13 Miles to Graceland

Several years ago a friend of mine challenged me to run a marathon with him. Before then I had never run more than about 4 or 5 miles, but the Capricorn in me was up for the challenge! With no real idea of what it took to train for a marathon, I set out to get into at least good enough shape to cross the finish line skating safely this side of a heart attack...

After running a few long distance routes, I employed the same technique that I encourage in others, and that is to set and accomplish short term goals as a way of stepping slowly but surely towards the long term achievements.

I decided that if I could run HALF a marathon, then anything after that would all be downhill. Having bolstered my confidence by pulling off a few 8 mile jaunts, I mapped out a 13.2 mile route and set off down the road one morning on a circular route that would bring me back to my starting point at the end of the 13.2 miles.

I don't know if you have ever done any long distance running before, but I can tell you that when you are out there and you've got 8-10 miles successfully under your shoes, you start to realize that a 13.2 mile route is... well... long!

As I crossed over the 10 mile mark, I was definitely in the home stretch, but I found myself at the bottom of a long, gradual hill that went up for about a mile before it leveled out. Why I didn't foresee that when I originally mapped out the route is beyond me...

Anyway, my confidence started to faulter, but after running 10 miles (my longest run to date at that point), I was NOT willing to just give up and walk the last 3 miles home. As I'm sure happens with a lot of long distance runners, a particular phrase just popped into my head. It became my mantra for the rest of the journey:

"13 Miles to Graceland"

Why that particular phrase came to me, I'll never know. I've never been to Graceland, and I have also never spent any consistent amount of time as an Elvis Presley fan. My father swears that I had a brief fling with "fandom for the King" when I was young, but I'll never admit to it.

Anyway, I used this unusual phrase as my focus point, I put my head down, kept running, and I made it to the end of the route in just under 2 hours and 46 minutes. Not too shabby for someone who used to think that physical fitness was watching the Olivia Newton-John video "Let's Get Physical"...

The point to all of this rambling is that I accomplished that lengthy goal by employing 2 very basic and very well-known techniques:

1) Setting short-term goals

2) Applying a consistent effort over the long-term

Over at the "A Better You Blog", Patricia has a wonderful list of short-term tasks that can be accomplished or decided upon in only 30 seconds, and it is amazing what an impact such a small amount of time can have on you, or someone that care about.

When you start to add up those 30 second deeds, take it up to a few minutes of doing the right thing, then begin to put forth 30 minutes of effort, take it up to an hour or more of your time towards yours goals, etc., something amazing starts to happen.

After awhile - a very short while, in fact - you will have been accomplishing short-term goals so often that you will have accomplished something HUGE!

Remember, the achievements that we make in life are not done all at once. They are made up of a tiny step here, a small step there, another step in the right direction, yet another, and on down the line.

Too often in today's society we tend to judge both success and failure in a very short-sighted manner. No one ever got rich, lost a large amount of weight, or accomplished something truly remarkable by making one gigantic effort, but rather by applying the principles associated with those positive achievements over and over again on a consistent basis.

It doesn't matter how good you think you are, or how bad you think you are, the truth of the matter is that your journey to your chosen destination begins with one foot in front of the other.

After all, it's only 13 miles to Graceland. :)