Week 8 - Keeping Your Sights On the Big Picture

Once upon a time, there was a wise man who had to walk to a castle to run an errand for his wife. This was to be the first time he would visit this castle. Between his home and the castle there was a large forest in his path.

He was quite confident that he would be able to reach the castle fairly quickly. However, as the forest became more and more dense and the paths multiplied, he quickly became confused. He tried different paths that led to nowhere and became frustrated.

Another man walking in the opposite direction noticed that he was troubled, but presented him with a map and explained to him that there was a star shining atop the castle that could be seen through the dense forest. Sure enough when the wise man looked up, he saw a light through the leaves of the trees. When he took the time to examine the situation and follow the star, he eventually found his way out of the forest and found the castle.

Is there a moral to this story? Certainly! Sometimes when we set goals for ourselves, we can often get discouraged by the "small stuff." The small stuff could be events that may prevent us from reaching our goals. Even when life gets in the way, we must examine our goals in light of the big picture. Sometimes it is inevitable that we will face some adversity when we are pursuing a worthwhile goal.

Of course, as you know from my past blog postings, one of my goals is (or was) to lose 30 lbs by the end of July. To reach my goal, I have to be more careful about my diet and secondly, I need to try to get to the gym 3-4 times a week for cardiovascular and resistance training.

In a perfect week, I can usually accomplish all of this. But how often does one have a "perfect week?" Sometimes other "stuff" happens that may, if we let it, derail us from our goals and plans.

For example, a few weekends ago, I attended and volunteered my services at our Toastmasters Spring Conference. To clear my schedule for the weekend, I had to run some errands during the week after work that I normally would have been able to do on the weekend. This left less time for me to go the gym. That week I could only find time to go to the gym once that week.

At first, I stressed over this; however, I realized that I was silly to let this bother me. This was a very minor roadblock in my way to reaching my fitness goal. I needed to look at the bigger picture in terms of reaching my goals.

By missing the mark on 3-4 visits to the gym that week, in terms of the big picture, I actually improved my mental and physical fitness level in several ways:
1) I was able to give my limbs some well-needed rest
2) I was able to get some well-needed sleep
3) I was able to take the time to relax and develop some new friendships and chat with some friends on Facebook. I improved my mental fitness and self-esteem which contributed in gains in my goals in ways unimagined previously.

Overall, by taking the time to take a step back and rest, I was able to improve my fitness level. I was also able to discover that my resting heart rate is around 56 beats per minute, which I measured when I was lying in bed about to rise for the day. BTW - I think 56 is pretty good - don't you? :)

Up until then, I never knew my resting heart rate. I always knew my maximum heart rate and that I could get my heart rate up to 150 bpm for 30 minutes at a time if I had to while on the elliptical trainer. I've heard from fitness professionals that your resting heart rate tells you more about the state of your health than your maximum heart rate. Your maximum heart rate can always be inflated through the consumption of coffee and other products with caffeine. Ha Ha!! I do that sometimes.

In achieving your goals, just remember that sometimes that your pursuit of goals that you have formulated with the best intentions can and will be derailed. It is only a matter of "when". However, when you keep your sights on the big picture and the end result, you don't need to let yourself become discouraged.

Just keep peddling and stay the course! Eventually you'll make it to the finish line.