Young Writers Society

Squills Isn't Just A Writing Tips Blog


Back in June, I decided that I would be running forty miles a week, at least, by the end of the summer. I figured that I could ease myself up to that number by starting with just 20 miles a week.

Of course, me being me, I never did such a thing. Before this week, I think the most I ran in any week was around 15 miles. In all of July, I probably ran only 18 miles total. Well finally August rolled around, and I decided that I had to get with it. Fortunately enough, work is very slow during August, which means I can run during my lunch break, and I don't have much to do anyways.

I didn't get started until this past Monday, August 7th. Last week, though, I had an excuse: my cousin from Mississippi was in town and I was showing him around Washington D.C. This week, no excuse whatsoever.

So I started by doing three miles during lunch on Monday, and another three miles after work. On Tuesday, I did three miles during lunch, and another four after work. Today, I decided to get outside since the heat finally broke, and so ended up doing a 4.5 mile loop that took me from Capitol Hill to around the Lincoln Memorial (sometimes working in DC is so cool). I'll probably do four or five after work (I'm typing this at work right now).

So right now, I've done 17.5 miles, and I should be up to 22 by the end of the day. That's already more than I did in all of July, and if I keep at my current pace, I'll be hitting 40 easily on Saturday, which brings me to the real point of this piece: it's important to set difficult to reach goals.

Setting a goal of running 40 miles this week after having barely run at all in the past month is hard. First, I have to set aside the time for running, which after taking into account showering and stretching comes out to two hours a day. Second, it's proving hard on my body; already my legs are sore, I got blisters on my toes, but when I'm running, I feel just fine (it's when I'm not running that everything seems to crash).

Here's the thing though, I'm really excited about reaching my goal, even though it means I'm pretty much always tired and have a lot less time for other things. And I'm excited because I've set a goal that, while attainable, is difficult nonetheless; there's always a certain joy to be had in accomplishing what was previously thought to be impossible.

Extrapolating this to writing, when you set yourself on your novel or story, do not set a reasonable timeline! Of course, this doesn't go for everybody, but I think for a lot of people, you're more likely to reach your goal if you set something that seems almost impossible. For me, this would mean writing 2000 words every day of my novel for at least a week.

When you set hard goals, you become excited about reaching them, and because you're more excited, you're more likely to reach it. So I guess the whole point of this post is to never, ever aim low. One of my favorite cheesy quotes is that if you shoot for the moon and miss, you're still going to land among the stars.

*jaw drops* 40 miles a week?! You're nuts, Nate.

But if you set goals that seem impossible, don't you usually get more easily discouraged? I've always heard that you should set small, attainable goals, therefore boosting your confidence as you set slightly more difficult goals after that.

*shrug* But whatever. To each his own.

I think combinations of both are good, Cassandra. Some things it's good to start small and work your way up, but with others it's good to challenge yourself immensely.

Since I'm not in very good shape, my exercising goals are clearly going to be different from Nate's. I do Tae Kwon Do three or four times a week and walk five or six times a week, but I'm not much of a runner. So my goal is to get where I can run two miles without stopping.

But running never was my strong suit. Reading, however, is a different story. Three summers ago (when I was fourteen) I set a goal to read 20,000 pages. I did it, but it meant I had to be finishing a book about every three days. Not really a problem if it was just free reading (Redwall, for instance), but The Count of Monte Cristo and Little Women made things a little more interesting. So while you should try to improve in all aspects of your life, your goals for things you're good at or have more time for can be higher.

And Nate, she's right. You're nuts, but I definitely admire you. I would love to be able to run as much as you do. Kudos!