All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without the benefit of experience."

— Henry Miller, Author

Monday, August 23, 2010

Anybody Have a Shovel?

I need to do some digging.

I'm something like 9 weeks out and feel like I need a little boost! This past week wasn't the best for me for one reason or another, but I'm determined to make this week so much better. It seems that I follow a little pattern of behavior when it comes to "pushing it" in the gym. I go hard for 4-5 weeks, then I slack. Like I need a break or need to reset. I haven't yet figured out what's up with this or how to get past it completely, but I have some theories and I'm all about testing them out.

I think that just as workouts and diets have to be changed up and switched around in order to achieve results, so must one's motivation. The progress that I achieved over the past 6 weeks (which was a 5 pound weight loss) had nothing to do with my goal of competing in October. It was because I made a bet with someone that I could lose that amount of weight before he would hit his weight loss goal in the same time period. Believe me when I say that I busted my ass to get there. Managed to fark around and get shin splints in the meantime, and even with that injury as a potential excuse, I pushed ahead anyway and met my goal.

Now what?

Well I still have my competition goal date of October 23rd. I'm also doing Warrior Dash in September. But what is it that will afford me the same determination as when I made that bet? Perhaps I need another specific goal as I had before? Or someone to make me accountable? Pffffft wait what? I HAVE a specific goal. and I HAVE people to be accountable to. But What is gonna make me get out of bed every morning with the same fierce energy and desire as the weeks past?

I ask these questions of myself and I think of this song "Cryin Like a Bitch" By Godsmack. You can find the video below and I encourage you to actually check it out. Besides the fact that having the ever-sexy Sully Erna scream at you that you're crying like a bitch, I find these specific parts of the song to be particularly motivating in a somewhat nagging and demeaning manner:

"I'm tougher than nails.
I can promise you that.
Step out of line
And you get bitch-slapped back.
And you can run
Your little mouth all day,
But the hand of God
Just smacked you back into yesterday

Blinded by
Your sacred faded past times
Only time is your enemy.
Granted a second chance
To prove that your arrogance
Is stronger than you'll ever be.
It's stronger than you can be"

Kind of makes you want to be like "IT IS NOT! I'LL SHOW YOU!!" Aside from that, watching these UFC guys train and fight in the video just makes me want to drop and bust out 100 pushups. The energy in this video is just amazing.



With all of that being said, I need to get my shit together. I need a very specific motivator by the end of the day; one that will actually work. Anybody wanna place any bets, I'm down. In the meantime, I need to compile some new tunes to get me going in the gym, since I'll be flying solo next week. :(

4 comments:

  1. COMPLETELY hear you on this one!! Seems like you and I are motivated by the same things, too. I'm all over conquering something when someone either bets me or challenges me... or tells me I can't do it. If it's just myself telling me those things, I get all "Pffft, whatev, Self, STFU."

    GREAT song - and MMA gets me all kinds of pumped.

    xo,
    L.

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  2. Yes! I can WANT to do things all day long, but if I don't have a competitive reason I have a hard time. Everybody talks about competing like "you're competing against yourself" but um... That's not enough for me. lol GOTTA DIG DEEP!!!

    Love that song and love MMA!

    AND LOVE YOU

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  3. Honestly, it was the same with me. The one thing that drove me to compete in the first place and totally bust my ass day in and day out was this one person who never wanted to see my accomplish it. As awful as that sounds, I wanted nothing more than to prove them wrong.

    Should you not have any of these doubting people in your like, what you can do is try to motivate yourself by wanting to see how far you can take yourself. If all else fails, then I'll bet you I can lose 5lbs before you too :) Might do me some good!

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  4. Gina that's awful, but I can imagine how well it worked.

    You just hold on, I might be taking you up on that.. lol

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