January 4th 2019.
So in ancient times the Romans would place a milestone along roads to mark how far that section of road was from Rome. Important Milestones might be every 100 miles, 500 miles or similar distances.
Today we use the term Milestone when there has been achievement of some kind.
For example, as an archery instructor I have been on CBC, CTV, CityTV, TSN and several other television and radio broadcasts, usually promoting the sport of archery. Oh and newspaper articles. I tend to forget the newspaper articles.
I also have personal milestones like when my wife and I got married, or when we had our first son, our 1st anniversary, and our son's 1st birthday party.
And now that it is 2019 I want to do a wee bit of record keeping regarding the "History of Cardio Trek", which began as a website in 2011. Truth be told, I started teaching archery back in 2009, but it wasn't until December 2011 that I began taking it seriously as a business and put together this website. Prior to that my archery lessons were based on word-of-mouth, so the creation of the website was a milestone by itself because it means I realized that this had potential as a business and I could teach significantly more people if I was able to advertise more effectively.
I also got my personal training certificate, although now I think I should have got a sports training certificate instead as that would have been more accurate to what I actually do.
Statistics
Regarding the website, there was an explosion in popularity in the early years of the website.
I even have old posts regarding some previous Milestones:
1 Million Visitors
1.5 Million Visitors
2 Million Visitors
And sometime in late April/early May of 2019 I expect to reach the 2.5 million visitors mark.
I should note however that a lot of those visitors are Americans who are visiting a handful of my posts that went viral. Seven posts in particular that got 20,000 visitors or more. Roughly 850,000 of the current 2.4 million visitors are people who were visiting those 7 viral posts, mostly because the posts in question were unusual subjects.
Of those 7 posts, only 1 of them had anything to do with archery: "
Ramsay's Archery Skills on Game of Thrones"
What is more important to me is the statistics for my
Archery Lessons in Toronto page, which recently surpassed 40,000 visitors.
Now why is that one important? Because that is the page that usually indicates how many people are checking out my site, looking for archery lessons in Toronto. Since archery lessons makes up a good chunk of my annual income, keeping track of that is important to me.
How many of the visitors to that one page are from Toronto? Unknown. I should hope it is mostly people from Toronto, but I know that I also get international students so there must be a good chunk of people who see my site and say "Hey, this guys looks really good. I am going to plan a trip to Toronto and schedule archery lessons with him." Hence why I also get archery students from the USA, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan, China, the U.K., France, Russia, and other countries.
Regarding Old Posts
As noted in my
Cardio Trek End of 2018 Notes, I used to do a lot more posts per year.
180 posts in 2012
230 posts in 2013
120 posts in 2014
120 posts in 2015
And then it dropped to 100 posts in 2016, and 60 posts per year in both 2017 + 2018.
So including the 10 posts from December 2011, there has been 880 posts during the 2011 to 2018 period. At the current rate of 60 posts per year, I should reach 1000 by December 2020.
However, I am somewhat tempted to go back to my old routine of 120 posts per year. 60 is certainly easier, but if I did 120 in 2019 then I would reach 1000 posts by the end of this year. So to do this, I would need to be writing 1 new post every 3 days roughly.
I could in theory do this, and it would no doubt help my business if I grew my content of archery themed posts. My busiest years as an archery instructor was the 2012 to 2016 period.
Starting in 2017 I noticed a decline in the volume of students, partially because the Hunger Games Fad was wearing off, but also possibly because I was not writing as much as I used to do.
Regarding the Future
In 2017 I also did something new. I published my first article in
Archery Focus Magazine.
Which was followed by two more articles in 2018, one about Adaptive Archery, and a second article about Teaching Archery through Narrative Storytelling. So these magazine articles were also milestones, and I have another two articles upcoming in 2019.
Then there is also my 2nd poetry book, which was specifically about Zen Archery. So yes, for those of you who don't know I have a secondary career as a writer / poet, and I am not limited to writing nonfiction about archery.
During the past several years I have also been writing an "Archery How To" book, so whenever I finish that it will be an additional Milestone. Plus I have been accumulating things for a 2nd archery how to book. Oh and a 3rd poetry book. And a book of fables which is now about 60% finished. And various fantasy novels, novellas, short stories, and a web series about a vigilante boxer set in Toronto.
So yes, I am very busy. Busy teaching, busy writing, busy taking care of my son and enjoying life with my wife.
But being so busy does not prevent me from achieving milestones.
If anything, achieving milestones is what makes me so busy - and motivated.
Motivating Yourself through Milestones
So yes, the second purpose for writing this post is the issue of achieving personal milestones and motivation.
Motivation is an important thing for people seeking to lose weight, gain muscle, or do specific sports. For the people who lack motivation to go outside and exercise (or stay inside and exercise), finding motivation to exercise is just as important as the exercise itself.
But when you achieve some kind of milestone you also get a feeling of accomplishment. That feeling of accomplishment makes you want to go forth and do more. To do better. To achieve more. To hit greater milestones.
And thus tracking your milestones is important.
For me, Cardio Trek is not just a business or a website. It is also how I track myself through milestones. If I have a particularly great day doing archery, and take photographs of what I did, I do a post about it.
If I do a series of trick shots and have photographs of it, I do a post about it.
If I get some really nice testimonials from students, I post.
Think of it like how some people keep journals of their exercise routine, how many calories they are eating, etc. A person who keeps a journal can also note down their personal bests they've ever achieved in specific tasks, keep track of their weight, etc.
So for me, CardioTrek.ca doubles as an online journal, which allows me to keep a record of every kind of milestone I feel is worth sharing.
Note - Some people might prefer to use Instagram or something similar for their online journal. Photos of their gym workouts and other personal achievements.
Imagine for example a person who wants to lose 100 lbs of weight and they workout every day for 3 years, losing about 33.3 lbs per year. And during that process they took a selfie of themselves every day and posted it on Instagram.
No doubt the images would show a dramatic change in their appearance as they exercised. It wouldn't be a simple before and after photo. It would show the entire process of their physical transformation over 3 years.
So think about what kind of milestones you can achieve and make a list.
Weightlifting Milestones
Speed Milestones
Jumping Distance Milestones
Dieting Milestones
Belt Size Milestones
Weight Milestones
With respect to sports like archery, one could also have:
Accuracy Milestones
Speed Shooting Milestones
Furthest Distance Milestones
Competition Milestones
And you can even track other milestones for other activities that have nothing to do with exercising. So for example for my writing career I have:
First Novel Published
First Short Story Published in an Anthology
First Solo Anthology of Short Stories
First Magazine Article
First Poetry Book
First Children's Book
And then the Second Novel, the Third Novel, the Fourth, etc.
Achieving these milestones encourages you to keep working at it, and it works for everyone regardless.
Imagine a person who has been in a terrible accident and the doctor says they may never walk again because they are paralyzed from the waist down. But they are determined to prove the doctor wrong so they keep trying.
First Toe Wiggle
Second Toe Wiggle
All Toes Wiggling
Foot Movement
Leg Movement
First Steps with Assistance
First Fall
Second Fall
First Steps without Assistance
First Jog
First Dance
First Run
It is really a matter of finding joy in every milestone, no matter how small or how insignificant. That is your milestone. It is important to you.
Every baby has their first steps, but just because you're an adult doesn't mean you cannot achieve more milestones than when you were a baby.
My son has been figuring out how to climb out of crib lately - or trying, but I keep stopping him and distracting him. Some day soon he will climb out for the first time and then he will realize that he can climb out of the crib whenever he wants.
Take that as a metaphor for your life. Your crib is not a cage. You can climb out whenever you want to, it really is a matter of motivating yourself and achieving that first milestone.
