Goals and motivation

I am not a true blogger, getting busy and struggling to share my thoughts here on a more regular basis… but hey. So today a post with a personal flavour. I put myself a goal to run half marathon before the new year, however the weather in London recently was a true British winter and my running motivation was not close to being enough to make myself running out there for three hours. Luckily, I was on a business trip to Athens last week, and I was extremely lucky with the weather, plus I was leaving on Saturday night, so I thought - it’s now or never. Either I use this opportunity, or I probably will not make it this year. The week was very busy with work meetings, and still I managed to get out at 7am on the Saturday morning – my motivation to complete the run was supported by desire not to lose a single moment of amazing “winter” Greek sun. I managed to slip and fall on the road on the first km – otherwise everything would be too smooth, I guess. It was very tempting to go and enjoy the sun walking and exploring but “now or never this year” pushed me hard inside my brain, so I made a compromise – did not push for speed, just for the distance. And the plan worked – I did a sightseeing run around ancient city centre, managed to get an hour rest in the hotel before the check-out and spent the rest on the day by the sea, getting another 15km of walk. Dream day with record 52k steps. Something to think about regarding motivation and important driving and decision-making factors. Now, thinking of New Year resolutions – what is the best approach to those goals? How does it work with your motivation?