Have you guys ever seen that SNL sketch about back home ballers?  If not, I will leave you with this, come back when you’re done.  Right now Leslie Jones going “Bowls, bowls, all types of bowls” is stuck in my head except I have rearranged the lyrics to be “Goals, goals, all types of goals”.  I am aware I’m a lunatic.

I’ve been doing a heck of a lot of self-reflection lately and one of the weirdest realizations I’ve come to is that I am extremely goal oriented.  Someone at work asked me the other day, “What are the top three things on your bucket list?”.  I stopped and thought about it for awhile.  To be honest, I don’t have a bucket list.  I set a goal and then I work to get it done.  I wanted to run a half marathon, so I did it.  I wanted to become a certified personal trainer, so I did it.  I wanted to teach spin classes, so I did it.  This is what motivates me in the morning.  It’s the reason once I stop working, I start in on a long list of other projects I’ve got going on.  I’m never happy with where I am, but I know where I want to be.  In the middle of all of that madness is where I find the inspiration to keep going.

I heard this quote the other day “the space between where you are and where you want to be is inspiring”.  I have goals and dreams bigger than I can imagine at this point.  I don’t have a crystal clear picture, but I know the type of person I want to be and everyday I do something to work towards that goal.  While I’m working towards my goal, I’m crushing small goal after small goal and each one is inspiring me and fueling me even more.

I don’t crush all my goals though.  In fact, for every step I’ve taken forward I feel like I’ve taken four giant leaps back.  But it’s that tenacity and that feeling of knowing there’s more good to come that makes me work a little bit harder.

In my spin classes recently, I have regularly reminding my riders to not get complacent.  That minute that we feel comfortable and secure is the minute that you should realize you could be doing more.  It’s hit your butt on the seat and coast after a hard climb, but that’s not the type of thing that changes you.  We did a class the other day that cycled between a run, a climb, and an interval set over and over again with very minimal rest.  It was so difficult, but everyone was happy with how they had performed in class.  They had set a goal of completing the challenging workout and as they worked to get there, they realized the power of what they were doing to reach that goal.  Something we can all take away, that’s for sure.

-sj