And she’s off!

My epic journey started while I was on a cruise with my mum and siblings. I had time to make a list of the different activities I wanted to accomplish. At first, the ideas were quick to come to mind, but as I got over 40 activities, I had to stretch to keep the list going until I reached just over 60. While on the cruise, I was able to get a good start on the 60 books I was going to read over the year. I also focused on the goal of wearing dresses, wearing one to dinner each evening.

Returning home after the cruise and returning to work full time as a teacher slowed me down somewhat. Even so, I fully completed climbing 60 flights of stairs and walking 60 kilometres by the end of September. Both of these activities were rather easy to complete. Walking my dog, Argo, twice each day – regardless of the weather – accumulated the kilometres quickly while using the stairs at work instead of the elevators meant I was climbing 6 flights a day (and more if I forgot to take something I needed to class and had to run back up to my desk).

The other list I started while on the cruise was for my goals that I wanted to complete over the year. Completing 60 goals was one of the 60 activities. In order to ensure that I would reach the target of 60 goals, I made a list of more than 60 goals. In this way, I am able to pick and choose those goals that I can accomplish in full, while some of the more loftier goals may take longer than the time frame I set for myself. One goal is to complete 30 Live the Adventure Challenges. I had joined Explore Magazine’s Live the Adventure Club over the summer and, now that I had their challenges as one of my goals, it was time to get serious about meeting them. They have weekly challenges and seasonal challenges. I started on the Fall seasonal challenge while completing a couple of the weekly challenges in late September, early October.

I created my epic journey in such a way that I would most likely succeed. This meant there was flexibility built into my journey. If something came up that piqued my interest and I imagined I could complete the activity 60 times, I added it to my list. In this manner, my list grew. I also added to my list of goals as ideas came to mind. For example, I found out about Yes.Fit near the end of September and started my first virtual race in October. So, completing 60 Yes.Fit races became one of my activities. However, by March, I realized that was far too lofty. So the Yes.Fit races were moved from my 60’s list to my goals list. I determined how many I could realistically complete in one year – 30 – and that is now one of the 60 goals to accomplish.

To keep me motivated and focused – taking small steps to achieve the lofty goal – I add goals to my list that leads me to my big goal. For example, I set a goal to accomplish three virtual races by the beginning of November, to log 175 km in one month, to complete 500 km by New Year’s, and most recently, complete four more races in March and April (a total of 620 km in the two months). It’s all about giving myself what I need to succeed!