Sustainable Motivation

Everyone is “going green.” Sustainability is an uber-popular buzz word these days, largely because people, businesses, and communities are searching for ways to eat, live, and work sustainably. I’d bet you hadn’t thought about sustainability issues with regards to your mood, however. How about motivation?

We all, it seems, enjoy the times when motivation is present in our lives. Life without motivation is often, at best, less productive, vibrant, and happy. How, then, can we infuse sustainability into some as important but intangible as motivation?

The Nation pressing strictly.

In my opinion, the answer lies in a transition that 90% of folks that walk into our program experience. Most folks come in wanting to fix themselves, have a certain body, improve their health, etc. For the most part they don’t necessarily care how their end goal will be realized. They want X and whichever means gives it to them is good enough for them. We happened to be a viable option more time than not.

The transition occurs when people are immersed in our culture and begin shifting their perceptions of fitness. With this perception shift, their goals begin to change as well. Folks that once walked in the door who had goals of a skinny body or maybe 6 pack abs become less concerned with these initial goals and their new perspective has their sights set on increased performance instead.

Markers like our baseline, a one rep max deadlift, or the ability to do push ups from their toes are definable indicators of fitness. Sure, students are getting “skinny” and their abs are changing for the better, but these nebulous ideas aren’t end goals anymore. These results are a physical by product of a perspective that says, “I just want to be better than yesterday.”

This the kind of motivation that lasts a lifetime. It’s a type of motivation filled with marked successes rather than continual days of failure. Failure being something other than  “skinny” or not having 6 pack abs in this example. This type of motivation is sustainable.

Motivation is fleeting in pursuits to match the page ripped out of Shape Magazine that’s intentionally taped to the bathroom mirror. I’m not sure even the strongest of minds could wake up each morning and evaluate one’s body in comparison to another, recognize they are still not the that and be motivated to pursue it for 200 days in a row. I do think, though, that even the weakest of minds can wake up and celebrate the success of the ability to do one more push up or to run a lap in 5 fewer seconds than the day before.

Think about that. To welcome motivation in your life for the long haul, you may need a perspective that will accommodate that. Performance seems to be a great producer of that type of motivation.

 

Logan Gelbrich

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Thursday’s Workout:

“Race to 250”

Athlete has 5 Min to complete
AMRAP KB SDLHP

Then Take 250-(SDLHP #)= # of KB Thrusters to be completed for time.

*Score is Total Time

 

 



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