I accomplished a goal today.
In Wellness, I ran 15.5 laps around a track measured for 1 mile per 10 laps, meaning I ran 1.5 miles in 12 minutes. This equates to an 8-minute mile.
To those of you who know anything about jogging, this isn't that great; but, for someone who doesn't work out all that often, being able to push myself like that and see results was nice.
But, now that I have met that goal, I'm going to keep jogging. I think that's important to recognize.
Goals are not ends, you do not stop doing something just because you have reached your goal.
If you completely mastered every single langauge in the world, and then decided you were done with them and didn't need to actually speak them, it would have been completely pointless. Once you reach a goal, it simply means that you are more skilled at the vessel through which you accomplished the goal, which was jogging in this case.
For example, the Superbowl.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have won the most prestigious American football trophy in the entire world. Does this mean that they are going to now stop playing football? Of course not. It means that everyone, including themselves, recognizes that they are the best football team right now. Thus playing football for them is now even more important, since they are even more capable of performing at it.
Trophies are not meant for the people who win them, but for the outside people who observe and recognize this victory. Goals are for individuals to mark their progress and their work, trophies are to mark their success at their progress and to compare it to other people.
When we set goals, and then accomplish them, we don't stop there. We set new, higher ones. So, the point of any activity is not to meet certain goals, the point of that activity is just to reach for those goals, and to work at them. Trophies are completely unnecessary in regards to the activity itself.
But, at the same time, The Steelers' victory would have been less important if it were just a scrimmage, and if it weren't an official game that everyone knew about.
I honeslty really want every single one of you to know that I am the best dang DDR player west of the Mississippi. I know it for myself and I see the results of (honestly) really hard work, but it is worthless without people to share it with.
We still need that recognition.
So, Aristotle had it wrong.
The greatest human need isn't to reach for our goals and constantly strive for them. It's to be validated and accepted and supported by others.
Thanks for reading about my accomplishment today. I worked hard.
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So, this is the blog of Brett. I used to write on my Myspace and I still use my Facebook all the time to tell people what's going on in my life, but I suppose true blogging isn't about what's happening in your life, it's about your reaction to it and what it inspires you to think. Not to say that this is my journal. It's where I drop my brain off at the end of the day.
7 comments:
Evan's track time = sucked and died
kudos on running and enjoying it.
Every time i run, all i can think about is the disgusting sweat dripping off my face and how smelly i am becoming.
haha...that reminded of how I had to run 1.5 miles at Moody (and we actually had a track that looked exactly like yours) and I guess I had just gotten off of work or out of chapel because for some reason I didn't have running shoes and had to run that whole thing in dress shoes with the rubber soles that caught on the ground every time i moved my feet. so...good blog! and thanks for jogging hilarious memories for me.
yay for running! so, i thought i should let you know, that even though i never comment on your blogs, i really enjoy reading them :) it's probably strange that i think they're more thought-provoking than all the "learning" i do in class.... haha woohoo for college
The whole time I read this I thought about Aristotle. Just more about his idea that there is only one ultimate good though and so your idea that all of our goals are not final matches up with that. All of those goals are only means to a greater, final goal. In the case of you and me I would say that our eventual goal is to grow closer to knowing and loving God, and all of our smaller goals need to be somehow centered on that. Hmm, thought provoking.
And yay for your running! I hate running.
An eight minute mile... That's really quite impressive. ;]
I might take a slight issue with your critique of Aristotle, though. He said the ultimate goal was eudaimonia, not the mere achieving of goals. I would think that it could be argued that eudaimonia is being validated and affirmed by others, in particular, God. Aquinas has a few things to say about that, if you're interested.
This is my proof, by the way, that I do in fact read your blog!
to heck with permission.
Lets just go into the woods and find a good spot to build one.
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