A lifetime of rowing?
Setting a life-goal that will take your entire life
I like the idea of considering how much of [X] (some activity) I will do in my lifetime. For activities that are important, why not set lifetime goals? In good cases — if I am beating my goal — this can be an opportunity for ongoing celebration. And if I drop below my standards, it is motivation for recovery or self-maintenance.
I recently got a rowing machine, and I’m excited to experiment with this idea by creating a lifetime goal for kilometers of erging (indoor rowing). I have been rowing on and off for 18 years, so this is an activity I feel I could make a commitment to. Drawing on my experience, I could calculate how far I could plausibly row — allowing for both improving fitness over time, occasional illness or distractions, and declining late-age fitness — during the course of the rest of my life.
Maybe, someday, I can translate some of those kilometers to sculling (outdoor solo rowing) on a river. That seems like a fair upgrade of a distance rowing goal.
Some general rules for setting lifetime goals:
- It is OK to give up the lifetime goal if my living circumstances change. If I have a permanent injury, for example, if I injure my leg and I can’t erg without damaging it further, I don’t have to strive for an unachievable goal.
- On the other hand, giving up a lifetime goal should be done thoughtfully and should be rare. These are long term commitments.
- Modifications to a goal, such as making it more demanding or allowing for variation in the routine it requires, are fine. However, these should also be made carefully.
But patience, first.
Lifetime goals are serious, and even for rowing, I’m not quite ready yet. I’ll test out my commitment for one year. Let’s start with a one-year goal: Allowing for 3 weeks off during travel or illness, and a very gradual ramping up in time and distance, my conservative goal is to row 978 km or about 608 miles this year. Today, I knocked off the first 500m. 977.5km to go!
