Dear 26: I Promise to Stop Breaking Promises

I thought making a list of 26 things I want to accomplish this year would be a great way to celebrate my birthday. And then I realized, wow that’s going to be a really long blog post. No one is going to read that. Well, except maybe my dad.

And if you are reading this… hi, dad.

I still have a list of 26 things I want to achieve before I turn 27, but it’s at the very end of this post. You know, in case you’re not interested in lists that long.

For now, I’ve been asking myself what’s the most important thing I want to change that I’ve done a bad job at last year. And that requires taking a hard look at the past year.

So Long 25, I’m Not Sad to See You Go

I spent most of this past year just straight up uncomfortable, overwhelmed and uncertain of myself and what I should be doing.

In fact, I woke up on the morning of my 25th birthday to finding an empty parking spot where I parked my car the night before and paying a towing company almost $200 to get back something that I already owned.

So, should I have been surprised that this last year was…weird? Lonely? Awkward? I guess with how I spent that morning, no. But I was because it wasn’t exactly how I pictured my first year out of college.

I got my first job in marketing as a junior copywriter (a total accident I’m still on the fence about), moved into my first apartment by myself and adopted my first dog. Love you, Bart.

All those things look and sound really great on paper.

But as I’ve been transitioning from college to this new world I’m in, sacrificing a run here and there is a really bad habit when I’m tired or things are hectic at work because spoiler alert: I’m always tired and things only get more hectic at work every day.

Instead of lacing my shoes up when I get home from work and just getting it over with, I tell myself I deserve a break from working so hard and proceed to do…nothing. For months.

While rewatching Michael Scott call Dwight an ignorant slut from the roof of Dunder Mifflin on The Office for the seventh time feels pretty nice after a long day, it’s not giving me anything good to feel about in the long run. And that’s how I found myself running a half marathon last April that I didn’t really train for.

And when I said “didn’t really train for” I mean “my longest training run was 7 miles.”

Dear 26: I Promise to Stop Breaking Promises

So, when I think about the one thing I want to work on this year, it’s simple. Stop breaking promises I make to myself. Even when things are out of control, I’m tired and my best friend’s Netflix account is calling my name.

I started running five years ago after I’d never done anything resembling exercise in my life. It was hard and painful, which was expected. What I didn’t expect was for it to bring out the best in me. For the first time, I was proving to myself that I could do difficult things. Things I thought I wouldn’t ever be capable of in my life.

And since that very first awkward and painful run five years ago, I’ve run seven half marathons, and I’m registered for my eighth in February.

While I’m still in that transitional season of my life, it’s more important than ever that I stop breaking my promise to myself. I need to run consistently enough to benefit from that powerful confidence and emotional strength running gives me.

So, this year I’m putting my focus and energy back into running with the goal of running two half marathons, two 5ks for time and one 10k for time. And this time I’m not being lenient with myself. I’m holding myself accountable by running four times a week minimum until my training plan for the Disney Princess Half Marathon starts in December and has me running five times a week for 16 weeks.

I’ve been sticking to this for over a month and a half now and so far, I haven’t broken my promise and it feels great. I feel like I can count on myself again and this missing side of myself has finally decided to make her long-awaited appearance.

That being said, there’s going to be plenty of future posts about building my base back up again, how training for a half marathon is magical and terrible at the same time and what pair of running shoes I end up buying for training after I’ve worn the same pair for two and a half years.

In the meantime, here’s my list of things I want to accomplish during my 26th year!

26 for 26

  1. Run a 5k race in 26 minutes
  2. Run a 10k in 58 minutes
  3. Break 2:15 at the Disney Princess Half Marathon
  4. Break up with Coca Cola
  5. Drink two bottles of kombucha a week
  6. Add more plant-based foods to my diet
  7. Read two books a month
  8. Only miss church if I’m out of town
  9. Write one blog post a month
  10. Donate to more charities that are important to me
  11. Spend one hour a week with the Bible
  12. Get out on more walks with Bart
  13. Start investing
  14. Keep working out four times a week
  15. Lift weights twice a week
  16. Take more online courses in copywriting and social media
  17. Put on the damn sunscreen
  18. Explore more of Florida outside of the Tampa Bay area and Orlando
  19. Make a big step towards the kind of career I want to have
  20. Pay off my credit cards
  21. Buy a medal rack for my racing medals
  22. Expand my cooking skills ever so slightly
  23. Go to yoga once a month
  24. Buy a keyboard and start learning how to play
  25. Spend some quality time with my foam roller
  26. Spend my 27th birthday with my best friends from back home

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