Shooting for the moon

If you weren't looking for it specifically, you probably wouldn't even notice.

The black wristbands don't scream for attention and after Lance Armstrong popularized the trend with his Livestrong yellow bands, it's not an unusual site.

But the black bands that the Canisius women's basketball team is wearing this year have a personal message just for them.

The bands read "03-08-09" -- the date of their conference championship game. It was the brainstorm of two seniors -- JJ Williams and Amanda Cavo -- as a reminder to them on bad days, tough days, what all the pain, anguish and sacrifice is for.

The concept inspired me.

So I searched the Internet and found a company that will make individual rubber bracelets. I ordered my own black band with "Marathon" and "Muskoka" imprinted on it along with my goal times for both events.

I'm not sharing my goal times right now. Both are a bit aggressive, I admit. And a friend whom I did tell about it balked slightly, afraid I was setting myself up for disappointment. His words came out of concern and the philosophy that if you keep your goals smaller, anything bigger you achieve will make you feel great.

True.

But why not shoot for the moon?

Why not set the bar high and see if you can make it? What's the saying ... shoot for the moon and if you miss you'll land in the stars?

With illness and accidents hitting close friends and family these days, I've thought about living small versus living big. There's a tendency to want to close down, keep it small, keep it comfortable. Living big is risky. It takes faith. It takes energy. It often means leaving things behind -- ideas, patterns, people -- which no longer reflect who you are as a person or where you are going.

That's scary and difficult.

But as the universe has reminded me of the fragility of life recently, I think it's the only way to truly honor life.

So, yeah, I have some aggressive goals this year.

Bring it on.

Because if I don't try, I'll never know exactly what I can achieve.

Comments

[mindi]

My personalized bands (a couple as motivators and a few as holiday gifts!) arrived yesterday after I ordered them the day of your blog post. It's a great reminder to be able to look down and see my goal at all times. Great suggestion!