Pushing for a Cause

Earlier this year, I was inspired by what Marine Corps Sergeant Enrique Trevino set out to do.  To raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project, he decided he was going to do 1 million pushups in 2012.  You can read about him and watch a video here. 

Now if you aren't aware, 1 million pushups is no small feat.  This works out to be over 2700 push ups a day.  Well, I don't know about you, but I've never purposefully done a million of ANYTHING in a year, so naturally, I was intrigued by Sgt Trevino.  I followed him on Facebook, applauded his successes and encouraged him through struggles.  It has been fun to follow.  Anyway, he is finishing up his last 500 pushups and will be streaming it live somewhere tonight.  If you are interested, you can donate to the Wounded Warrior Project.  It is a fantastic nonprofit organization that is working with wounded vets in all capacities...from job searching to rehabilitation.

In a not-so-similar and very uninspiring feat, I decided to set a slightly smaller goal of 30,000 pushups this year, and started in April 2012.  This works out to approximately 110 per day.  I wholly sympathize with Sgt. Trevino.  It was the most annoying thing I have ever done.  I was sidelined for a month due to a softball injury but despite my innate laziness, I was able to finish the final 200 pushups today.  Kind of fun to set a goal and finish it, regardless of how small it is.  I think people are often overwhelmed with goals, because they are either unattainable, or they lack the motivation to complete them.  This has been a good lesson in setting AND achieving goals.

For 2013, I'm shooting for 75,000 pushups and 75,000 situps.

The below pictures are from my tracking chart that I set up.  I colored each day's pushups with a highlighter and cycled through 5 different colors.  It would stare at me all day at work and remind me to get off my butt and do some pushups.  It was also a humble reminder that Sgt. Trevino's tracking chart, if he had one, would be over 25 times the size of mine.

So folks, as the new year approaches, find a goal and stick with it.