I didn’t feel like running tonight, but I went out and ran 5 miles anyway. Why would I do that? It all starts with a goal. One of my big goals is to run a marathon so I’ve signed up for the Disney Marathon in Jan 09.

But just because I have the goal of running a marathon, that’s not the real reason I ran tonight. Because a big goal (even an inspiring one) is not enough on its own especially when it’s still six months away.

The real reason why I went running tonight is because I have a plan — a running plan that is. Once I decided that I wanted to run a marathon the next step was to develop a plan of how many miles I need to run each month, week and day to be able to run a marathon in Jan.

Luckily, such plans already exist and I didn’t need to create one myself. I chose Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 plan which has been used by thousands of runners to successfully finish a marathon. So I know that if I can consistently stick to the plan then I can make it to the finish line.

That is the real reason I ran tonight. I wanted to stay consistent and follow my plan. And that’s why for any goal that you’re trying to hit, you need to develop a plan that you can commit to. A plan tells you how to get to your goal and breaks it up into bite-size chunks so you know that as long as you do the chunks then you will hit the goal.

It all sounds so simple…doesn’t it? Well not always. This works great for goals like marathons that can easily be planned, but what about goals like growing your business or creating a new product? How do you create a plan for those?

I think these things are harder to plan for because there are more moving parts and the path to the next step is not always clear (do I hire more? focus on sales? which product should I design?, etc). All that said, a basic plan can be developed such as I’ll take Tues and Thurs to make sales calls from 8-noon or 3 hrs on Fri to brainstorm a new product.

In these scenarios when it’s not clear if the plan will move you closer to your goal, you have to measure the results of your plan and then change it if necessary. But at the very least a plan forces you to think about achieving the goal, and gets you taking action in one direction. You shouldn’t wait for the perfect plan. A decent plan is better than no plan at all.

At the heart of many of the “success” books (like Covey’s 7 Habits) is setting up a Sunday planning session to design the week ahead and be sure it aligns to your goals. I think this is a great idea though it’s one plan that I’ve had trouble sticking to

A good plan, violently executed today, is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.

-George S Patton

I’ve been reading different books on running, and one of the techniques I’ve learned is interval training. Interval training consists of running easy and then pushing yourself for a set amount of time to run as hard as you can. And then repeatedly alternating between the two for set time intervals.

It works great for running to increase your speed, but I think it’s also a good metaphor for how to live your life. You need to push yourself hard toward your goals, but be sure to take time off to recover and avoid burnout.

This weekend I really pushed myself during the halfmadness half marathon. It was a wonderful 13.1 mile run through downtown Batavia along the fox river. I had a goal pace time of 8:46 per mile and had written each mile split on my arm to make sure I stayed on track. After the first 6 miles, I found that I was easily beating my goal pace so I ran hard and finished with an 8:31 pace. Not fast for the “real” runners, but that’s fast for me.

After the race, we drove down to my mom’s house who lives on Lake Springfield and spent a quiet day relaxing on the beach watching the kids play in the lake. In the past, I would’ve had a hard time taking a day off like that to “do nothing” because I’m always looking for the next big thing and trying not to “waste” any time. But as I’ve gotten older (and possibly wiser), I’ve found that it’s important to take time off to recover, refocus and to savor accomplishments.

Part of reaching a goal is taking the time to celebrate it. One of the key points of the book Happier is that there are certain set of people who are always delaying happiness in the present because they keep trying to achieve some elusive goal in the future and that after they achieve “that” goal they’ll finally be happy. But after finishing each goal, they are not happy because they doggedly rush onto the next one and don’t savor the accomplishment

So I’m glad that I took this Labor Day weekend to celebrate it as intended, by working hard and then actually taking a day off!

It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?

-Ronald Reagan

A large part of success in life depends on who you associate with. There’s something about having other people around you that push you to do more than you’d do on your own. In many ways, iron sharpens iron.

I’ve been in work environments that are firing on all cylinders where people are pushing each other to learn more and more about their trade. I’ve also witnessed the opposite, where people just don’t care and it turns into a downward spiral.

In general, I like to do activities on my own, but I find that I achieve the most when I’m competing with or being challenged by others.

I do my best programming when I’m surrounded by other great programmers. We talk about geeky stuff and in that group the “coolest” person is the one who knows the most about the programming language at hand.

I do my best long runs when I’m running with someone else. If the partner is a good fit, that person will push me to do more than I would on my own.

So how do you find the right training partner?

• Circle of Friends: Often times there is someone in your circle of friends that could be a good fit. If not in your immediate circle, then let people know that you are looking for a training partner and have them tell their friends. People won’t be able to help you if they don’t know you’re looking.
• Local Groups: Depending on the size of your city, there may be local groups for about any kind of activity you could be interested in whether it’s running, politics or sewing. Check out meetup.com for groups near you and to find people passionate about your specific interest.
• Hire: Certain training partners can be hired such as coaches and personal trainers for the gym. Michael Hyatt has a good blog entry on hiring the best trainers possible.
• Electronic: When all else fails there are always electronic versions. For some of my runs, I listen to Lance Armstrong ‘s Nike+Ipod Training tips. He has some real gems like “Remember, pain is temporary but quitting lasts forever!”

Find the right training partner and you will accomplish more than you ever could on your own.

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

-Proverbs 27:17