48. What motivates you? What is your why?
Have you ever thought about what motivates you?
What drives you to do the things that you do or don’t want to do?
I’ve been speaking with a number of people lately about the topic of motivation and how it influences us, how it shifts how it changes throughout different phases of our life or even different seasons of the year.
Whether it’s a goal that we are working towards or a behaviour we want to change, understanding what motivates us can be critical component of progress and success
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At the start of the year, many people start off with strong intentions and resolutions to transform aspects like health, fitness, but if we don’t get clear on the what it is important, we may be less likely to succeed as the busyness of life takes over.
Take cycling for example.
I love riding my bike (normally) but over the last year or so I have noticed that the motivation or desire to ride at times just hasn't consistently been there. Where I would previously happily ride solo every day without a second thought, it’s taken much more mental effort and a friend to convince me to roll my bike out the door and down the stairs.
As someone who is naturally normally very motivated to train and ride every day - to not have that internal drive or desire is a very disorienting place to be in. And something the clients and athletes I work with often share in regards to their nutrition.
A year or two ago I rode both the Snowy Classic 180km and Bowral Classic 150km without having trained much beforehand.
I knew I wouldn't be breaking any records (and that I'd probably hurt a bit afterwards) but from experience I was confident because I knew with the right fuel I could do the distance and complete it in one piece.
During both events I spoke to many other people who found themselves in a similar situation of being the unfittest they'd been in years but getting out and doing the ride anyway.
What was interesting, was the act of imperfectly doing both of those ride actually helped me to find a little glimmer of motivation to kick start me into getting back into a sort of regular rhythm of training.
When it comes to motivation and changing our behaviours for the better, sometimes we need to explore the WHY we do or don't want to do something to help build the confidence or reason to stick with and make the change.
I realised that right now I'm not that interested in racing - BUT I want to be fit enough to ride fast, long days in the saddle as and when necessary without stressing that I'll get dropped! It makes me feel good to now that I can go on almost any ride whenever I want without worrying that i won't make it, or I'll be suffering the consequences for days after.
That’s my why.
What's your why? And how can you use it to help motivate you towards your goals today?
That’s all for today. Like subscribe fuel your ride and I’ll see you next time.