How will I Accomplish My Goals?

Life seems to be throwing an awful lot of curveballs and lemons at me lately. Sometimes I feel as though my goal of completing two more halfs this year is slipping out of my grasp. We spent Monday night trying to figure out how we could possibly accomplish our plans and help my siblings and parents with their move at the same time.

At that moment it seemed that the only possibility was to cancel at least one upcoming trip. But which one? We can’t get a refund on the house we rented on Cape Cod. If I don’t run the Phoenix half, we lose a lot frequent flyer miles (not to mention there’s a side trip to see my MIL). And if we cancel our trip to NYC in November, I don’t get to meet up with friends or run the race I’m already registered for.

So little time, so much to accomplish.

Accomplish: achieve or complete successfully

Lemme tell you, Monday was a tense night. And tiring. But after a good night’s sleep (finally!), I got my ducks in a row and started to work on accomplishing things: my run, our plans for my parents, some last minute grocery shopping.

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
–Anatole France

I dream all the time, of all sorts of things: of running a half in every state, of my parents realizing that the move they dread so much will actually make their lives easier, of meeting online friends in real life, of a life that doesn’t feel as though everything is spinning out of my control.

I know in order to accomplish some of those dreams, I must act: I must train, I must plan, I must continue to support my parents.

And most of the time I believe that things will work out. That every problem has a solution — sometimes even multiple solutions.

One thing I know for sure
A gentle smile, a kind look, a good-natured  smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles
–William Hazlitt

Lately it has taken every ounce of patience in my body to deal with some of the situations I find myself in. Sometimes I don’t want to be the patient one, the reasonable one, the one that apologizes even though I have done nothing wrong.

I want to scream and say “what about me? can’t you see I’m drowning here?”. And yet I know that wouldn’t accomplish anything.

Indeed, eventually, by keeping my temper and biting my tongue, what I have accomplished is avoiding blowups that would only have made things worse than they already were.

So now you’ll excuse me, as I have a ton of things to accomplish today!

Tell me in the comments:

What do you want to accomplish before the end of 2016?

Which accomplishments make you proudest?

What steps do you need to take to accomplish your dreams?