On Running, Reading & Resolutions

Last January I put myself out there by sharing my New Year’s resolutions.  My overall resolutions were pretty simple - they followed the premise of the below video from Will Smith: running & reading.

It was my goal to run 4 times a week, apply for the NYC Marathon, and to read 25 books.  Simple, easily measured goals for 2009.

Now that the year is done, I can happily say that I have finally lived out a year in which I met my resolution goals.  While I can’t say I actually ran at least 4 times a week every week (the last month has been a dry spell with running since Miller entered the world), I did run more this year than at any other point in my life.  And, as has been documented here, I did indeed run the NYC Marathon.

As corny as it sounds, I really did think about the Will Smith video during quite a few training runs, mostly because of the appearance of “the little person in my head” who kept telling me to quit.  Will was right - pressing on in the face of that little man has helped me learn how to “not quit when things get hard in life.”  Because things surely will get tough.  That’s why I will continue to run this year.

I’ve always loved reading, but I thought it made sense to set a definable goal for number of books during the year.  I honestly picked 25 out of thin air, but it ended up being a great number.  I powered by way through 20 books by summertime.  After a little procrastination in Q4, I had to motor through 2 books during the last week of the year to meet my goal.

My selection of books was somewhat wide ranging and encompasses the variety of interests I have in life - sports, faith, business, storytelling, and the adventure of pursuing ideas of all kinds.  Some books were long (Atlas Shrugged and Snowball), others were short (Counterfeit Gods, Who Moved My Cheese).  I found a few of the books to be a bit too verbose and in all honesty it took the idea of meeting the goal to work through some dry patches.  But at the end of the day I can say my year in reading has helped me look at the world in a new way - which seems like reason enough to keep reading.

So I find myself today looking out into 2010 and see no reason to change my resolution for this year.  Once again I will be running and reading: this year I hope to run 1-2 half marathons and to read 25 books again.  Over the next couple weeks I’ll think about whether or not to add a new discipline or resolution to the heap (and I’m open to any suggestions you may have).

But for now, I’ll continue to focus on the wisdom of the Fresh Prince.  How about you?  Any resolutions from the blogaudience this year?