BEGIN MENTAL PLANNING FOR 2019...

A distant view of a familiar sight. Taken by PKSenagore November 2018. All rights reserved.

...AND POSSIBLY 2020 AND BEYOND! THERE’S NO PHYSICAL EFFORT REQUIRED.  In advance of the upcoming new year, consider starting to mentally plan how to kick-off 2019. If you’d like to hit the ground in early January with a simple but firm program of exercise and nutrition that won’t be abandoned in mid-February, now is the time to start organizing. 
 
At the end November in 2017, an Earned Runs blog post about mental planning referenced an article from Medium.com which suggested looking further ahead than 12 months, to the following year. A section from that post describes the piece: 
 
“A recent personal growth article in the medium.com digest, “​medium.com/personal-growth/why-you-should-be-planning-for-2019-not-2018-c2d856e23a01Why You Should Be Planning for 2019, Not 2018” by Benjamin P Hardy suggests we look several years, instead of several months, ahead. The piece starts off with a reference to J.K. Rowling and her writing of the Harry Potter series of books. George Lucas and Star Wars is also mentioned. Attention getting! The author wanted readers to see that more may be possible if the much longer view is taken when planning future moves, (like Star Wars starting out with episodes 4, 5, and 6 rather than 1, 2, and 3 in the sci-fi classic). 

I had not thought this way since my medical school days, when 8 years of education and post-graduate training needed to be plotted, financed, scheduled, and completed.  Certainly, there was no possibility of episode skipping back then!
 
In this new context, I am starting to be excited about the prospect of a new multi-year future, and am passing it along here, as well as providing the link to the article.

It’s the kind of Eureka! moment that I needed this month.”

The remainder of the blog post offers suggestions on how to begin the mental planning process with regard to fitness. However, try to avoid assuming you should plan for the period from January to March, April, or May 2019.

On your next long walk, run, or aerobic session at the gym, at a quiet time of the day when calm surroundings allow deep thinking, ask yourself whether the best period over which to plan ahead is months or years. Rather than taking for granted that your life is confined to following an annual cyclical course, imagine what might be if a much longer, point–to-point linear route was mapped.  
 
I had not thought I needed a plan with a range longer than one year’s duration in 2017.  Now, in 2018, I do.  I’m going for a walk now to start mulling it over…
 
RUN & MOVE HAPPY!

https://medium.com/personal-growth/why-you-should-be-planning-for-2019-not-2018-c2d856e23a01