I think it’s safe to say that most of us – whether we’ve exercised in the past, are exercising now, or plan to exercise in the future – have set goals. I wonder though, how many of us have consciously differentiated between fitness goals and a fitness pledge.
I recently picked up Twyla Tharp’s book, “Keep It Moving”. The 78-year-old award-winning choreographer writes about how to live with purpose as we age. And yes, we’re all aging.
In particular, Tharp’s words about pledges resonated with me. Pledges are long-term. A very general pledge would be, “I want to stay strong and healthy.” In comparison, a goal is something more along the lines of these examples:
“I want to run a marathon next summer.”
“I want to lose ten pounds by May 1.”
“I want to do a one-minute plank every day now through Labor Day.”
As I near the end of my 2020 Summer One-Minute Plank Challenge, I’ve been thinking, “Now, what?” Tharp’s take on fitness goals v. fitness pledge made me consider goals within a wider context.
Goals are (mostly) great. I say mostly because we sometimes fail and beat ourselves up about that failure. However, even and perhaps because of those failures, we learn and achieve and gain a lot from goal setting. And we go on to set more goals. But we rarely look beyond the next goal.
How a Pledge is Different
Tharp maintains that a pledge is different from a goal.
“If you can mark it as “done”, it’s a goal. Not so with a pledge. Whatever you decide to pledge, it is essential that you are striving to reach it, always trying to refine, hone, and improve your choices to better fulfill it.” Twyla Tharp, Keep It Moving
Tharp’s words make you consider your fitness goals v. your fitness pledge. They make you think about how to articulate your pledge. Tharp’s career weaves her fitness goals with her life pledge. For those of us who don’t have fitness as our life work, we may need to expand our pledge definition. Being strong and healthy may not be the primary goal of your life pledge but seeing as how you’re reading this post, it should be an integral part of your pledge.
Your Pledge
I think you and I already have pledges. We may not be able to articulate them well, but we have them. I see my life pledge in words and phrases, not fully formed. Maybe that’s okay. I think that a pledge is very personal and changes as you grow and, yes, age. If you approach life well, your pledge becomes more lucid and stronger as you get older.
“A pledge comes into clearer focus over the course of your life – it shows itself not rigid but bending with a momentum powerful enough to dictate what the next day will be.” Twyla Tharp, Keep It Moving
My loosely defined pledge is a mindset of always learning, being creative, staying strong and fit, seeking optimism, and always persevering. Goals are the tools that help me work to foster that mindset. Some are fitness goals and some are not. But, as you know, staying fit has a tendency to positively impact all other aspects of your life.
When I look at my tangle of a pledge that perhaps only makes sense to me, I see that I need to continue to set goals. Approaching short-term goals, including fitness goals, as part of a long-term pledge just might help me and you define our lives better and move forward with more purpose.
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