Aspire,bold,challenge,dare,endure.
What makes us keep going, I've written before how I don't know why we sometimes start things, but once we've started there are many things that keep us enduring.
Accountability, other peoples expectations, the internal drive, fear of failure, stubborness...
Certainly having a goal streamlines the way and excuses offer less resistance, the reasons not to are easier to neutralise. But once I have got rid of the excuses, have dressed in the right clothes, got the time, the equipment and the childcare, what mantras and tips help me endure the discomfort zone?
I'm thinking about it as a week tomorrow I should be swimming to the Mewstone, weather willing. 2 months and I should have completed my 100 mile row... and I will keep going, I have to. But I need my store of motivation to be full and practised! I hold with me the knowledge that I have never quit before, so why start now!
Counting, not counting,
Looking at the time, not looking at it.
Podcasts,
Music
Doing algebra.
tinkering with rhymes
Sorting out life problems
As sometime who at one time operated intensely in the 24hr clock I get very confused between 10 and 20. I never instantly know whether I'm further forward or behind. I forget that 13 is 3 mins on from 10 as I also view it as 1 o'clock and then my mind struggles, but if my body is on autopilot I guess the dislocation of brain and pain is a positive.
Fractions help me, my 10km is approximately 45mins so figuring out my 1/10th, 1/9th, 2/10th, 1/3rd on and on etc, etc constantly working out what fraction I've approximately finished... mental arithmetic is no longer as automatic as it was, and then adding in exercise fog, the simplest calculations get slower and more haphazard, 6/10ths, I ruminate on the importance of writing and reading, 2/3rds, on the progression of human capabilities as juggling numbers totally in the brain is exhausting. 9/10ths, might as well boost for the line, come on, come on , come on!
Looking at the time, I get to celebrate at the end of every minute, I also allow myself to celebrate every time the second matches the minute, and if I look and I realise either passed without my noticing, I allow a mental celebration with a capital C (so 39:39 is a goody, especially as I'm still 39, for 5 more days) but as this is a 61 second moving goal the two begin to converge and that first part of the minute stretches...
The dream is to get so lost in thought that I miraculously look up and I've completed the row on a cracking split... but that's elusive, the mind knows and brings you back, you know you've tasted the possibility of freeing your mind and tasking your body, it must be possible. Just like when I'm struggling to sleep and you sense how close to slumber you are, but the moment you consciously acknowledge it happening you get ejected back into wakefulness. So how about the ABC of motivation, every time I remember a new one and forget an epiphany.
A - Aspire, act,
B - Bold Brave Brilliant breathe
C - Challenges, change, cheerful, choice, confidence
D - Dare, Dream, deliver
E - Endure, extra, effort
F - Fast, fantastic, freedom
G - Give
H - Hope
I - Inspire
J - Jubilation
K - Keep on keeping on
L - Lean
M - Motivate, move
N - Ninety nine, so nearly there
O - Overcome
P - Prepare, practice
Q - Quest, quench
R - Reach, rest
S - Sustain, sleep
T - Train, test
U - ulalate.... hmmmm
V - Victory
W - Wish
X - xceed!
Y - Y.O.L.O
Z - now Zzzzzzzzz