I’m Going to Race the Iditarod…Wanna Come?

I met a recent high school grad over the weekend named Ali. Lest you think of Ali like many other young adults in her shoes, let me explain what sets her apart.

While her cohorts are looking to coast through college on mom and Dad’s dime as they carefully balance school work with partying and “extra-cirricular activities”, Ali wants to race the Iditarod. You heard right. She wants to become a sled dog racer and she wasn’t afraid to say it. In fact, I had only known Ali for a few minutes when she told me this. I’ll be honest, I was taken aback. At 5’6″ ish, very slender, and in a dress (she had just come from church) to say she didn’t quite fit the typical ‘musher’ stereotype would be a gross understatement.

Yet here she was, fearless in her determination to pursue a childhood dream of racing sled dogs and not backing down an inch from that goal. I feel like all of my posts recently have had a similar theme…lifestyle, goals, desires…and this one is no different. How impressive is that to have a dream since childhood that seems so farfetched and impossible to most, yet one that you are ready to go after no matter what. Awesome and impressive, that’s what I say.

So I spent the afternoon reviewing my own goals and personal direction to see if I had any personal Iditarod’s that I was afraid to go after for fear that others might have a good chuckle at my expense. And sure enough…there were. In fact, I spent two hours today planning how I might reach one in particular and identifying obstacles that might stand in my way. Now the only question is…do you have any such goals? And what are we going to do about them?