The why of this blog

This blog is about the ordinary and the extraordinary in us all. It is about setting goals and achieving them. It is about self-efficacy. It is about what I call the “ability to do ‘stuff.’”

So here’s the deal. I am not an endurance athlete, but I completed an Ironman distance triathlon two months before my fiftieth birthday. I am not a mountaineer, but I have summited Kilimanjaro, self-rescued from a glacial crevasse in Alaska, climbed to the ruins of Choquequirao in Peru and backpacked the Gosainkund in Nepal.   I am not fearless, but I have parachuted from airplanes, fly-fished in Grizzly territory and bungee jumped from New Zealand’s Kawarau Bridge.

So what am I? For the most part, I am ordinary.

And . . . I am willing to dream bigger than myself; to set goals that I must train to reach; to take risks, make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. I am mentally tough. I am fully cognizant of the mind-body connection. I am confident in my ability to “do stuff.”

For the next 70 or so days, I’m going to blog as I train for the Snowman Trek. The Snowman Trek is a 216-mile, high-altitude trek through the Bhutanese Himalayas (check out the trek at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GMD71fcwIA). The trek is considered perilous due to altitude, weather, duration, isolation and terrain. Fewer people have completed the Snowman than have summited Everest. And in about ten weeks, I’ll take up the trek too.

I invite you to pick your “Snowman” and train along with me to realize a dream.

Pick a local run. Sign up for a bike ride. Find your own trail to blaze or river to navigate. Apply to grad school. Make a commitment to speak in public. Set a new and daring direction for your company. The first step is picking your goal.

Then share your goal here. As we move forward, share your progress, challenges and learning with a community of like-minded and ordinary people "doing stuff." And experience your extraordinariness!!

Note: When my husband and I embark upon a new physical challenge, we’re always interested in how others have prepared -- and in the case of the Snowman Trek we’ve found little information. So Cliff encouraged me to blog our training to record where we started (physical readiness) and what we did to prepare specifically (for the Snowman Trek). So this also is for him -- and for anyone curious about Snowman Trek training ideas. Special note: in that regard – this plan is not meant to be prescriptive in nature. The training plans and schedules work for us. Before starting this or any exercise program or taking up a vigorous training plan, consult with your physician.