If you have looked into your participant center and seen the “Goal” section then you know as well as anyone that setting goals for yourself on the 3-Day is an important thing.  Goals will help you keep going and give you something to shoot for as you make your way towards and on your 3-Day journey.  But the goals that you focus on may or may not be related to fund raising.

As I see it, there are there are several different categories of goals.  This week, I hope to cover what I see as some of the different categories and maybe mention what my goals have been through the years.  Hopefully it will inspire you to expand your goals for this year or years in the future on the 3-Day.

Planned Controllable Goals

Planned controllable goals are just that.  Goals that you set out in your plan at the beginning of the year that you have a good deal of control over.  Sure, everything in the world has some outside influence on the outcome of your goals, but there are things that you have more control over than others.  For instance, the economy could have a negative influence on your fund raising, but you still have control over the methods you use to fund raise and the amount that you put into your fund raising.  You may have a goal to finish all 60 miles.  Yes, injury could take you out of that, but a good deal of control lies in your hands for how much you train to get you ready enough to hopefully make it through the walk without being injured.

Ok, so here’s my planned controllable goals this year:

1. Complete two 3-Day walks this year.  I am halfway through with this goal!
2. Raise the minimum fund raising for both walks and do it before the end of May.  This one was accomplished thanks to some awesome friends and family and of course the guys at TheSpeedGamers.com
3. Use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to raise donations.  In the past I had used some Facebook to do this, but I really wanted to push myself further with the use of Social Medial and fund raising.  I think this goal is accomplished.  I had a lot of donations from my video fund raising series and am still getting donations on both Facebook and Twitter thanks to the Winners Choice Sweepstakes.
4. Raise a good deal of money going door to door.  So far I have raised over $800 and I’m still plugging away at it, so I would say it’s a success.

Planned Uncontrollable Goals

The next type of goal is one that you plan but you have much less control over.  In my mind, these tend to be the larger goals or the goals that you are in competition with others for.  It may be that you can put a ton of effort in there, but if the goal is too large or the competition is too stiff then you might not be able to achieve your goal.  Since these goals are larger and more long term usually than the controlled goals, they are a good way to stay motivated to keep fund raising or training or talking to people about the 3-Day moving even after I have achieved the minimum set forth by the 3-Day.  Personally, these are goals that I don’t usually share with anyone, but as time goes on, if I am making great strides towards my goals it becomes apparent to some people in my life.  Here are what my planned uncontrollable goals set this year are:

1. Raise $20,000 – This is one that I hadn’t told anyone but the team from Boston and then only because at our first team meeting the question was asked what our goals were.  I realize that this is a fund raising goal and I could really push it and make the goal, but with the balance that I’m trying to maintain there are just to many variables to say that I can do it.  So far though, I am at about $17,000 so I would call it a success even if I don’t meet my goal.
2. Be the top fund raiser in Dallas – This was one of my goals last year too and I didn’t make it, but that doesn’t mean that I should stop trying.  Currently I am leapfrogging with another walker over who the top fund raiser is, so I’m trying to pull out all of the stops to raise as much money as possible to achieve this goal.  I would REALLY like to make this one.

If there is anyone that would like to help me achieve one of the above goals, please donate whatever you can at http://60miles3days.com/donate.  Anything that you can donate to help me reach those goals would be hugely appreciated!

Unplanned Goals

All of the goals that I have mentioned so far have been things that, at the beginning of the year, I have planned to strive for.  This next section is for those things that cropped up through the year that I decided to make a goal of even if I hadn’t thought of it before.  This could be anything.  I am pretty sure that Jay Furr had an unplanned goal to walk in 3 3-Day walks this year.  He didn’t start out doing this, but as circumstances changed he realized that it was a possibility and set his goal to do it.  My unplanned goal this year was to be an Energizer® Keep Going® Blogger.  It came up after I had set my goals and sounded like a great thing to try out for.  There was some fantastic competition and somehow I was chosen for Dallas.

The Point

So what’s the point of all this?  It’s definitely not labeling the goals that you have.  If that were the point I could have come up with a lot better names than I did.  Something like “The Super Terrific Awesome Sparkly Goal”.  No, the point is realizing that having goals on the 3-Day, just as in life, helps you realize where you need to be going so that you can determine the best way to get there.  Once you have the goals you can start your way to accomplishing them.  How you get there is entirely up to you!

What about you?  What are your goals for the 3-Day either this year or next?  I’d really like to know, please comment and share them!