Often it's the journey, not the destination where we should put our focus. Just last night, my Oswald Chambers devotional talked about how we have no idea what God's goal may be. He suggested that our lives should be devoted to the journey - focused on the Lord. I'm a fairly driven, type A, goal-oriented person and I struggle with enjoying the journey. I love to cross things off my lists, and delight in the joy of achieving a goal. That is one reason I began training for the triathlon. This seemed to be a good way to channel my competitive side and have some tangible goal achievement.
Today I started my workout specifically to achieve a goal, since I had not had a goal-achieving day at work. I was swimming today, which is the area I have struggled with the most since the beginning of the training. 11 weeks ago I could barely swim 25 meters without collapsing, and recently I swam 200 meters straight for the first time. This seemed like good progress to me, although I am supposed to swim 400 in the race. Today, I wanted to swim only sets of 100s and 200s with no 50s in the mix. I hoped to swim a total of 800, which is a lot for me. I swam a few 100s, and one 200, and was narrowing in on the end of my workout. My friend Allison came by the pool on her way out of the Y to give me words of encouragement. We have been talking about the mental aspect of sports, so she came to tell me, "you can swim further!" After she left, I decided I would swim another 200 then leave. As I was finishing the last lap, I realized I could go further, so I thought I would try to swim 300. Again, towards the end, I realized I could go further still. I lost offical count after 700, but I'm nearly positive that I swam at least 1000 straight. All total today I swam a MILE! One of my long term swimming goals is to swim a mile straight. After today, that is becoming a shorter term goal!
The thing is, I really enjoyed the swimming when I got into the rhythm. Every breath allowed me to see the sky and the clouds moving by. I could marvel in God's creation, while being joyful that I was healthy and fit enough to swim like this. It was strangely almost relaxing. My form wasn't great by any stretch, and I wasn't fast at all. But I blew my goal for the day out of the water (pardon the pun). I was too short sighted and focused on a small intermediate goal instead of the journey.
I still do believe that goals are important, and planning is critical for achievement. But as I continue training, I'm going to make sure to try to enjoy the journey a little more. In my life, I've been trying to do the same. I am taking more quiet time for myself to be alone with God, spending more focused one-on-one time with my husband, and enjoying real play with my children. Our life here is a blessing and a challenge. May God grant me the grace to live each day as Oswald Chambers says, "seeking to do the 'will of the Father'...and whatever I encounter on the way, whether joy or sorrow, success or failure" may I not be, "deterred from that purpose."
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