This post is part of the Walking (and Running) My Talk blog series documenting my personal journey to the marathon.

Okay…so far so good. Then came the winter months of 2011. Laziness set in. “We’ll start training next week” became a constant slogan. There were tons of distractions and other displacement activities to blame on our lack of commitment to training…but deep down, we both assumed that we’d make the time to do it when the time was “right.”

Early in May we started to get serious. We went for a few training runs, leaving me beat up. That’s when the pain started.

Because I had not trained properly, I’d injured my left foot. In about a mile, my heel would start aching like it was being stabbed with every step and my toes would fall asleep. It was painful at first, but within a few weeks it was excruciating. Eventually, it got so it hurt no matter what I was doing…sitting, standing, walking, stretching. Running became absolutely impossible.

After months of prodding from my bestie and my wife (man, do those two know how to gang up on me), I went to the doctor. He wasn’t sure I should continue my training and sent me off to a podiatrist who concurred.

So just a few months ahead of the marathon I was told by my doctors that my two year goal was dead in the water. I was devastated. And embarrassed. I mean, I had told the entire world that I was doing this, Meredyth was planning to do it with me so SHE had told everyone she knows and loves, and we had invested all that time and energy getting qualified in 2010….and now it was all for not?!? UNACCEPTABLE!!!

All of this was squelched once we looked up the cancellation policy with the marathon…we could postpone to 2012. In fact, we can postpone annually if we want, just as long as we pay for registration each year.

So, in November we watched the 2011 Marathon…the one we were originally slated to run. We went to Central Park to cheer the runners on who were just 2 miles away from the finish line.

It was moving. Inspiring. Unbelievable. Powerful.

And incredibly EMPOWERING!

My foot has healed and we are ready to restart our training program. We are more fired up than ever before. So here’s what we are going to do…

• Complete Jeff Galloways Run/Walk Half-Marathon Training Program for Beginning Runners (20 weeks)
• Followed by his Run/Walk Marathon Training Program for Novice Runners (28 weeks)
• Adopt a gluten-free clean diet plan (this is due to my wife’s new dietary requirement to follow a strict gluten-free diet)
• Joined Diana Antholis’ Unleash Your Sexy Coaching Program (the Lioness Package RAWR!) Fully personalized one-on-one Unleash Your Sexy wellness coaching and virtual personal training sessions

I’d like to bring you along with me during this exciting experience this year. I’ll be posting updates each week with what I’ve done, what I’ve learned, what’s kicking my ass, and how I’m growing. Please cheer me (and my wife) on as we make this Audacious three year goal become a reality!

This post is part of the Walking (and Running) My Talk blog series documenting my personal journey to the marathon.

Fast forward to December 13, 2010…when I wrote out this newsletter and shared it with everyone I knew…

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So This is What It Feels Like to Follow Through on a Fitness Goal!

I am going to run the 2011 NYC Marathon! Okay, if you’ve been following my blog this year, this is hardly news. But today, I’m pleased to announce that this goal is now much more real!

To guarantee entry for the marathon in 2011 through the New York Road Runners organization, we had to run 9 scored races within 2010. Well, we did it! My wife and I completed our 9th of the required 9 races required to guarantee entry into the 2011 ING NYC Marathon on Saturday. Here’s our track record:

City Parks Foundation Run for the Parks | April 18 | 4 Miles

Japan Run | June 6 | 4 Miles

New York Mini 10K | June 12 | 10K

Fitness® Magazine Mind, Body, Spirit Games | September 11 | 4 Miles

Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile | September 26 | 1 Mile

Norway Run | October 2 | 1.7 Miles

Race to Deliver | November 21 | 4 Miles

Joe Kleinerman Classic | December 5 | 10K

Jingle Bell Jog | December 11 | 4 Miles

That equals 35.1 racing miles completed in 2010! The marathon should be a breeze!

Why on earth am I telling you all this? Well, for one, to brag! Audacious people who achieve Audacious goals have earned the right to boast a little. But more importantly, I wanted to capture this follow through feeling and share it with you!

You see I’ve never, ever achieved a physical fitness goal that was this big before. Ever! The reason – my follow through sucks! I’ve set and given up on countless goals when it comes to improving my health and fitness my whole life. I’ve successfully created everything else I wanted so far and yet I continue to treat my health and fitness goals as an insurmountable struggle. This year, something snapped and I decided that this was no longer good enough. So I set the Audacious goal to earn my place in the world’s largest marathon. And I put in place strategies to ensure I would follow through. Here’s how I made this goal different:

• I declared this goal publicly. I’ve told every person I know – and tons of people I don’t know – that I intend to run the marathon next year. Talk about accountability!
• I’m crystal clear on WHY I’m doing this - to prove to myself (and nobody else) that I can do something that seems impossible. The fact that only 1% of Americans ever run a marathon inspires me and I want to be among that elite group of go-getters.
• It’s not a competition. Sure, there are elite runners in the front of every race competing for their glory, but I’m not interested in that part. I’m hanging out at the back of the pack just doing my thing. I simply want to finish each race by giving everything I got.
• Most importantly, I’m not doing this one alone. My wife and I decided to run every step together, side-by-side. It’s a wonderful thing that we are doing together and we refuse to let ourselves down.

Here’s my point: finally following through feels AMAZING! If I could bottle this feeling and sell it, I’d be the richest person in the world. It’s so exhilarating to finally break the cycle of giving up. You gotta try it!!!

Does your follow through suck? Maybe you’re like me and never follow through on your health related goals. Or perhaps you are great at following through on your fitness goals, but not so much on your career goals. Or you can handle all things career, but you let your personal life slide. When is this no longer going to be good enough???

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Okay…so far so good. Then came the winter months of 2011. Laziness set in. “We’ll start training next week” became a constant slogan. There were tons of distractions and other displacement activities to blame on our lack of commitment to training…but deep down, we both assumed that we’d make the time to do it when the time was “right.”

to be continued…

This post is the first of the Walking (and Running) My Talk blog series documenting my personal journey to the marathon.

Announcing my newest blog series documenting my personal journey from the couch to the New York City Marathon on Sunday, November 4, 2012. This is a part of my personal #mefirst experience.

This is how it all started.

It was the first Sunday morning in November 2009 and Meredyth and I had only lived in NYC for a few months. We were lazily in our pajamas late and flipping the channels on the tube when we discovered that there was a marathon happening just a few avenues away from us. We became laser focused on the television set as story after story after story was shared about the runners’ journeys to that finish line. Not the elite runners mind you…that’s like being inspired by olympians but feeling completely removed. I’m talking about the stories of regular people who had done something extraordinary. A woman who survived cancer and decided to run in celebration. A man that was pushing his disabled son in a wheelchair for their 40-something’th marathon. A veteran who lost BOTH legs in the war who was running on prosthetic legs. Old people. Young people. All kinds of people.

It was moving. Inspiring. Unbelievable. Powerful.

And incredibly depressing.

Here we were, home on our asses, eating crappy food, and unable to even peal ourselves off the sofa to walk from 3rd Avenue to 5th Avenue to see the runners pass in person. Pathetic.

As the day wore on, we couldn’t talk about anything else. We’ve become obsessed with learning how these people did this impossible thing…put one foot in front of another for 26.2 miles! We started googling a little to learn more about the history of the NYC Marathon…which led us to learning about how to qualify for the marathon…which led us to the New York Road Runners (NYRR) 9+1 Guaranteed Entry Program. Yes, we were sucked in.

We learned that we’d only need to finish (no specific time) nine NYRR qualifying races + volunteer at one event within the 2010 calendar year to guaranteed entry into the 2011 marathon! That gave us two years to work toward this big-ass goal. While it still seemed utterly impossible, it also seemed like something we’d regret NOT doing. We wanted to prove to ourselves that we can do the impossible and cross that finish line (and live to tell about it).

And boom :: another Audacious goal was born.

The story continues with Our Race for Guaranteed Entry…

Happy New Year!!! I hope you had an amazing 2011 filled with everything awesome-sauce!

Now it’s time to look forward and decide what the next year has in store for us. Screw the typical New Year resolution setting (that never freaking works anyway); I’m talking real Audacious goal setting (the juicy stuff). And I have the perfect tool to help you out: The Future Letter.

The premise of the Future Letter is simple: write a letter to someone as if you are writing it at some point in your future (traditionally a year from today) detailing the accomplishment of your goals. It’s a sort of Back to the Future way to script out how the next phase of your life could go if you achieve the goals you are creating today.

The letter should be addressed to someone in your cheering section who genuinely cares about your success and would love to hear about your accomplishments. Whether or not you actually send the letter is entirely up to you.

Writing your Future Letter is an opportunity to flesh out your goals into something tangible, inspiring, and motivating. Be bold, give details, stay optimistic, and enjoy the process!

So here’s the task:

1. Select the point of time that works for you and pinpoint an exact date for your letter. Perhaps this is six months from now, one year from today, five years from today, or on some already specified day like graduation day or your wedding day.
2. Identify the addressee(s) for your letter. Who is the best recipient for this letter? Why is this the right person for to send it to?
3. Write out your letter as if you are writing it on your selected date AND you’ve already accomplished/experienced the things you are writing about.
4. Decide what you are going to do with the letter to draw power from it. Suggestions include: sending it to the recipient for safe keeping, post it on your blog, print it and keep it with you, post it on your vision board, etc.

To inspire you, I’ve decided to share my personal Future Letter for 2012 below. Mine focuses mostly on building my business, of course, but yours could focus on whatever goals you want – personal, career, spiritual, physical, relationships, etc. Enjoy!

January 1, 2013

Hi Bestie,                                   

Happy New Year!!! 2012 has been a my best year yet – both personally and professionally! I can’t wait to tell you all about it!!!

First, my health! Like every other year, I sought to improve my health and fitness this year. But this year, I actually made it happen! I hired a personal trainer and wellness coach to help me drop weight and gain confidence…and I’ve never felt better – or sexier! I’ve fallen in love with going to the gym, took up kickboxing, and I live on my bike. I’m a new woman!

And of course, I also took my running to a whole new level. After the crush of not being able to run in 2011, I let my foot heal, dusted myself off, and restarted my walk/run training. We finished our first half-marathon in April and in November, you were there when we crossed the NYC Marathon finish line!!! Becoming a runner has given me a new lease on life! Both Meredyth and I now consider ourselves full-fledged athletes!

Second, my book! I finally published my first book in March!!! Once I got in the swing of writing, I followed the first one up with my second book in September. Both books have sold very respectably and add tons of value to my speaking and coaching programs. I’ve enclosed autographed copies of both books.

My coaching practice is booked solid!!! I have a waiting list of clients who want in the Audacity PACT Group Coaching Program, the PACTion Steps self-guided program sells like crazy, and my PACT Solo Sesh days are booked three months out! I’m so happy to be working with such a variety of amazing clients from all over the world who get what Audacity is about and want to reinvent themselves with my help. I so love what I do. And now that I’ve carefully packaged my coaching programs into groups and one-day sessions, I have much more time freedom to devote to my fitness goals and my speaking career.

Speaking of speaking, my professional speaking career continues to blossom! I booked over 30 paid speaking engagements in 2012, including national conferences, local conferences, college events, Meetups, and associations. I also hosted my own live full day seminar in the fall and sold out the seats! And the Audacity PACT Weekend Retreats are growing in popularity and I’m traveling all over to host them. 

I’m incredibly proud about (whoops…this part is top secret…well, for now…major announcement coming in a couple weeks)

All in all, life is good! Thank you for always believing in me! Your support truly helped make all of the above happen!  

Love + Moxie,

Jennie

As 2011 comes to a close and with the holidays upon us, these next couple of weeks are a perfect for a little reflection – nothing too heavy or woo-woo, just a little check-in with yourself to see how this year went for you. This will help you set the stage for some kick-ass goals in 2012. Take a time out and celebrate your accomplishments over the past year. While you’re at it, think through your missteps and challenges to glean out any lessons you learned.

Here are some questions to ponder…

• What happened this year that changed you forever? How?
• What are your proudest accomplishments this year? How did you make it happen?
• Who were the major players in your life this year? How did they add or detract from your year?
• What did you learn about yourself this year? Any surprises?
• What opportunities did you jump on? What opportunities did you miss completely?
• What do you want to remember about 2011 moving forward?

When thinking through this stuff, it is so easy to dwell on the things that did no your way. Don’t get stuck here. The most inspiring and motivating stuff is in your shining moments. I strongly urge you to spend twice as much time focusing on your accomplishments and joyous moments than you do on your less-than-fabulous experiences. This will make you smile, stoke your confidence, and get you all fired up about 2012!

What are the lessons you gained from this exercise? Write them down. Now what are you going to do with this information? Write that down.

I encourage you to share these lessons with others – including me!  I would love to hear about how your life experience in 2011 will shape your Moxieliciousness in 2012!

Join me and cohost Chanelle Schneider on tonight’s #AudacityQs webcast as we lead a discussion on how to plan for a more Audacious Life in 2012!

Whimsy For Wendys: Joy-Infused Living for Grown Ups is your flight manual, an invitation to giggle in the face of growing pains and live your juiciest life now – at any age. In celebration of the one month birthday of our lovely ebook, it’s Pay-What-You-Wish Day!!! Set your own price and enjoy the book!

“It’s an amazing ebook jam-packed with laughs, love stories, and fun how-tos to get you back to living a life of fun and adventure.” – Megan Atkinson, Audacity PACT Participant

Whimsy for Wendys includes the awe-causing giddiness-inducing wisdom of Happiness Advocate and Whimsy Coach Annie Passanisi, crafty inspirationalist Megan Collier, Jennie Mustafa-Julock – The (kickass) Audacity Coach (yep, that’s me!), internationally recognized therapeutic humor expert and Speaker Hall of Famer Kathleen Passanisi, Maggie Tielker – Crown Queen of web design, fictional bed and breakfast innkeeper/adventuress Diane Reid, handmade heroine Morgan Manasa, Generation Y Know-It-All J. Maureen Henderson, Bliss Mistress Premakarini, Five Elements Diva “Limitless” Megan Potter, awkward-dancing and fair-reporting Maggie Creamer and Bobbi Palmer – esteemed expert in the ways of love.

What You’ll Receive:

• A stunning 54 page, full-color ebook filled to the brim with practical, immediately applicable ways to reclaim your childlike sense of wonder, zeal, and excitement
• 6 heartsong inducing bonuses from manifestos to video tutorials to get you flying in no time.
• Exclusive discounts on The Wendys’ services from business coaching to memory keeping (when you’re ready to take the next step)
• Bursts of fear-slaying, stress-bursting, cellulite-forgetting joie de vivre. Guaranteed.

Again, today only is Pay-What-You-Wish Day!!! Don’t waste another minute longing for the girl you once were. Live a life that would make her green with envy (and proud as punch).

All it takes is faith, trust, and pure unadulterated whimsy.

Are you ready to be swept away?

Join me and ChaChanna Simpson on tonight’s #AudacityQs webcast as we co-host a discussion on Intuition!

Since next week is Thanksgiving and all, I thought it makes sense to share with you the person I’m most grateful for in the world! Join me and tonight’s co-host Meredyth (my beautiful wife) for a Thanksgiving edition of #AudacityQs :: a conversation about gratitude.

So, I’ve had some special time with this book… Whimsy for Wendys: Joy Infused Living for Grown-Ups. Have you heard of it? If not, you must rectify that situation immediately.

I’ve read the book twice. I’ve watched the promo video 19 times. I even attended a G+ dance party with many of the Wendys themselves – and it got so hot it melted my interwebs, folks.

I must say…

This stuff melted my face. The 13 amazing women who came together to create this piece of incredible work rock socks from coast to coast. (Coach Jennie is the hardest sock rocker of them all, by the way!) They exude whimsy. They live big juicy lives. They have hair raising ambitions. They adventure like nobody’s business. And in Whimsy for Wendys, they illustrate just how you can do the same.

Whether your 9-to-5 in that sea of cubicles is sucking the life out of you or your daily routine chaos has soaked up the last few ounces of pizazz out of your world, living a life filled with whimsy and joy is possible. The sage advice from The Wendys will help you get a jump start on the grandest adventure you could imagine. Whether it is a small but richly fulfilling endeavor such as skipping and singing more often or a big, hairy, audacious journey around the world with a traveling sock puppet show, it’s possible.

We have not forgotten how to fly. We just carry too much stuff around with us to get up off the ground these days! Lighten your load, beloved Wendy sister. Lighten your load and fly, fly, fly.

Hollar BALDERDASH at the top of your lungs in a public place.

Stop being a curmudgeony grump.

Giggle at the word gobbledygook.

Involve yourself in boisterous hijinks.

Get caught up in foofaraw.

Encourage your peers to engage in pure hokum.

Rustle up a hullabaloo.

Make a ruckus.

Take part in skullduggery and shenanigans.

Go forward with whimsy, all willy-nilly, into a life of adventure and joy.

And… of course, get the book.

This guest post was written by Megan Atkinson.  Megan can be found on the interweb blogging and on twitter.