Self Motivation

What a great week of training!  It's been cold.  It's been wind.  It's been wet and I haven't missed a day yet.  Not that I didn't struggle this week, but unlike so many weeks before I was able to get myself out the door every time I needed to.  Tuesday and Saturday were probably my most difficulty days.  Tuesday was a long day at work and all I wanted to do was relax and have a drink, but I forced myself out the door and got the job done.  My watch died halfway through the run so I lost all my data, but at least I finished it.  I wasn't happy with my run, but I was at least happy that I had done it.

Saturday was one of those days where it seemed like everything was against me.  It was suppose to be warm and it wasn't.  It was suppose to be a light mist of rain and while it wasn't heavy it certainly wasn't a mist.  It was windy.  It's always windy here.  It might not be hilly, but it's windy and I think I would rather have the hills.  I struggled all day with heading out the door and I kept coming up with excuse to not go running.  I had things to do around the house and errands to run.  It seemed the more I put off my run the more I didn't want to do it.  If I was being completely honest I would also have to say that I was somewhat intimidated my the 8 mile run that I had planned for the day.  It seemed to linger over me all day and I started to come up with more and more excuses.  "I think I have a swollen lymph node, maybe I'm sick"  "I'm not ready for a run this long, it's too early."  "I want to relax, it's the weekend who really wants to waste an hour and a half running."  Luckily unlike so many times before I didn't listen to myself and I remembered that this is something I want to do.  This is something I enjoy and I want to get better at.  So I headed out the door.

As I ran I started to think about what made this time different.  What made me overcome my obstacles and head out the door?  The more I thought about it the more I realized that it wasn't anything magical or anything unique.  It was simple the fact that this time I was real with myself.  This time I owned up to what I had decided to do and held myself accountable.  Sometimes we forget that the best motivation is ourself, or maybe it's that we get to caught up in finding motivation in others.  Either way I think we need to stop looking so much at other people for inspiration and start looking at ourselves as inspiration.  The best part is if you learn to inspire yourself you will never feel disappointed.  You will never feel like a failure.  This week I inspired myself and learned a new truth.  That I'm not limited my my excuses and that I can head out the door even when I don't feel like I can.