Like Bilbo Baggins in the book The Hobbit or There and Back Again, I will hike to the misty mountain! Unlike Baggins, I hope to encounter exactly zero trolls or dragons along the way. Queue up the Led Zeppelin songs Misty Mountain Hop and Ramble On while you read this post for for atmosphere.
This summer I am taking on a challenge like I have not done in years. A group of friends and I are taking a two day hike over a portion of the Presidential Traverse in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We will backpack twenty miles over the two day period, almost thirteen miles in day one. On the surface this is not the biggest distance challenge, but when you consider the details the journey is daunting. The hike will include almost 8,000 feet of elevation changes over some very difficult terrain. Also featured are drastic weather patterns. We hike in June, and the weather at the start will be seasonal around 70-80F, but on the Mount Washington, the average low can 30-40F degrees. A possible 50 degree swing during the day one hike. The most challenging portion of the hike will be the first four miles, non-stop uphill for 4,000 feet of elevation, and average of 1,000 uphill per mile.
When I take an accounting of my current state of readiness, and where I need to be to accomplish this journey, I know I am not ready today. I have a lot of things to accomplish just to prepare for the trip; weight loss, cardio improvement, selecting gear, plotting my maps and strength training just to name a few. Goals are easy to talk about and set, but difficult to achieve for some reason. I believe that if a goal is not planned out with enough detail, or created in small enough chunks, chances of failure increase. Over the last few years I have run a decent amount of 5k races, and adventure races, each with varying degrees of prep and greatly varying levels of success. I am taking this year on with a renewed attitude, to not half-ass my preparation, and make sincere progress. With five months to prepare, I am breaking down each goal, to weekly challenges and progress points. And I will hold myself accountable through a few different methods, this blog will be just one. Feel free to check in on my preparation.
As you look at your 2014 and set goals I encourage you all to do a couple things. Write goals down, this is critical. This way you cannot forget or ignore the task. Next, pick a completion date. This could be a random timeline you give yourself, on an actual date a project is due, or a race is scheduled. Set progress points to write down along the way. Don't lose a day, a week or a month thinking I will just start tomorrow. Start today. Share your progress with a spouse or friend, it always helps when someone else can ask you how things are moving, or encourage you to keep moving forward. If you miss targets, or fail to achieve your goal, make sure you review what went wrong and use the lesson for the next time. This is a great reason to document your process, to make things harder to forget and lose the opportunity to improve your plan.
Whether you are building a tree-house, running a marathon, changing career or climbing a mountain, make goal setting and tracking a part of your 2014. You will be surprised in what you can achieve, and learn a little about yourself along the way.
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