Life is filled with goals. We set them, shoot for them, and with any luck, achieve them.

Back in August, my husband challenged me to hit 1000 Twitter followers and 300 blog followers. It seemed like a pretty lofty goal as I had less than 500 followers on Twitter, and less than 100 on my blog. He said if I hit the goal, I would never have to cook again.

This was a challenge I was ready to win.

It didn’t take me long to hit 1000 Twitter followers. In fact, when I did, my husband started sweating a little. He never actually thought I’d win this challenge. It was one of those things you toss out there when you’re pretty sure the odds are in your favor. So his confidence was bolstered when, after several months, my Twitter followers climbed above 2000 but my blog still lingered in the 200 range.

He would even toss out comments to the effect of, “Better get to the kitchen…you haven’t won yet.” As if cooking was destined to be in my job description until the end of time.

So I worked toward getting people to follow, and I got more Twitter followers. And my blog traffic increased by three and four times what it was. But the followers still just trickled in one or two at a time. Even I was starting to doubt my ability to win what seemed (to me anyway) like such an easy challenge.

Then suddenly, I was within ten followers of my goal. I didn’t want to jinx myself so I said nothing. I just watched in the wings as the occasional follower would join, silently jumping up and down in my head as I calculated the spread between the goal and where I was.

Each day, I casually mentioned to my husband how many I had to go.

And he would brush it off like it was an unattainable prize that would be forever outside my grasp. Like winning the lottery. Or squeezing into the jeans I wore when I was 17 (don’t ask how far from that goal I am…I will lie.)

Then earlier today…I had just one more to go. My friend and editor mentioned it and I got a thrill inside at the thought…I was only one away from never cooking again!

And then it happened. My email chimed, and when I looked, it was the 300th follower staring back at me. I had won.

As I felt my face stretch in a wide smile, my husband looked at me suspiciously and asked me what I’d done. I slowly turned my laptop around to show him. Number 300…in all her glory.

He’s not a happy man tonight. I don’t think he ever really believed I would win. He was sure, no matter how long the challenge stretched out, I couldn’t have possibly touched enough people to win his impossible challenge.

Oh, but I did. And I’m wondering as I type…what’s for dinner tomorrow?

Until the next time…I won’t be cooking ever again!