Today I reached 1,000 miles on my Nike+ system. That’s 1,000 miles that my feet have run since March 25, 2007. That’s one more thing crossed off of my list of “100 Things to do Before I Die.“ That’s one more time I set a goal for myself and steadily hunted it down until I got it done. That’s one more way of answering the question with, “I can.”
Here's a picture of the computer screen after I downloaded my final run
The Nike+ system is a device that you plug into the bottom of an iPod Nano, and it syncs with a chip on your shoe in order to track distance run, time, and calories burned. Then you can download your run onto a computer and track your progress. The computer program keeps a history of your runs, and it congratulates you when you reach certain milestones (100 miles, 500 miles, etc). When I first wrote out my list of 100 things to do before I die I thought that 1,000 miles seemed impossible. I had no idea how long it would take me to get there. Would it be 1 year? Two years? The thing about setting a goal for yourself is to set it and not get too caught up in the details about how you’re going to accomplish it, or how long it will take. Go ahead and set the goal, and then steadily work toward it. A year is going to pass anyway. Two years are going to pass. I may as well be working toward my goals during that time, right? I’ve frequently heard that the journey of 1,000 miles starts with the first step, and never was it more clearly illustrated than by reaching this goal of mine. What’s your goal?
