Jalana...

I am a believer in both long-term goals as well as capitalizing on opportunities as they present themselves.

I feel in order to be successful in any avenue or venture, goals are important. In order for me to say that I want to go to the Olympics again or something like that, I have to set the gears in motion now to set that up in a few years. You're not going to be able to roll of your couch in the spring of 2012 and say "Hey, I think I am going to shoot for the Olympics." More often than not, you won't achieve that because if it were that easy to do, your goal wasn't challenging enough to be a goal in the first place.

I set long term goals that are difficult to achieve because if something were easy, everybody would do it.

Opportunities that come about by chance are equally as important. I have had several chance meetings/opportunities that presented themselves that allowed me to capitalize on a long term goal I set for myself. The most important of these were when I met my current coach Brooks Johnson out in Sacramento in 2004. Without such a meeting/opportunity, it's no telling what I may be doing right now. I may have met another coach without as much knowledge and been out of the sport by now.

Great question

EnquirengMinds...

I don't have any meets lined up at this point, maybe in another month or so I will have a concrete idea of what I am going to be doing this indoor season. As far as outdoors goes, I won't have a grip on that until late January, early February for sure.

I am very private, and I wish I could say you won your bet, but it looks like you will be offering up that dinner to whomever it is you were betting.

I have questions for you: Why is inquiring minds spelled like that and why would you make a bet on something like that?

Happy Thanksgiving '09...

I know I have been away from the blog for a few weeks, I've been suffering from writers block, but you can help me generate some new posts, just ask a question and I'll answer it, I'm sure that will be able to get my mind moving until the season starts back up.

It's Thanksgiving and it's a time to give extra thanks for the blessings that have been bestowed upon us. There are less fortunate people in this world than you and it is important to remember that when things are going rough, a lot of people have it a lot rougher than you!

There are so many things in my life that I am thankful for, from you loyal readers and fans to being brought up by the most amazing person in the world.

On a training note, things are going very well, I have been out training for two months and I have no injury symptoms and that is something I am very thankful for.

My top five most thankful things are (in not particular order):

- The God given talent and blessings that I have been given
- My family and close friends
- My mom meeting a great guy and finally getting to enjoy the finer things in life
- Being myself and not having to live this life as someone else
- My fans

I am thankful for everything at all times, but this day just magnifies the importance of giving thanks and realizing where all blessings come from.