Big Ambitions

• I have always been a very ambitious person, or so I have claimed to be, until I realised after some deep internal working that I am actually afraid of my own ambition sometimes! Afraid of what?

  I’m not wholly sure what it is that I am afraid of but I would think that it’s the failure and how I would feel after failing. It might even be a fear of success and not knowing what I would do if I actually achieved something.

  So, with all this thinking I have decided to continue being ambitious, but to truly whack it into high gear… and I thought while I’m at it I might tell the whole world about it too!

  This is a nice time to think about your goals / ambitions because rather than doing it at the strike of midnight on December 31st and the New Year, at this time of year you can begin to reflect on what has passed you, what you have achieved so far, what you’d like to still achieve in this calendar year, and it’s all about doing it right now (or at least taking some steps), rather than waiting until such-and-such day to start living.

  I have thought about a few goals recently and some of them are related to my family, where we live, my work, and how this fits in with the other two, but I want to tell you about another massive ambition that I have created, just recently:

  I am going to run an Ultramarathon.

  Now, some of you might be thinking “Oh Brett, you’re a fitness trainer, you’ll accomplish that easily!” But the truth is that I have never run more than about 8 or 9 miles at any one time, and the Ultramarathon that I am about to sign up for is 78 miles!

  Well, that’s how big I want my ambition to be. I will certainly be keeping you all posted on how the training is going, and how the sponsorship is coming along too, so Subscribe to the blog to get all the latest updates.

  But, back to big ambition: I forgot to mention that this is also along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Beautiful? Yes. Rocky terrain making it even more challenging and more ambitious? Yes!

  Why did I decide to take on this mammoth challenge and give myself a lot of training to do? Three reasons: Firstly, I am nuts. Secondly, let’s just say I am going through a mid-life crisis (at 24), for fun. Thirdly, because I really like the idea of it. And why not? I can most definitely complete it, and raise some sponsorship for a good cause at the same .

  When I try to contemplate actually how far 78 miles is, I do get a little bit scared, but then I think back to something I saw when I was in Spain last month. In the south of Spain at the moment there is a rare Moroccan beetle that is attacking and killing many of the palm trees in the area. On one of the golf courses I walked through it looked like a palm tree graveyard at one point with these decapitated corpses of palm trees standing there frond-less.

  This got me thinking: If this tiny beetle can attack and conquer something more than a million times its size, why can I not always have the belief in me that I can achieve a certain goal, or be audaciously ambitious?

  It can only be fear. So today I decided I would be fearless. My belief statement of the day is: “I allow myself to be ambitious, and to succeed.”

  All day I have been telling everyone I meet, client’s co-workers, family, friends, and now you, about my ambitions… it makes it much harder to back out now!

  I invite you, before the day is up, to share with someone close (or someone you don’t even know!) and big audacious ambition that you have for yourself and for your life. It could be anything. You’ll feel great when you’ve done it.

  Matter of fact, how about you share it in the comments below?

  
  
  October 30th, 2009 | Brett Sanders | 3 Comments | Tags: Goal Setting, our deepest fear, ultramarathon, ultramarathon training

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