Finishing is Better Than Failing

I like to challenge myself.

Setting goals that won't be easily achieved and pursuing them motivates me and I am energized by new objectives. I do a pretty good job of accomplishing some of them too.

The challenge is when I realize that the goal is out of reach.

Last weekend some friends of mine hosted a trail running race around my favourite local lake. Each lap is a little over 5km and they offered 1 lap, 2 lap, 5 lap, and even a 10 lap race. Back in the summer I decided to commit to the 5 lap (25+ km) event. I knew that it was beyond my fitness level at that time and would be difficult to train enough to be ready. It felt good to set the bar high.

Unfortunately it was too high. I admitted to myself in early September that there was no way I would be prepared to run well for that distance; finishing was unlikely and having fun highly improbable.

It was tough to have to contact them and request a change to the 10+km distance, and to have to tell some people who knew I was targeting the longer event. Swallowing my pride, even when it was clearly the right choice, doesn't come easily.

I've just started reading Jon Acuff's latest book, Finish. In it he talks about research showing that the real reasons many people fail to complete their goals is an inability to adapt to less than perfect performance or to scale back when it becomes apparent that the objective is out of reach. It's really good stuff and he offers very practical advice to help us experience greater success by being more realistic.

I can think of dozens of leaders who could join me in recognizing ourselves in this tendency to be overly ambitious when goal setting and not manage the process effectively when we see we've bitten off more than we can chew. This book can help us.

Running the shorter race turned out great! I ran the first part with my 14 year old son and enjoyed the whole event, pushing myself to do my best. To my great surprise (and mostly due to there not being very many people racing), after crossing the finish line I found out I had finished first in my age group for the 2 lap event. My first ever first place.

I still wish I'd been fit enough to take on the longer event, but changing my goal to something more realistic made for a day of success beyond my expectations. (Next year the 5 or maybe even 10 lap event is mine!)