Emotions, feelings, actions can not be expressed in the future. This is called anticipation. Nor can they be felt or done in the past. This is called nostalgia, regrets, reminiscence. All that really matters in life happens in the NOW.

Don’t wait for January 1st to start working toward your goals. Start breaking them down into projects and milestones NOW. Start from the end all the way back until today. Here is what a project draft might look like:

  1. Goal : Run a marathon for my 40th birthday (3 years)
  2. Milestone #9 : Run 3 half marathon previous to a first marathon
  3. Milestone #8 : Run my first half marathon
  4. Milestone #7 : Run 2 10K races before my first half marathon
  5. Milestone #6 : Run 2 5K races before my first 10K
  6. Milestone #5 : Run my first 5K continuously
  7. Milestone #4 : Run my first 5K alternating walk-run
  8. Milestone #3 : Run my first 3K continuously
  9. Milestone #2 : Run my first 1K continuously
  10. Milestone #1 : Run my first 1K alternating walk-run
  11. Tomorrow :
    1. Run Day 1 of the program
    2. Physically cross it from the printed calendar
  12. This afternoon : Get decent/basic running equipment at the store
  13. This morning :
    1. Find a Couch to 5K training plan on the internet
    2. Print the calendar and lock run workouts as appointments and stick it on the wall next to my bed

Keep breaking milestones into smaller actionable items. Write them in your favorite task management tool and feel the joy whenever you mark an action as done.

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