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

So, I ask you this: What’s your motivation?

Cheers,
Christy

Seems to me that runners are often doing something along similar lines…raising money per mile run or something like that. And though it’s been quite some time since I’ve headed out to pound the pavement, I’m hoping I can get back in the swing of things…perhaps I’ll do the Couch-to-5k program again, as it seemed to be quite useful, not to mention pretty fun!