WW- Not Dying

It's right around now that the smart people of sport start making plans for their 2013 season. When you start making plans for a season, there's a few assumptions that need to be made:

• You know how to make goals
• You know how to make plans
• You know what needs to be done to achieve your goals
• You actually have a 2013 season to plan
• You are not an idiot

Exactly none of these bullets apply to me. How do I know? I reviewed my goals for 2012. You can read about them here. I achieved almost none of them. Almost.

See, there are a few goals that I set every year. And I think that you should set them too. My annual goals always start with:

1. Not die
2. Have fun
3. Not get injured
4. Finish the season with enough positive vibes to want to do it again next year

Starting from the bottom up, I definitely want to do triathlons again. Success. I didn't really get injured. Success. I most certainly had fun. Success. And, I'm pretty sure I didn't die. Success. After all of those successes, the rest of the performance goals really don't matter all that much.

Triathloning is an addictive hobby. I'd be lying if I told you that I didn't place any weight on fast times or beating my fellow competitors to the line. I want to be fast and I want to win. Such is the nature of sport. I'd also be lying if I told you that I got grumpy when I was slow or when I lost. If that were true, I'd be a perma-grump. Since, that's not the case, I'll go back to staying alive.

Staying alive these days is a challenge. It seems like the number of ways to meet your maker is increasing. The nominations for the 2012 Darwin Awards have not been made available. (Darwin was a triathlete, in case you didn't know.) But, you can read through the list of old recipients and see how fickle life really is.

As opposed to the Darwin winners, continuing to breathe is really just a matter of common sense. Be smart people. Why? Because there are lots of dumb ways to die.

All you need to do for a successful season is follow the advice from the funky little bubble figures and your 2013 will be fruitful. Good luck to you and me both.