Guys,
this is a massive issue for me. I have great desire to succeed but for some reason i break my routines far too easily. For example, i recently gave myself a fitness programme which i followed for 2 weeks before slowly dropping off.
What do you guys do to stay motivated?
Is it just a case of getting to know what works for you?
Thanks for your time
Depending on the level of desire, I’ve always believed that people can move themselves to do virtually anything (within reason).
Usually the most rewarding things in life are the most difficult to attain, and not everyone is prepared to invest the large amounts of time and effort required in order to meet those ends. There’s nothing wrong with this, and in economics it’s called your discount rate, which basically is a measure of how willing you are to put off short term fulfillment for greater fulfill in the future.
Track athletes, by definition, seem to be on the extreme end of this scale; it takes year to develop yourself to a peak, you compete very little comparative to training, and risk that you won’t succeed or meet certain goals is fairly high.
You might think you want something, but I don’t believe you truly want it unless you’re prepared to do do what’s required to get it. Everybody wants ends, but not everybody is prepared to suffer through the means to those ends. Everyone on this forum wants to to be a millionaire, but they don’t really it. What I mean here is that if fundamentally at your core, you wanted to be a millionaire more than anything else, and you devoted all of your energy and focus to this end, it wouldn’t surprise me if you reached it.
So what can you take away from this?
You have to decide what you want.
You have to decide if you are truly willing to do what’s required to get there.
If you are, then you need to set a plan in motion and act on it, consistently. If you’re not, then you need to reevaluate and decide what you actually do want.
Remember that it’s easy to be cool when things are going well, when you’re winning, or making huge gains. Winning is easy, losing is hard. People are defined not by what they do when they’re on top, but how they handle themselves when they’re on the bottom.
excellent post
That was a fantastic post. Really cleared things up for me.
Thank you
Great post, thanks.
Great last line.
great post. the last line especially. its easy to be the man when your winning, but how you react when nothing is going right for you is your judge of character. Not just in track but in life.
As far as training and sports go, I think being ultra competitive is one of the best qualities you can have.
I’ll join in by agreeing that the initial response was high quality, but I’d like to take add a slightly different angle.
could it be that the issue here is not one of motivation but of concentration span? maybe if you observe that two weeks is about as long as you can maintain your fitness plan then why not try only planning for two weeks, then sit down and write another plan that is different and stimulates you in a variety of ways? perhaps it is even your bodys way of telling you the old routine is getting stale.
just something to think about…
hornblower,
interesting. never thought of it like that. Something to think about. Thanks
sometimes the best goal is simply sticking to the plan.
One additional note:
On a day-to-day basis progress, even for someone experience massive gains, is virtually imperceptible. You might be improving, but generally the increments we’re dealing with here are so small that they can’t be appreciated over small sections of time.
One way around this is to keep meticulous records. Keeping track of your bodyweight, lifts, and taking pictures of yourself is a good way to observe change over time. This isn’t only for your personal satisfaction either, it actually has valuably applications; records like this help you correlate what works and what doesn’t in terms of training, diet, or whatever else you do.
You would be surprised if you looked at your daily records after a few weeks.
Guys,
iam currently trying to train my legs to become more explosive. What sort of goals could i set to keep me going? Verticle jump targets???
‘’
Sounds like Hume’s philosophy of self identity and the core self. Your not a budding philosopher are you ?
I’m actually a Philosophy major.