Yesterday, my counselor (kind of like a boss for those of you not in consulting, except you never work with them – they just aggregate feedback from everyone you do work with and then put together your annual performance evaluation) was on a plane and catching up on her industry reading. She specializes in customer experience, so happened to be reading Colloquy magazine, which is about building loyalty. This particular issue focused on the best loyalty programs and ways to build loyalty… and guess who was pictured on page 32?
Pretty spiffy! Aside from a marketing textbook that I had to sign a release for (they’re using the campaign as an example of building loyalty – I am of course hoping that the textbook is still in use by the time I go get my MBA), I had no idea I’d be featured in print, so that was pretty neat.
However, when I looked closer at the tagline, I realized it had changed. Instead of being “Laura is true to exceeding her own expectations,” it became, “Laura exceeded the world’s expectations.” Whoa, there! Somehow framing it like that was a little scary to me, and made me realize the magnitude of my accomplishment. I hadn’t realized the world expected much more of me than just living a crime-free life and making some kind of contribution to society 🙂
But ever since I broke the record, I’ve been asking myself over and over, what should my next goal be? In case going from non-athlete to marathon world record holder wasn’t enough to prove it, my general success with my New Year’s resolutions has shown that I’m nothing if not someone who puts her mind to something and gets it done. So what should I set my mind to next? I have no idea. I feel like anything else I do is going to pale in comparison, but I’m also not really happy with wandering through life aimlessly, having fun but with no specific goal in mind (I’m Type A – just doesn’t work for me).
A lot of people have suggested triathlons (too lazy) or marathons in different countries/continents (I’ll likely do it anyway, but don’t feel like locking myself down to force me to speed it up). But otherwise, I’m kind of fresh out of ideas. A big part of the reason I loved my marathon record was because it was totally the opposite of who I was – I loved surprising people by telling them that I do marathons now, where I used to a total non-jock musical theater nerd. So… what can I surprise people with now?
(Note: I am NOT joining the army, no matter how surprising that would be with my girly personality. Some things are just too much of a stretch!)
THAT IS SO EXCITING!!!!!! You look fab and bad a** of course
I was going to say Ironman – but you already shot that down. I’m totally type A as well and need to ahve a goal. So when you think of one, let me know. I might be your Florida support! And yes, you look fab in that photo!
Wow, so exciting! Congrats! You look awesome!!!
You could:
-organize your own race – a Marathon would be fitting 🙂
-get a personal trainer’s certification so you could share your fitness talents with more people…maybe a traveling fitness consultant? a trainer to travelers?
-enter a fitness / body building competition 🙂
Congratulations!! Love the pic! Although I would have felt the same way about the caption – no pressure there;)
Take to the air: sky dive, bungee jump, base jump, hang glide, etc.
Beats me what the goal is – but something in the air.
what about an ultramarathon?
Inspire Congress to create more states? Or partition the ones we have?