Over the years, I have written my fair share of goal posts. They have ranged the gamut from long and specific to short and vague. As the years progress, I know I will continue to waver between the two since each version, including all the ones in between, has its advantages and disadvantages. Last year, I aimed for the specific, carefully crafted, and numerous. In some areas, I had success. In most, however, life changed and made those carefully curated goals look foolish. This year I ride the pendulum to the other end of the swing. I have chosen a focus on the three “R”s: reading, writing, and running.

These three foci should come as no surprise. I have waxed eloquent before about my love of all three. This love, however, has not helped me produce the results I crave and also expect. I want to change that and that will happen with the same focus and determination that I have recently applied to my running. Since I started marathon training and making sure that I put in the work it requires, I have seen incredible results. I do not yet know what this will translate to come March 1st but I do see the payoff of hard work, of no excuses. Obviously, I plan to continue this effort since I have a little less than two months before my first goal marathon of the year. After that, depending on whether or not I obtain my Chicago qualifying time or not, I plan to pick a goal half marathon (and try to PR!) and then target a BQ in my second goal marathon of the year. The feeling on regular runs excites me and helps me endure the hard work necessary to get there. Thus, one of my three-pronged focus for the year is running. I will make it a priority above other distractions, a theme of the other two prongs as well.

The second prong of my three pronged focus, writing, has plagued me for as long as I can remember. I recently discussed my struggle with always wanting to write yet shirking it until I run out of time. After writing that reflection and turning that reflection to the gains I have achieved in running, I realized that I need to put at least the same level of work into my writing as I have done with my running. To achieve the growth I desire, I have to put in the work. I have to prioritize writing above other things and have to put in hard work to stretch myself. Right now, I do not know what the “speedwork” of my writing will look like but I know that I need to find something. If writing always felt easy, if I had no challenge, I would not grow. I probably would not write at all either. If I want to improve, I cannot keep doing the same thing. To that end, my first goal will be completion of a journal entry of at least half a page every single day this year, all 366 of them. I know that stretches me because I so quickly put that off to the end of the day which increases my tendency to run out of time or simply skip it because I don’t feel like writing. Secondly, I bought a set of three new composition notebooks, starting my current one (where I write these entries by hand first) three days before the end of 2019. It took me a little over ten months to fill the old one. I want to fill this one in half that time. Obviously, that means a huge focus in my time shifting to writing and away from the mindless fluff that I have allowed to consume my time.

Lastly, I want to focus on reading. I have always found a way to get a lot of books read. While some years the number seems small to me, I know that when compared to most people, I still read an enormous amount. Generally, however, I have read more than a hundred books a year for as long as I can remember. This knowledge made me second guess making reading one of the three prongs of my focus. I waffled on whether I truly wanted to make this a focus or whether I should find some other alliterative word, one related to education or if I should make it four “R”s instead of three. I quickly jettisoned the idea of expanding my three pronged focus; that would defeat the purpose of focusing on things. Instead, I realized as I wrote this final section that by promoting reading as one of my 2020 foci, I will bring something pleasurable and enriching to my off time instead of mindless dives into social media or procrastination at work to avoid getting things done. to that end, I will aim to read every book on my library wishlist, 166, this coming year provided that the library maintains a Kindle version. I know that this goal will stretch me and even if I do not make it, I will have grown in the process.

Everything boils down to three words, four if you count the conjunction: growth and hard work. I want to grow in those three areas and to do so, I must put in the hard work required.