We live in a world that is driven by data and trends. Looking for value and answers in the numbers and trying to figure out how to better our lives, our business, our goal based on those numbers. As I've been working more on my running and keeping track on the app on my phone my distances, my speeds, my number of weekly workouts and trying to week over week beat those numbers I realized something this week. This week I still did my workouts, but I was in a different environment. I still did the same number of miles, but the course I was doing them on was much more challenging. My goals had to adjust to the path that I was working on. I was more satisfied with my accomplishments when I was finished because the course had been so much more challenging. But I was let down by looking at the tracked numbers in my app because my times were slower and it was "messing up" my week over week numbers. For someone from the outside to simply look at the numbers and judge it would be easy to say that I'm "moving in the wrong direction." But for myself who was living in the moment, seeing the challenges in front of me and surpassing them, it was a success and move in the right direction to make me stronger overall. All too often we get caught up in the numbers and judged by the numbers because as more data becomes available to people and more people looking at numbers they don't know the reality behind it's easy to become discouraged and be told that we are failing. At work this week I was speaking with my management team and talking about our numbers and our goals and feedback I had received that I'm not holding them accountable to the expectations of what others feel they should be producing. One of my managers said to me that it's not that I'm not holding them accountable, I've set the expectations and we are reviewing and working towards those goals but that I'm a realist in understanding the true meaning behind the numbers and setting realistic goals. At the time I knew what she meant but when I was running this weekend and working my way up a very challenging hill the words and idea really hit home. We are each running our own race toward God and sometimes we will be faster and sometimes we will be slower but if we maintain the course and keep pushing forward we will be successful.
I’m going to begin my blog by discussing what my goals for it will be. If you’ve read my profile and my dashboard you can see that I can sum myself up by saying I am a Christian, mother, and military wife. These three areas of my life have posed many questions that I’ve had to answer. Some I’ve had to discover on my own, some I’ve had the help of my family and friends and others I’ve just had to rely on other people to do their jobs. In this blog I want to present some of the experiences that have come and gone in my life. I want to bring to the table some issues facing all of us in today’s world. I want to look at various topics through faith and experience. I want these pieces of my personal journey to be expressed and maybe help or influence others to think about the various topics themselves. Ideally, I would like to update the blog a few times a week to open the topics to discussion. Depending on the length or response may determine how often the site is updated. I invite you to c
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