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Keep Your Goals Very Small

Start Small and Never Stop
Start Small and Never Stop

What the?  Keep my goals very small?  Didn’t you say to dream big?

Didn’t you say, “If your goal isn’t impossible, you’re not reaching high enough.”

Exactly.

And maybe the challenge for many people, including you, is that your definition of impossible is inaccurate.

When I started running 11 years ago, my impossible goal wasn’t to run in the Master’s Track & Field World Championships.

It also wasn’t to run one mailbox a day for a week, and then two mailboxes a day the second week and so on.

It was to get started and never stop.

One day at a time.  Get started and never quit.  Never quit, one day at a time – this is what I mean by very small goals.

Do you see the difference?

Don’t Complicate Things

Simplified or Paralyzed?
Simplified or Paralyzed?

One of the secrets I’ve learned is that it’s better to simply get started and do, rather than worry and wait.

Yeah, at risk with a business card as “unprofessional” as this is that people won’t take you seriously.

However, what’s also at risk with some really slick, professional business cards is they will also get neglected, not because they aren’t professional, but rather because they’re boring.

Many people think if they do things a certain way, then everything else will fall into place.

Maybe. If you work for an established organization.

And maybe if all the critical tools and resources – marketing, legal, human resources, community relations, public relations, media relations, finance, advertising, hiring, organizational structure, vision, mission, brand, etc – have long been established.

Maybe, but, if you’ve ever dreamed of being an entrepreneur, you are in for a rude awakening.

Same goes for health.

Here’s to hoping your phone never rings in 2010 with this, “Honey, it’s for you. It’s your wake-up call.”

Lane 8 Business Cards

5,000 Lane 8 Business Cards in Finland
5,000 Lane 8 Business Cards in Finland

Lane 8 business cards have a unique beginning.

Do you have interesting stories about important moments in your life?

If so, then you realize that if we don’t find a way to capture that moment, it will disappear and be forever lost.

Great companies do this. Great Countries do this. Great religions do this. Holidays, milestones, traditions.

Three days before flying to Helsinki, Finland, it dawned on me that there were going to be 5,300 athletes from 80 countries and untold spectators. I needed business cards. Lots of business cards.

“Okay, you don’t have much time”, I said in a panic.  “But you do have an enormous opportunity.”

I cut out a handful of business card size pieces of card stock (my wife always has stuff like this on hand).

In only three tries, I had what I wanted.

My wife commented that even the edges I had drawn weren’t straight.  “Perfect“, I said.

Two days before the leaving the United States, I asked Kinkos/FedEx how much for 1,000 or 3,000 cards.  And then I said, “How much for 5,000?”

The rest, as they say, is history.

Lane 8, Finland, 2009
Lane 8, Finland, 2009

Merry Christmas from Lane 8

And on this day was born a child.  In a manger, at the stable. No room at the Inn.  And they called him Emmanuel.

Impossible?

Perhaps nothing is impossible.  Perhaps impossible is nothing.

Lane 8 is a simple website and blog.  Even the first Lane 8 business card was handmade, in five minutes. And  5,000 were printed and taken to Finland.

August, 2009, in Lahti, Finland, the Master’s Track & Field World Championships drew 5,300 athletes from 80 Countries, with the same Olympic spirit as the official Olympic Games.

Many of the Master’s athletes celebrate Christmas, and that little boy everyone calls Emmanuel.

Lane 8 is simply a humble beginning. Not at all unlike a child born in a stable.

Lane 8, Finland, 2009
Lane 8, Finland, 2009

Merry Christmas from Lane 8.

Handmade t-shirt, Finland
Handmade t-shirt, Finland

Peace on Earth, good will toward men.

Christmas Eve Lane 8

This Is Your Year
This Is Your Year

A Lane 8 Christmas wish to all of you.

May Santa bring you one or all of the following:

  • Lower Cholesterol
  • Lower Blood Pressure
  • Higher HDL
  • Great Triglyceride Levels
  • Lower Resting Heart Rate
  • Lower BMI
  • Appropriate Weight Gain or Loss
  • Better Eating Habits
  • Proper Equipment for Your Activity
  • Motivation
  • Inspiration
  • Focus
  • Discipline
  • Impossible Goals
  • Fun, Friendship, Fellowship
  • Another Day to Smile

Long lists are good sometimes.  Hoping you get it all this year.  You deserve it.

And, oh yeah, one more thing from Santa, hope he brings you an indomitable will.