Setting Big Goals

I was in the hospital when the prosthetic people came in to talk to me for the first time. (Note: These are not prosthetic people. but, rather people whose job it is to provide prosthetics.) They mentioned the kind of prosthetic I was going to get, and said, “We’re getting you the one just below the kind we give to Olympic athletes. You’re pretty active for someone your age, but it’s not like you’re going to be running marathons.”

And I immediately said, “Well, maybe I’ll run a 10K one of these days.”

And, so, when I finally do get my new foot, I am going to look into the idea of training to do just that. I suspect I won’t run the whole thing, but I’m going to do my level best to at least cross that finish line.

I told my physical therapist, and he said he’d run with me. I told my primary care physician, and he said that it would make a great movie. Neither of them dissuaded me from the idea, which, to me, makes it seem like a thing I should absolutely do.

I used to not be the kind of person to set big goals like that, but, you know what? Screw it. I’ve been gifted some bonus time on this Earth, and I don’t want to spend it being conservative about what I can do.

I said to myself that I’d start this blog, and I did. I said I’d post every weekday once I got it up and running, and I have. I’m working on writing projects, and keeping more in touch with friends and family, and being more present in my son’s life, and staying healthy, and taking my medicine and all kinds of stuff I might previously have let slide.

I’m sort of disrupting my own life, I guess. Not that I didn’t do well doing what I was doing before, but there was a sense for a while that things were sort of winding down.

That, friends, is no longer the case. I hope I’m just getting started. And I know there will be obstacles in my path. I don’t want to avoid them anymore. I want to confront them and do my best. My real best.

Because, here’s the thing. I am worth it. And you are worth it. The world is a hard old place, and we let ourselves get bogged down in the really unimportant stuff sometimes, but, let me tell you, a close brush with death will certainly change your perspective.

So, if I have a recommendation here, it’s to try and join me to do the hard thing. Doesn’t matter what it is. Make the phone calls you need to make. Get out of the house. Clean out that storage closet.

Run the damned 10K*

Maybe we can run it together.

*Should I have said 5K? Time will tell.

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As always, if you have it in you, please give a thought to donating time or money to Hospice Austin. They do amazing work for people who are going through the hardest thing a person can face.

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