Motivation

Motivation is not innate, and it is not some thing you find. For me, it is some thing that I can cultivate on a rare occassion. What ever it is that gets me out the door to run, I certainly did not have it today. It is one of those days where I am always cold, layered up in sweaters and pants, and under my covers, feeling less than ideal about my current state of fitness. The outside temperature being 28° Fahrenheit; that seems worlds away from my current state of comfort. The sky is a dull grey, and the roads are dirty with small clumps of snow at each corner. It has been a while since I’ve truly seen the sun. Just miserable. When you’re with a group, those conditions seem to evaporate. In high school on dark snowy morning runs, I had not a care in the world. It was just something we did. In college, same deal. Now? Alone with no organization to keep me accountable, it is more difficult. Sure, the military has PT, but no one outside of competitive high school, D1, or elite teams are going to care whether or not you can run a 4 minute mile vs a 5, 6, or 7 minute mile because the general standard and expectation is so low. So what did I do to over come this hurdle, preventing me from becoming a better version of myself? The hurdle of “no motivation.” Usually, when this happens, I tell myself a few things:

All of this to still have a nagging little devil on my shoulder saying, “Don’t go.” or worse “Go later.” The only consequences of not going being internal and unnoticeable until you make it a habit of skipping out on workouts. Then over time, maybe you get that “motivation” back some way or another, but now it doesn’t matter. The run felt like shit. You atrophied. Became dull. Now how can you go back to the peak athlete you once were? Much harder. So what got me out, truly? It is difficult to pin point. Truth is, doesn’t matter what we’ve done in the past. Sometimes we get tunnel vision. The past doesn’t matter and the future doesn’t matter. In the moment, our brains want what is most comfortable. The “how” on these hard days is discipline. You make the conscience effort and decision to go now. None of that, “I have to do these things and then I will go.” For me, I just put on my shoes and tell myself if I don’t like it, I can just come back after 20 minutes. After all, 20 minutes is absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of a year much less a month much less a day. Those 20 minutes turned into a productive 70 minute run… And it was worth it.