Sometimes motivation is hard. I struggle so much in this realm of my life. I have always struggled with motivation to want to get started, so my husband has helped me start working on changing my mindset. My husband is the king of determination and reaching physical goals. His mindset for his training isn’t about motivation to want to… because motivation is hard to find sometimes. Instead, his focus is on discipline and keeping to a schedule to reach his goals.
Some background for those who don’t know – my husband was not a runner. Four years ago, as we prepared for our wedding he decided he wanted to make a change in his body. He was no longer happy with his weight and the way he looked. He started a membership at a local boot camp gym, and loved it! Through this gym he met a coach who encouraged him to try Spartan races. Spartan races are individual based obstacle course races of varying lengths (short, medium, long, stupid long). As he got into better shape, he started to gear his training to help him be more successful in these races. His underlying goal was no longer the same, so he shifted his training to meet his new goals. His training ever since then has always been focused on “What is my overall goal?” Currently, Spartan races for the remainder of the year have all been cancelled, so his training has shifted again. The only available competitions right now are just running. Even though he never sought out to become a runner, his journey has led him to become a long distance runner. And he’s good at it! He is currently training for a 50 mile run later this fall. His goals have changed and so has his training, but he has never stopped training. Even on days that he doesn’t want to, he reminds himself of the goal he is trying to achieve, and his determination and discipline step in and he gets it done.
Looking at and thinking about his journey has helped me with mine. I have struggled with motivation to work on my own skills on and off forever. I am working on setting my own goals to help guide my training. My struggle is setting goals that aren’t just “I want to get this trick”. I’ve done that type of goal setting before, and once I achieve the trick I lose motivation again. I am working to set larger scale goals for myself that aren’t necessarily just trick based, but more overall health based to help me continue to work on me even on the days I don’t really “feel like it”. I am a schedule maker, and I love mapping out a plan. I am trying to build a personal training schedule to help me be more disciplined with my training. So far I’m still developing and working on writing my goals, but I am excited to see what I can achieve.
