Impossible Things

When it came time to make a new year's resolution for 2016, I knew I wanted to do something different. I didn't want to just set a goal to workout more or lose 50 pounds. I wanted to think bigger, accomplish more. But most of all, I wanted to start working towards things I had always wanted to do. My solution, a bucket list for the year.

So that's exactly what I did. I created a list with 219 things I wanted to accomplish this year. Things like:

-Making a family cookbook

-Learning how to make a meal I love to perfection

-Reading at least 6 new books

-Watching classic movies I've never seen like "Casablanca" and "An Affair to Remember"

-Going to a concert

-Taking more videos instead of pictures

-Going to Disney

-Kissing my hubby in front of Cinderella's castle

-Volunteering with my husband for a charity we both care about

-Completing a physical challenge with my daughter

-Writing a Bible study

-Playing in the rain

-Taking a beach trip with the girls

-Jumping in a leaf pile

-Go on a horse-drawn carriage ride

-Kiss under the mistletoe

-Seeing a game at Duke

-Do something that scares me

-Visit a place I've never been before

-Start a random new tradition

-And on and on

Out of all the items on my list, there was only one that I felt certain would be left unchecked at the end of the year. I wanted to run a mile without having to stop. That's it. That was my impossible goal...to run a mile.

Y'all even at my fittest, when I was 16 and could throw girls over my head in cheerleading practice and catch them with ease...I couldn't run a mile. I blamed it on exercise induced asthma or just not being a runner because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do it. Since January, I've been staring at that white line on my bucket list, watching so many other things get checked off, and it just stares back, taunting me. Several times I considered just scratching it out so I wouldn't have to look at it any more, but something held me back. 

Yesterday morning started like any other day. My alarm went off at 5:00a and as usual I started battling the demons in my head telling me to just go back to sleep. I finally shoved back the covers and made my way to the kitchen to make my preworkout. Even as I got dressed I kept thinking how easy it would be to just get back in the bed, snuggle up to my hubby, and go right back to sleep. But I didn't.

{Photo Cred: Lisa Congdon}

As I laced up my running shoes, nothing felt any different. I turned on my music and walked out the door. About 2 minutes into my warm up, I wanted to run. I ignored my C25K app counting down until my workout was supposed to begin and took off. I made it about halfway down one street before I set my first goal. I planned to make it to the end of that street, turn onto another and make it to the end of that one. I'd never run that far in one stretch. It never occurred to me that I would actually make it. With the size of the hill on the first street, I would have been proud of myself just to make it to the second street.

Somehow, I not only found myself at the end of that second street, but I found that I was still running! I set another goal and when I reached that one with plenty of gas left in the tank, I set another. I could hear my app pop up in the background telling me when to walk and when to run, but the entire time I was still running. At some point, I just couldn't believe that my legs were still going. I wasn't in pain, I wasn't tired, I was just running. I kept setting my small goals and I kept smashing them.

Then I checked my running app and I saw how close I was to running a mile. By close, I mean .25 miles away. I had already run .75 miles. I'd never done that before. I could have stopped there and I would have been ecstatic, but I couldn't stop. This was the closest I had ever been to reaching my goal and I was going for it. I ran and ran. As soon as I saw that I'd hit a mile, I planned to stop and start my cool down. I turned my music up and kept pounding the pavement. 

I use the Map My Run app to track my running and it talks to you when you hit a mile. As soon as I heard that voice, I couldn't believe that I had done it. I had run a mile. But y'all that wasn't the best part. The best part? I was still running!! I didn't stop once I hit that goal, I kept going. I was able to run 1.43 miles before I ran out of time and had to get home so my hubby could get to work. 

Y'all, not only did I do my impossible yesterday, I went beyond it and it feels amazing!!! It's hard to believe that after struggling all last week, that I kicked off this one with my biggest accomplishment so far.

You can do your impossible too! Whatever it is that you want to accomplish tomorrow, you've got to start working for it today. If you don't know where to start or you need someone to hold you accountable along the way, let me know. I'm here for you and I'm happy to help. This feeling is amazing. Knowing that you've done something you believed was impossible is the most freeing feeling...you realize that anything is possible if you work for it. I think we say that so often, "anything is possible," but I don't think we really believe it or push ourselves towards the impossible. Today, I'm challenging you to step in the direction of your impossible. If I can do this, so can you! You've got this!

{Photo Cred: Pinterest}