Finding Motivation

I can pinpoint the day things began to fall apart for me.  It was a cruise I took on the third week of The Open, in Florida.  I had been progressing so damn well, and for some reason, I just let loose a little, had a couple drinks, indulged in dessert, stayed as healthy as I could on the ship, but the food is far from high quality.  But I'm not blaming the ship.  From there I just never found my way back to the rhythm I had found before.  I was blogging regularly, training with passion, eating cleanly and easily and living my life in a general position of happiness.  Even as I write this I am opting out of working out because I feel my energy levels depleted and I cannot seem to comprehend the idea of trudging alone out to the garage to workout in the dark.  I could go for a run, but then again, I haven't written anything in a while and at least I'm getting one thing in that I should.  My goal with this post is not to be depressing; more to write an honest perspective I know many of you think I never have.  One where I completely lack motivation to do all the things I pride myself in.  I understand what it means to be a healthy, happy person.  I coach it every single day.  I write about it pretty often here.  But I have valleys in my life just like everyone else, and while I do honesty believe I function at a level where my valleys are few and far between, I think that adds to the severity of them when I do find myself in one.  I am just not used to feeling so unmotivated.  

I have all the time in the world throughout my days, even when I am coaching 6 or more classes a day to workout.  I have all the time in the world to cook my own food, prepare for the coming days' schedules with the proper balances and amounts.  I have all the time in the world to warm up properly, program for my weaknesses, work mobility, foam roll and stretch.  I have all the time in the world to do all this while still getting outside on a regular basis and enjoying the wilderness because it never fails to bring me peace and harmony.  But having all the time in the world means almost nothing when you lack motivation.

A major positive in the time I spend in front of books and the computer is that I get to read a ton, soak up more and more knowledge about the world of health and fitness.  I watch videos of training, read blogs, read articles, books, and studies.  I read opinions and comments, and study pictures on snatch and clean form until my eyes burn.  I can visualize myself, as clear as day pulling a bar loaded with 250# from the ground, and snapping under it in the perfect catch position; heavy weight strong over my head.  But when I grab a bar to demonstrate for clients, my back is tight, my knees hurt, my shoulder pinches and I feel like a hopeless, fat old man trying to get through the day quickly so he can crash down on the coach for his third nap of the day.   

But then there are those moments.  No matter how bad I might think I am, I get under the bar and power through something stronger and faster then ever before.  I have surges of energy where I remember exactly what it feels like to be on top of my game.  In my "research" I have found an underlying theme and commonality between all the top-level performers in their specific fields: a never-ending commitment and passion to getting better.  In the end, the ones who come thorough in the clutch, who perform day in and day out at the highest level, and have the least amount of weaknesses, are those who never get distracted by anything.  Because my focus these past couple years has been CrossFit, I'll use that as my example (but you will find these statements to hold true with anything out there, sport, business, etc.).  Over the past year I improved.  I improved a metric shit ton.  Every single one of my numbers not only went up, but also went WAY up, and this is despite gaining a crap load of weight.  I was lifting more, and lifting it faster, my motor grew, my running was faster, my body weight movements became smoother and better, and everything just got so much better.  But the thing that didn't click compared to those that did was that I had pockets of down time.  When I was taking a week to just do nothing, others were getting ahead of me, getting better.  Mind you, taking a week off is fine, but active recovery is a must.  Working mobility, messing around with skills and so on.  I would literally do nothing.  It was like my brain would shut off.  Then I would have "half-ass" weeks.  These were when I would get my workouts in, but I would rush through them.  I would not take the time to get extra weakness-focus work in.  I would not warm up properly and stretch afterwards.  My nutrition would slide just a little farther than I would have liked and while I still got tons of great work in, I would know in the back of my head that I wasn’t working as hard as I could have been.

“I will watch others laugh and fool around in the gym all day, while I am leashed to the platform.” – Jon North

This guy works hard.  He has been committed to being an Olympic weightlifter and nothing will stand in his way.  If he is feeling down one day, it doesn’t stop him.  Every single day he is doing exactly what it takes to become BETTER.  Every day is a step forward and there is never a step back.  If you want something, if you want to be something, you need to commit to it and never falter in that commitment.  The best CrossFitters in the world are like this.  They workout because it's what they love, what they know, and what they want.  They train hard, every single day, they eat well, they rest when they NEED and SHOULD.  They are better because they wanted it more and dedicated their lives, inside and out, to being better than you and me.  They are better because they function at a level where getting better is the ONLY option they have, the only thing they know how to do.  Have you ever worked out, or performed with someone at such a level?  I have many times and it is clear that all they want to do is beat you, to out perform you.  The cool ones do this without being ass holes about it; the annoying ones make it clear they want to beat you.  But when you pay attention to how they approach the workout, you know that they are working at a level that has one purpose: to win.

My steps back toward to finding my motivation, my drive, and my dedication look a little something like this:  reestablish what it is I am working towards.  Bring back to the front of my mind what I want out of life, then remove the things that do not support that.  Lately I have found myself surrounded by things that assist in my not living my life the way I have always wanted.  I need to put on my table (both literally and metaphorically) the things that I know make me who I want to be.  Once those things are directly in front of me, and the "bad" things are removed from the table, my choices will be limited and clear.  And once I have begun changing the way I live each day, I can then begin to look into the more detailed goals I might have for the next month, few months, and year.  Do I want to pursue the CrossFit Games again?  Do I want to get into something else?  Whatever it is, I must make that choice with a clear, happy, excited, and eager mind.  Then I will know that I can do anything I want.  Then I will be able to clearly see how to be completely committed to something GOOD.

(I promise my next couple posts won’t be as depressing!)

Never Stop, GET FIT

Josh Courage