3… 2… 1….

Welcome to 2009!  Time for starting new things, resolutions and all that jazz, right?

But before plunging headlong into the new year, a quick training look back on 2008…

135hr 38m 36s on my bike, whizzing through 2,045 miles
123hr 46m 31s stomping the pavement in my running shoes, covering 758 miles
53hr 54m 45s flailing in the water, not drowning through 119,186 meters (which is over 74 miles!)

That’s what I spent my free time on.  Plus almost 23 hours of softball, 31 hours of bowling and 21 hours of strength training.  Whew.  Makes me tired just thinking about it!  More than 387 hours of activity.  Averaged a little over an hour of something or other every day of the year, no holidays or vacation days, thankyouverymuch.

The funny thing is, I’m friends with so many type-A, really competitive and awesome triathletes, that my numbers don’t even compare to theirs.  I’m the group slacker, if you can believe it.

On a tangent, college was much the same way.  I was always a good student – mostly A’s without having to work TOO awfully hard at it.  So, who did I hang out with?  Friends who had ONE non-A tarnish their 4 years. Friends who had perfect 4.0 GPAs.  Friends who didn’t always seem to understand that it was WAY more important to go out and shoot pool and hang out than it was to do homework or study.

So, I guess I have a history of surrounding myself with people who enjoy the kind of success that I admire and am completely impressed with, but not success to which I aspire  (well, I guess I would love the kind of success if I didn’t have to do the whole “earn it” part… you know, like winning a Success Lottery…!)

Anyway.. back to me being a slacker… it’s always bothered me a little that I never seemed to want to do that extra work, or make that extra sacrifice to accomplish these kinds of successes.  Made me feel lazy.  And I spent a lot of time jokingly telling people that I was a lazy person trapped in the body of an athelete and just needed to figure a way out.

And then – my AHA! moment – I’m not lazy!  Huh?  See, I’m being 100% honest when I say that it really was a bit of a revelation when I figured out that I didn’t have to do what everyone else was doing to be happy. Hmm. So – different things make different people satisfied and content?  Shocker.  But – to me it was. There was a part of me that thought that if I were friends with people who all wanted to run fast or do Ironmans or anything like that, that I was just lazy for not wanting to put in the work to get there myself.

Instead, I can be happy with doing enough training to keep me in shape (because that makes me happy) so I have time in my life for other things (activities that make me happy) without feeling stressed or overwhelmed by thinking that I’m not living up to expectations (which, in turn – let’s say it together! – makes me happy!).

This shift in mindset has been remarkable for me.  It’s not that I was lazy, it was just that I didn’t want to put energy into things that I didn’t really want to attain.  Big difference!  Certainly, I achieved many things over the last several years that prove that I’m not lazy — lazy people don’t run marathons or do half ironmans.  For that matter, my guess is that most lazy people don’t have 387 hours of activity in 2008 under their belt.  Proof positive, right there.  The “lazy” was my belief, but not reality.

I feel like I’ve been wandering a little in this post, but back to the point:  fresh starts and resolutions.  As a newly reinvented focused and motivated and not at all lazy person, this year, I have one over-riding goal:  to have FUN.  Lots of it.  In all forms.  As often as possible.  I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time doing things that were rewarding and satisfying to a degree, but somewhere along the line it all became something less than the fun it started out as.  So yea, on the 2009 agenda – FUN (you know, in all capital letters like that, too).

Whatever I do, it needs to satisfy one criteria:  is it something I WANT to do, or something I feel I ought to do?  As long as it’s the former, we’re good to go.  So, what’s my idea of fun?

Fun to me is going to be recreating both the outside and inside me.  The outside me?  Ripped and lean and strong.  In shape, confident in my abilites, not letting the physical pounds weigh me down.  The inside me? Positive, forward-thinking, organized and focused on making these changes permanent.  Easy enough, right? I have a very clear vision of the destination, all that’s left is the journey there.

And now, excuse me while I get my focused and motivated butt off my couch, and take the first step towards my goal.