I ran my very first half marathon today. My goal was to run it in under 2 hours, and I ended up finishing the race in 1.53.44 (finishing 60th out of 517 in my age category). Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m ridiculously proud of myself, but the experience has gotten me thinking a lot about goals. I set my goal at 2 hours and I more than achieved it, but did I set my sights too low? Could I have done it faster? Have you ever felt this way about something?

Goal-setting is really important, and one thing this experience taught me is that if I set a goal and work towards it, I can achieve it. I think this is an important thing to prove to yourself, and honestly that was one of the first things that really helped me to change my life around. Back in November 2011 I set a goal to finish P90X and 90 days later I successfully completed the last workout of the program. Not long after that I started this blog, not long after that I enrolled in full-time school for acting, and from there the successes continued. I think that all any of us need is one moment that proves to ourselves that we can do it. That you can actually do anything, and that you are not just a helpless blob along for the ride. You have the power to change your destiny. If you feel like you’ve never finished anything, and you identity with that title – I challenge you to change that perception. Set a goal. Something that is completely within your power to achieve, and then work towards it. Don’t let yourself cop out. Just do it. Is your excuse that it takes too much time? My favourite comeback to that excuse is this: the time is going to pass by anyway, so you might as well use it.

I mean, about 4 years ago I embarrassed myself by being the very last person to cross the finish line at a 10k race in Woodstock, New Brunswick. What’s worse, the race was my Uncle’s race (he was a very successful marathon runner when he was younger, and the town named their 10k race after him). I bounced back from that failure, and decided I was going to do something that a past Christine would have thought was impossible, but now I’ve done it, and my definition of what’s possible for me has stretched.

I’m already hooked and planning on running the Lululemon half, my goal is to run it in under 1.35. Overly ambitious? Maybe. Could I fail? Possibly. But here’s one thing I do know: you’ll never get anywhere by playing it safe, and if you always set your goals at average, that’s all you’ll ever be.

So here are my steps for being extraordinary

1. Find something you’re afraid of, but that you can appreciate is possible, and figure out and execute the steps necessary to accomplish it (ex. write a screenplay, run a 1/2 marathon, sky dive out of a plane).
2. Now that you’ve proven to yourself that you can do it, choose something harder. Success is infectious. Ride that wave and don’t slow down.
3. Keep setting bigger and bigger goals. You’ll soon realize that anything is actually possible, and you’re definition of normal and what’s realistic will continue to stretch and stretch until you can’t even see the boundaries. Oh yeah, and don’t let your thoughts get in the way. They don’t know anything.

That’s my goal for my life, and that’s what I want for your life too.

Seek to live a life free of boundaries. Go after your dreams. Never look back.