2019: A Progress Report

I have a bad tendency to break my resolutions, or so I thought. I have high expectations and sometimes which are sometimes founded in ambition rather than reality. While I wouldn’t count this against me, I do think it’s important to address the effect this has in my yearly goals.

This will be a log that helps me track the evolution of my goals. Hopefully, this is helpful to other people that feel as if goals are some unmovable structure and that changes constitute as failures (they don’t).

January 1, 2019

Missions, or purpose as a whole, is rather meaningless without some basis to measure success. This is particularly true when your mission isn’t something tangible like “be the best croissant baker in the world”. You see, accountability is key and, while very uncomfortable, public accountability is even better because there’s nothing worse than having your friends on your ass reminding you of everything you aren’t accomplishing when you start slacking.

Here’s my first set of goals for 2019, in no particular order.

1. Finish four marathons and an Ironman.

2. Work on four major campaigns/activations in 2019.

3. Launch Litterbox Collective in Q1 2019. Podcast and YouTube to follow.

4. Find two speaking gigs per quarter.

Accomplishments:

1. Finished the Louisiana Marathon. Official chip time was 3:40:58.

February 8, 2019

Let’s talk about that whole “four marathons and an Ironman situation. Training and running the Louisiana Marathon really opened my eyes to everything that goes into preparing for an endurance event, even if it’s a short one (compared to an Ultra or Ironman). You have to respect the process and the miles.

This is why I have decided to focus my 2019 training into road racing only rather than try to fit in a bunch of marathons and somehow be ready for an Ironman with that load. I’m also replacing the number of marathons with a completion speed goal instead - 3 hours. That’s the time I need to complete a full marathon to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 2020. While shaving 41 minutes from my current pace is a lofty goal [read: bat-shit crazy] it’s a focused metric to gauge my growth as a runner. Quality > Quantity.

Here are my updated goals and progress:

1. Have a Boston Qualifying race.
   Completed the Louisiana marathon in 3:40:58. Thinking of a May race with one or two tune-ups (10k/half) in between. Focusing this training cycle on speed work + strength. No set races just yet, need to figure out one huge piece of my life before setting on locations.

2. Work on four major campaigns/activations in 2019.
   This is a post in itself but taking some very exciting steps to accomplish this. More progress coming soon.

3. Launch Litterbox Collective in Q1 2019. Podcast and YouTube to follow.
   I’ll be focusing on shitty designs this month. People somehow keep finding the IG page but I have been a bit unfocused in this front.

4. Find two speaking gigs per quarter.
   Also unfocused here. I’ve been spending a ton of energy in the first two goals No excuses, need to get my shit together.