What do you demand from yourself?

"The hope of the world lies in what one demands, not of others, but of oneself." -- James Baldwin

This was the content of my 2000th tweet on Twitter. I decided to follow the lead of many of my #SAchat colleagues and try to post a substantive tweet for this milestone in my usage of the social networking site. And it did warrant a couple of mentions and RTs! I was thrilled that indeed, my 2000th tweet was "epic."

Immediately after posting the quote, as happens to many of my #SAchat colleagues, a blog post started to formulate in my head. All I really had done was use a Quotionary to look for a nice inspirational quote, and in fact, the topic "hope" was the third or fourth topic under which I was looking for a quote. Yet as I began to ponder the implications of Mr. Baldwin's statement, there was so much more that could be said about it.

One of my goals for 2011 (besides this blog) is to run the Walt Disney World Marathon in January 2012. My partner suggested it in December as he is always looking for an excuse to visit Disney, but for me, I have always been looking for a good excuse to get active. For some reason, for me, it's difficult to simply be motivated to be active by the sheer enjoyment of activity; I do a much better job when I'm reaching a goal. And working with someone I care about keeps me that much more motivated. Plus, I know this is a goal that very few people reach--which makes it all the more enticing for me to be able to say, "I've done that." But, as I'm prone to do, I needed to read a up a little first to make sure this is a realistic goal and that I could actually accomplish it.

I purchased a copy of Marathoning for Mortals. I mainly needed to know what it took to be ready for a marathon--and if a year would be a reasonable amount of time to train. So far, I'm about four chapters into the book, and it looks like we've given ourselves more than enough time to build up our endurance and train for what seems to be a fairly "easy" marathon. (Not that 26.2 miles is ever easy, but running a course that is near sea level and is fairly flat is much easier than something high in the mountains that is uphill the whole way.) The book explains that if you can take account of your ability before training, commit to completing the training as prescribed, and make sure you arrive at the starting line prior to the start time prepared as best you can, you will complete your race. But you can't expect anyone else to do the work for you--you have to require that commitment and persistence from yourself. We all have the same physiology--but what are you demanding out of yourself to be competitive, determined, and confident?

That same "demand" that you need of yourself to sustain your commitment to finish a marathon is the same "demand" you should have of yourself on a daily basis. This is a crucial piece to goal-setting--that raw, uninhibited desire to do great things. I've seen it in many of my colleagues: classmates from graduate school, coworkers at the college, acquaintances I've met through #SAchat, out in the world doing amazing work with students from every walk of life. We strive to foster that "demand" within our students as well, particularly our student leaders whose eagerness to serve their peers so resembles our own which brought us into the field from the start. Why not celebrate the fact that we want so much more out of life on a daily basis?

There is a lot more that goes into training for a marathon besides wanting to finish the race. There's the schedule and regimen you put yourself on to enhance your abilities, and there's the rest and recovery your body needs in order to adjust to expanding its physical limitations. I'll probably come back to "discipline" and "self care" at some point in the future, especially if my training continues successfully. But in the meantime, ask yourself, "What do I demand of myself? How am I setting ambitious goals by demanding so much of myself? What am I demanding of myself that will also contribute to the overall common good around me?"

I think I may have my "one word" for 2011...

Bryce