Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about goals.
More specifically achieving goals, and in this case, not running goals.
As many of you who have been following me on my little piece of the internet here for awhile know, I left my job in event presentation in New York City just about 3 years ago now to work towards my goal of becoming a physical therapist.
I laid out what I thought at the time was a well thought out plan that had me taking the pre-requisites classes, applying to physical therapy schools and completing the 3 year doctorate program all within 5 years.
Well I’m 3 years in and just now actually applying to the physical therapy programs.
The pre-requisite classes unfortunately took me about a year and a half longer than I planned (thinking I could take 3 sciences classes in a semester wasn’t exactly realistic!). I’ve hit a few bumps in the road along the way (not to mention we uprooted and moved to Cape Cod!), but now that I am actually filling out applications it’s starting to feel like going to PT school could be a reality and I’m determined to not let anything else get in my way.
Recently two very important people reminded me that if I want to reach my goals, I need to “get out of my own way” (thanks Dad!) or as Jason more bluntly put it, “get my head out of my ass”.
It’s true. I have a habit of biting off more than I can chew and then choking on it.
Between classes, work, teaching yoga, training for upcoming fall marathons and still trying to enjoy living on Cape Cod my summer got away from me a bit and I’m trying to make an effort to de-clutter my life and make more time to focus on the things that are important to me right now.
Multi-tasking…studying on the beach!
In an effort to help organize myself, I recently bought a Passion Planner (this post is NOT sponsored by Passion Planner, I am just recently obsessed with the thing!) and when I opened it and read about why the founder created the Passion Planner and how to best use it, I felt like they were speaking directly to me.
To paraphrase, they gave the analogy of if you were given a bunch of balls to juggle and each had a dollar amount on it (one $1,000 ball, three $100 balls and five $1 balls), and at the end you would be given the dollar amount of the balls you are able to juggle.
Most of us would grab a bunch of balls and try to do as much as possible. But why not just hold onto the one $1,000 ball? They wrote, most people “pick up the balls, throw them up in the air, and scramble to keep them all afloat, splitting their attention by deeming the really important and really trivial tasks as equals.”
GUILTY.
They said, “when faced with a decision…ask yourself:
“is this action getting me closer to my goals?”
Right now I am trying to focus on exactly this and hoping that when in a few weeks I take the GRE’s and submit my applications to physical therapy doctorate programs I’ll have done enough to be accepted by one and that I can look past all the times I got in my own way over the past few years.
Oh and where does blogging fit into all of this?? I love and MISS blogging and I’m really trying to get back to posting regularly! I should hopefully have some more time coming up and with a bunch of fall races on the calendar I’m sure I’ll have lots to talk about!
Live, Run, Grow 
There are many of us that get in our win way. We just have to accept prioritizing and not being able to ” do it all”. We women esp think that all and anything is possible. Good luck in staying focused on your applications and fitness!
I agree, I think most people accept that we’re supposed to be able to do it all! I recently found a quote that said, “Stop the glorification of busy.”
I read it and I was like, “wow. What an amazing point of view…and why the heck do we glorify being busy?!?”
Hope all is well!
Oh giirrrrlllllll, I know just how you feel. I just started back to school myself and wonder what the hell I was thinking. I can deal with the hubby whining about how we don’t have as much time together but when the Wonder Mutt puts on the sad face? Gawd help me…..
Oh yay, congratulations on going back to school! I am SO sorry if you’ve mentioned it on the blog, but I really haven’t been keeping up my blog reading as much as I’d like!
Oh and how is your knee doing?!?! I really need to catch up on stuff!
I think it’s awesome you are pursuing your goals like this. Very inspiring!! I think knowing so much about the mind body connection by teaching yoga will help make you an excellent PT.
Thanks! Incorporating yoga into physical therapy with patients is one of my interests! : )
I think a lot of people are guilty about getting in our own way. I could juggle like crazy when I was in school, and the minute something from the outside came in to play, I’d spazz out and lose it.
Seriously, why do we do this to ourselves?!? I can’t tell you how many times I got knocked off track over the past few years just because I wasn’t keeping my goal in focus enough – so frustrating!
Great post. I am basically the queen of having my “head in my ass”…that sounds weird, but you know what I mean! I always manage to sabotage myself when it comes to reaching my goals, whether they’re running goals, career goals, etc. It’s exciting that you’re on the path of becoming a PT — best of luck to you with everything!!
Haha, I think you and I are going to have to fight for that title! I have been sabotaging myself repeatedly for the past few years and I really need to be more conscious of NOT getting in my own way for once!