with various family members. I feel like it is a victory every time we make the choice to make a moment...it is an attitude I want to continue.
Also related to "stuff" but also health and athletic stuff is that I have a metric "sh*tload" of cookbooks....but I seem to fall into the pattern of making stuff that is easy, convenient or already in my repertoire. As a consequence my nutrition could use a boost. So it would be a personal victory to make a new recipe once a week or so to expand my repertoire and determine if I really need to keep all these cookbooks.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT THIS RETIREMENT THING?
I have already said that I have not learned to love retirement. I don't even feel like I want to learn to love it. Maybe that's a bad attitude, I don't know. But a personal victory would be to find a part time or irregular thing (or things) to do that made me feel useful and pay just a little money. I am not discounting volunteer work down the road, but for me in this moment, I need to feel a connection between my activity and my earning.
So far I am continuing my work as a photo editor with a local event photographer, and I have talked to one (but only one) of the places I used to teach for about teaching an occasional class. I have also put out feelers about doing some part time work with a local company. The ideal thing would be something I could do from home or flexible hours at least some of the time.
So I am looking and exploring. One thing I'm researchin is free lance writing (and/or speaking). I have written for both academic and popular professional publications as an academic, and have done some paid writing for a company blog (human interest and light marketing). I have a lot of speaking experience as well. Another thing I have thought of is teaching craft skills or other things related to crafting or costuming. Or more traditional part time work with a company that I believe in or an industry that interests me would be good too. If any one out there has any ideas (wild or otherwise), I'd be glad to hear them.
ATHLETIC STUFF
I clearly know what a personal victory looks and feels like in my athletic endeavors, and while a personal record feels good...I think a personal victory might be even better. A #PV can come in any workout or race, and I think finding them may be more a matter of attitude and effort than anything else. So step one here is to put in the effort and try to keep that attitude. But I do have some specific goals and target races, too.
My target races (or A races) for the year are divided between running and triathlon. The running races on the A list are The Shamrock 8k in Chicago on March 22 and the Mackinac Island 8 miler in mid-September. I don't have specific time goals for either race, but more to just perform as well as I possibly can. On the triathlon side, my most important race is in August, it is a repeat of last year's race, the Naperville Sprint Tri...and my goal is to do as well or better than last year.
Obviously I have other races and I want to do well in them all...but those are the goals, the ones I want to peak for.
I also have set a number of intermediate goals with my coach to help get me there. And those will be ongoing. Right now I have 3: improving my swim pace to 2:30 per 100, increasing my run intervals to 2 run/1 walk, and improving my core strength as measured by a strength test.
AND SO..
Here's to all the personal victories this year...mine and yours. I cannot wait to share mine and hear about yours!
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