Goal Setting: Taking a cue from Lululemon

Recently, I've found myself feeling anxious about my life. Not my actual, present life in the day-to-day things that I do (though my anxiety does often spill over, rendering me unable to relax for a few days, and thus jam-packing my life with so-called "life enriching events". Good thing I live in New York City where it is impossible to not find on any given day at any given time a "life enriching event".) but my overall "life path". My sister says this is what is called a quarter-life crisis, then feels it is appropriate to tell me that at least I don't have babies to deal with while having said quarter-life crisis (see, so the life lesson in here is don't have babies).

Naturally, what do I do when I need to figure out how to handle something? Google it, duh (really, you don't know how many problems I've solved in my life via Google. I think I've self-diagnosed pneumonia. I may have even successfully created world peace from a few Google hits...I mean, I'm just sayin'). What I found, post-Google search, was the blog of a somewhat-well-known-company-at-least-in-the-fitness-world called Lululemon. Lululemon is a yoga apparel company, and while they have received a lot of flack from the serious, zentastic, want-free yoga community for selling $100 yoga pants whose unofficial claim to fame is that "they make your ass look great" (they do. Indubitably.), they have really done a stellar job of targeting the sector of the market who actually funds the current yoga movement (women who have enough disposable income to justify expensive yoga apparel...they're like the Neimen Marcus of female workout clothes). All kidding aside, I fell for their marketing strategy hook, line, and sinker, and while I can't justify buying their clothes, I read the blog (frequently) and see if anything on the website is on sale (never).

One thing I will say about Lululemon is that they really tap into the female psyche, specifically the need for many women to "better" themselves. Their company culture is based around this concept, eschewing little mantras like "drink water every day" to "the pursuit of happiness is the root of all unhappiness" (one of my favorites, because it sort of allows slackers like me to believe that if I am content with my momentary life, then I shouldn't be worried about the proverbial "next step" which is sort of lame-o because I'm 24 of course I'm always worried about where my life is going....hence this post.). Mantras aside, throughout their website, they highlight the concept of constant goal-setting, which I am in love with because they have a fun web application that allows you to archive and track your goals (they set arbitrary timelines of 1 year, 3 years, and 10 years and define the categories as Health, Personal, and Career). So taking a page out of their yoga journal, I've set some short term goals to keep me on track...and since this is a running blog, we'll keep them running/fitness related.

-Complete 5 marathons a year for the next 6 years (duh, I wouldn't have a blog if this goal wasn't already premeditated).
-Qualify for Boston. I'd like to try and do it in the spring, but who knows what winter training will be like. If not, Fall 2010 it is. I have to cut 18 minutes off my PR, and if I put in serious work with my running club I think I can do it.
-Attend at least one North Brooklyn Runners run a week. I'm sort of an anti-social runner, but I know that training with other runners, especially ones that are faster than me, will only help me.
-Cross train more effectively by doing yoga 5 days a week and spinning once or twice. This is also a stretch, but hey, nobody said goals were easy right?
-Learn to surf. I'm already headed to surf camp in May, so hopefully that will push me over the beginner hump into the intermediate level. I'd like to at least be able to get up 50% of the time and not have to be pushed into waves.
-Get certified to be a yoga teacher (really this is just an excuse to do an intensive yoga program in Hawaii for 3 weeks)
-Complete a triathlon in 2010. My brother is really into biking, so he'll probably strong arm me into one anyway.

I'll keep you posted on how these goals are going (especially during the winter when my sense of urgency to run dwindles significantly).