Momma...What's my destiny?

For those that know me well they'll tell you that my favorite movie hands down is "Forrest Gump".  What I don't think anyone knows is why it's my favorite movie.  Is it for the great acting by Tom Hanks? - No.  Is it for the comedy or direction? - Uh Uh.  How about the soundtrack? - Wrong again.  

In truth, it's because the movie is about a man who was destined to achieve great things, touch everyone's life around him, and in the end he was a model husband and father.  What was truly amazing is that he did all this without ever setting a course for his life, he just let life create a path for him to follow.  He never set goals and therefore could never fail - just succeed.

I've always set goals for myself but lately I'm wondering why anyone ever really sets goals.  Is achieving a goal or surpassing it the best way to measure success?  What if you set a goal and did your absolute best to achieve it but came up short - is that considered failure?  I'm starting to think that the word "goal" is just a synonym for "limit" and I'm pretty sure I don't want to live my life by setting a bunch of "limits" for myself.

In 2011 I'll be running the 115th Boston Marathon for Children's Hospital Boston.  I started my path to the marathon predicated on the goal of finishing a Marathon, pushing myself to another limit and accomplishing something big.  I've gotten to understand more about Children's Hospital over the last few weeks, I've seen the Children and families that I'm helping and while I don't think I can say that I won't work my ass off over the next several weeks I know now I'm doing it for the right reasons.  If you asked me two months ago I would have said that success would only be achieved if I finished in 3:30:00 - which was my stretch goal.  Now I say...

• I'm doing it because I'm helping sick children and their families
• I'm doing it because it feels good - most days anyway :)
• I'm doing it because whether I cross the finish line or not - I know I'll do my best
• I'm doing it because I can
• I'm doing it because when I look back it won't be about accomplishing a goal, but experiencing something bigger than me and I don't want to miss the experience being too focused on some limit I've set for myself
• I'm doing it because I can't wait to see my family at the finish line

Next week will be 16 weeks until the Marathon.  I had mapped out a pretty crazy training schedule but in the spirit of living my life by the code of "WWFD - What Would Forest Do?" I threw it out the window.  I'm going to wake up each day, do what feels right and write about it along the way.

"Consume the experience, don't let the experience consume you"