From the desk of Teresa Jordan, Executive Director – I participated in track and field all through high school, and as you can probably guess this was not in the long distance running events. I participated in the throwing events: javelin, discus and shot put.
What I remember most in my training and practice was that no matter the steps that I took in the lead up, when I was ready to throw I needed my feet to be pointed in the direction I meant the object to go. So, if I was spinning with the discus, when I stopped to throw I could not be in a half turn or facing the crowds; I had to have my feet pointed to the open field.
In the same way, I was coached to look not at the javelin or my feet, but instead where I imagined the landing. I was trained to look well into the distance and visualize the end result being exactly where I wanted it.
I have been doing some reflecting about goals and dreams lately when suddenly I remembered this training. Yes, pandemic and other pressures sort of have me spinning around, but I need to point my feet in the direction that I want to go and look well beyond the circumstances of today and its challenges. This seems a lot, as the present is very demanding… but what I am trying to keep in focus is where I want things to land in the future.
And that landing for me is not in the crowd, or on the wrong side of the chalk lines or backwards toward the other competitors. I am trying to set goals both big and small that, when I look to their landing, are lofty, triumphant and exactly right for me. It is difficult to think beyond this challenging present, but I can’t think of a better time to ensure that amid all the noise your feet are planted and heading in the directions of your personal dreams and goals.
Here is the thing – I wasn’t that good. Nobody was ever seriously hurt, but those javelins ended up all over the place. And I suppose the same could be said for plenty of my goals but that, I think, is just how life is. We all just need to continue seeing into the distance and know where we want the shot put to plunk itself down. And when it doesn’t plunk itself down quite where we wanted, we just try again, keep looking into the distance or in fact change our event all together.
Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
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