Why It's Okay to Revise Your Goals

It’s been 5 days since I published a blog post.

Before I even started my blog, I said my goal was to write one per day. I thought I could churn out a quality blog in 5-10 minutes, which just wasn’t the case. They were taking me an hour-plus, and I knew this wouldn’t be sustainable, especially going into the school year. I’ve still been working on the blog for at least five minutes per day, but I was burning myself out trying to write one every day.

So I revised my goal. I should have planned better, and I can’t believe I forgot this when I was creating my blog. Before I ran Grandma’s Marathon, I injured my foot and was in a boot for the two weeks leading up to the race. While I was resting my foot, I read 26 Marathons by Meb Keflezighi, an American marathoner who won the Boston Marathon, New York City Marathon, and silver medal in the marathon in the 2004 Olympics.

One of my favorite tips he gave was to tier your goals. He said he always went into his races with an ambitious but realistic “best-case scenario” goal, a backup goal to that goal, and a backup goal to the backup goal. He called them his “A,” “B,” and “C” goals.

My “A” goal for the blog was to write one per day. Didn’t achieve that? Fine. I’m still on track to write 2-3 blogs per week, which is my new “B” goal. Finally, I’ve been working on my blog, whether it’s writing, editing the website, or promoting it on social media, for at least five minutes since I started. That’ll be my “C” goal. Even if I don’t publish anything for a month, I have to at least work on it for five minutes a day.

In addition to tiering his goals, Meb mandated that it’s important to “underpromise and overachieve.” When he was running, he rarely told anyone outside his immediate family and coach his “A” goal, if he even told them. Similarly, I should have heeded his advice here or written a blog or two first to gauge how long they would take me. Another example of overpromising and underachieving is Tate Martell, the former Ohio State quarterback who transferred to Miami after Justin Fields arrived from Georgia. After confidently predicting he’d win the starting job, he promptly lost it to Jarren Williams, a redshirt freshman quarterback. A talker at Ohio State, Martell would have served himself better to stay silent and prove his critics wrong with hard work instead of chatter.

I mentioned this earlier, but no matter what you’re doing, make sure you’re not burning yourself out. Making time to relax is a necessity: Mental Health America notes that relaxation releases mood-boosting hormones like serotonin, prolactin, and oxytocin, while lowering cortisol, the stress hormone, along with heart rate and blood pressure. Besides the biological effects, setting time aside for yourself refreshes you, so you’re more focused when you return to work.

So when you set a goal, make sure you tier it, underpromise and overachieve, and set time aside to just chill. If you combine that and the determination to work at your everyday, you’ll do it. Just ask Meb.