I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what motivates me. Problem is… as of late I feel pretty unmotivated. But if you think about it, there is a reason behind everything we do. Apparently, I’m more motivated by money than I am by good health. See, I may not be motivated to go running but I am motivated to go to work everyday. Why? Because they give me money. If only I could get paid to run…
A few years ago a friend encouraged me to sign up for a 10k. It was my first “real” race and I was motivated big time. Death. Avoiding death was my motivation. Sure, I’d gone running before but never more than 3 consecutive miles. Taking on 6 miles in one punch seemed nigh unto impossible. So I trained. I went to the gym everyday and I ran as far as I could go then ran a little bit more. One mile. One and a quarter miles. One and a half miles. I remember the day I made it up to 4 miles. It was exciting. My motivation continued to be the fear of dying on race day but a new motivation crept in during those months of training. I was motivated by success! I realized I could run farther than I thought possible. It set me on a path that led me to love running. Since then I’ve found that one motivation leads to another.
My motives have varied: weight loss, friends, races, depression (seriously peeps, endorphins are crucial!), impressing people, habit, weather, mileage logs, new running shoes, new music, pictures and quotes cut out from magazines, pace goals.
Beware! Motivations don’t come on silver platters. They must be sought after! They must be created! Last year confronted me with a lot of challenges that took away all my motivations. I got overwhelmed. I got lazy. I never sought a new motivation. It turned into a long, sad year without running. But here we are at the (relative) beginning of a new year and I’m ready to find a new motivation. The most pressing is to fit into my clothes again. It’s not my favorite motive but at least it’s something, right?
Whether it relates to exercise or not the key to success is motivation! Find your motivation to start. Find your motivation to keep going. Whatever, wherever, whenever. Find your motivation!
“To get to the finish line you’ll have to try lots of different paths” – Andy Burfoot
Okay, gente. The first installment of The Fitlanthropist is over, and I am in the process of collecting my donations. $10. $10. That’s all I’m asking for. I lost ten pounds, and I’m paying $10 into the donation pot for Free Arts of Arizona. I would LOVE if you would join me by donating BEFORE next Friday, January 22 (you can do so by going HERE).
I am not quite at the point where I’m ready to evaluate how this went (because I still need some donations), but I would like some preliminary input from you all…and you’ll get the chance to win a $15 iTunes giftcard compliments of the Fitlanthropist. Here’s what you need to do:
Leave a comment for me with your name and tell me how I can improve what I’m doing with The Fitlanthropist.
Be brutally honest. There are a decent amount of readers (I check the stats once in a while), so I know some of you must have something to say. I need to hear it, else there’s no way I can improve, nor will I reach future fundraising goals! After you leave your comment, I’ll assign you a number in the order you post and next Friday (Jan. 22), I’ll use a random number generator to “draw” our winner. And again, you’ll get a $15 iTunes gift card.
Neato, right? You don’t even have to pay for postage.
Argh!! Something is up with my scale. It either needs to be recalibrated or needs a new battery. All I know is I stepped on it this morning and could NOT possible weigh what came back. It’s just not humanly possible to gain what the scale was telling me in a week…yeah, the number was that big. So, I’ll get to fixing it soon and will hopefully have an update soon. Keep your fingers crossed that it’s a loss! But I’ll be honest…I don’t know that it is!
I will be dropping pounds and raising money for Free Arts of Arizona!! It was close and came down to the wire, but it was fun to watch. Thanks to all of you that voted. I wish that I could raise money for all of them at once, but this first go around, I need to make sure I can make a legitimate attempt to earn money with weight loss in mind as well. I would not count out The Andre Agassi Foundation or Nuci’s Space for future goals.
So, now the real work begins. Time to step up and find the donors. Who will match me? Who’ll take my challenge? Who will at least give a little? And who’s willing to send me a cool product for a giveaway?
Stick with me guys, this is going to get interesting!
Just a quick post, guys–voting ends tomorrow at 6 p.m. EST. If you haven’t voted yet, look to the right and choose one of the three charities. Whichever one has the most votes tomorrow will be the charity I “lose” for. I’ve already lost 3 lbs (which I hope I’ve kept off this week) that will go toward the donation (and yes, for some reason, the Traineo thing says 4 lbs, but I won’t mislead you, it’s 3).
I hope that once the charity is chosen that I’ll notch up my work. I need the motivation!
Doubt is a killer. It is. Any time I have ever doubted myself, I tend to ruin or drastically alter whatever it was I was engaged in. There’s no time for doubt in this. I have to believe I can improve my health and lose weight. I have to keep whatever cause I choose in mind. If I run, exercise, walk, lift weights, ride a bike, whatever to benefit my cause…then I will ultimately benefit myself.
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