An Ordinary Odyssey

This really has been messing with my brain allllll day!

I kept really good records in my Excel spreadsheet of all my training for the Grand Canyon, and when I look at the numbers, they’re so impressive. There were 315 days in the year to train before my trip on November 11th. In that time, I specifically trained for 180 of those days…so for 57% of the year I made a conscious decision to get up and get moving according to the plan I made. And that doesn’t even include my pole dance classes, which were sometimes doubled up with personal training sessions (i.e trainer at 6am, pole class at 6pm the same day) but just as often they were not. Most weeks this year, I was actively working out 5-6 days a week.

But here’s what’s getting me: when I added up all the minutes, they come out to just over 12 days total.

Twelve days is all I spent this entire year training for the canyon?! That feels so wacko to say!!!

On one hand, it’s incredibly eye-opening. You can invest just 12 days of your life to achieve something huge! On the other hand, I had to carefully break up those 12 days into different pockets of time. You can’t just work hard for 12 days straight and suddenly be able to hike the Grand Canyon—you need to sleep, for one thing! But your body also needs the in-between time to adapt.

Just like with any other goal, whether that’s writing a book, starting a business, or buying a house. It may take cumulatively 12 days (or whatever the actual number is) to achieve, but all the in-between moments matter just as much.

And in reality, there was way more time involved than those 12 days. That number doesn’t include drive time to different trailheads, time spent prepping food, planning workouts, or doing research. Sure, I had the means to often throw money at some of that—like paying a personal trainer to make a lot of my training plans instead of doing it all myself. But so much of what I did still involved tons of time on my part. Probably another 10 days worth, if I had tracked that stuff!

Almost every week meant fitting in 3 personal training sessions before work, a stair climbing session after work, 2 nights at my pole dance studio, a whole Saturday devoted to hiking, and a whole Sunday devoted to grocery shopping and meal prepping. All while working a 40-hour-a-week job and handling other general life responsibilities.

It’s impressive, honestly. I’m so proud of myself for putting in all that effort, planning, and dedication. For achieving the goal.

But my flabbers are also fully gasted knowing that it was JUST 12 DAYS!

Seriously, I’m sitting here thinking about all the things I’ve been putting off, all the goals I’ve told myself are “too big” or “will take too long.” And yeah, they’ll take time. But 12 days? In the grand scheme of my life, 12 days is nothing. What else have I spent 12 days on? I don’t want to even think about how many days of my life I’ve spent doom scrolling on Instagram reels. *shudder*

Somehow I always knew I could do the Grand Canyon hike. But not with so much grace. I was focusing on just surviving it and being able to have said “I did that!” But the hike wasn’t even hard and that still blows my mind too! I thought I’d be lying down on a picnic table crying and praying for it to be over at least once on the way up. But those 12 days of training, spread out intelligently over the course of a year helped me to thrive out there and enjoy every single step.

So now I’m asking myself: what’s next? What other big thing have I been telling myself I don’t have time for? Learning a new language? Finally writing that thing that’s been on my mind (or, you know, being consistent on this damn blog!)? Focusing in on several different pole move I know I can get if I just put the work in? Because now I know the truth is that I can absolutely find 12 days. I can find 12 days for anything that matters to me.

And here’s my challenge for you: What’s your Grand Canyon?

Think about that goal you’ve been pushing to the side, the one that feels too big or too far away. Is it actually Grand Canyon big? Or is it even smaller than that? Maybe it would only take 6 days of focused effort? 3 days? Hell, be honest….maybe just one!? What goal would you push for if you knew it would only cost 12 days of your life?

The New Year is only 25 days away. If you spread 12 days of focused effort out over the course of 2026, what dream could you make reality?