Motivational Building Blocks: Part 1
How do you stay fired up for the long haul?
If we are going to start with basic principles, then motivation should be number one. After all, what use is it to spend time and energy on WHAT we are doing if we don't know WHY we are doing it?
“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” - Seneca
So, let's peel back the layers of motivation.
If you've signed up for a race, wonderful! If you haven't, that's great too! Again, the WHAT is less significant than the WHY.
Now, you don't need to have an incredibly deep WHY, we just need to be aware of it. A few questions we can ask ourselves:
Who are you, and who do you want to be?
What are the things that are important to you?
Are your goals aligned with the above?
…
After you've spent some time carefully considering honest answers to those questions, you can better answer the question: why do you do endurance sport?
At first glance, this might look simple. For example:
I want to be an Ironman…
I want to do a marathon…
I want to run Boston…
I want to have a six pack abs…
But let's open it up a little more:
What does these mean in regards to the type of person you want to be and the people and things that are important to you in life?
I get it, this sounds like we're going deep. Maybe for some we are. But I promise, it doesn't have to! Sport can fit into our life in a variety of different ways.
If we apply Seligman's PERMA model of well-being, we can more easily identify how sport might fill up a few of our life satisfaction buckets.
Positive Emotions
Are there enjoyable moments in your training and racing? Does it foster a sense of hope or joy? Running during a sunrise, excitement for an upcoming event, a sense of pride after a hard workout, etc. Take time to notice the small delights.
Engagement
This is similar to the concept of flow, as well as being fully present. This can happen within a challenge like a workout or race, when cooking a great meal, or when surrounded by great people.
Relationships
Do you train with a partner, spouse, or group of friends? Endurance sports are individual, but are much easier with a strong “village”.
Meaning
A sense of purpose, or mission beyond ourselves. What is the story you tell surrounding your training?
Achievement
This one seems pretty self explanatory, but is worth exploring more. It's also the one that tends to take the bulk of our focus, which isn't necessarily a good thing…
Before we focus back on sport, a few of my thoughts on this model.
The buckets can be interconnected. Doing one can and likely does impact another (sometimes positively, sometimes negatively).
Ex: When we spend time with wonderful people, our relationships flourish and we have engaging experiences, etc.
The relative size or proportion of the buckets is determined individually and likely varies over time. In other words, relationships isn't set in stone at 20% of our well-being…
This isn’t a percentage:
Our overall well-being can always expand, we can't cap out at 100%
Our individual buckets can be drained, and while they can't max out at 100%, we can notice when each one has dropped significantly. Good news is they can always grow beyond our previous experiences.
It might help to fill in how satisfied you are in these areas of your life, rather than trying to assign them a specific weight.
Back to our examples.
When we identify the different ways that sport can fill our cup within the PERMA model, it's a lot easier to find perspective and purpose beyond our performances. When we hit a rough patch, it's nice to know we're showing up to training because we'll have a great chat with our buddy, or explore our favorite trail.
Best part is, when we look at it through this lens, we can start to identify the things that we could add or subtract from our usual mix to fill our cup or expand it even more.
So yes, maybe we want to have a six pack abs (who doesn't?! 😉) or do an Ironman, but how can becoming the person who does those things add to our well-being?
If we have a stronger core, we can more easily do things we enjoy doing like picking up and playing our kids or grandkids.
If we do Boston, maybe we're doing it with a group of friends we haven't seen since high school, or raising money and awareness for a charity.
If we are doing an Ironman, maybe it's a way to really focus on our health by eating well and prioritizing sleep.
I'd encourage you to play around with these thoughts. What is the impact of your activities on your quality of life? Put another way: does training for the thing allow you to live the lifestyle you want to have?
One of the biggest struggles people have with endurance sports is that they focus on the achievement and underestimate that 99.99% of the time is spent training. Sure, delayed gratification can be a sweet sweet payoff, but if you don't enjoy the training and lifestyle surrounding your pursuits, that motivation will be frail, fragile, and fleeting…
That said, I love a good lofty goal, and achievement can play a large role in our well-being if done in a healthy and secure way. We'll cover that in part 2!
Lastly, it’s okay to not know how a thing will impact your life and if you’ll actually enjoy it. Curiosity can be extremely powerful. Sometimes we just sign up for the thing because it’s intriguing and we’re open to finding out if we have what it takes…
If you liked this post, chances are you’ll enjoy my conversations with 5x World Champion, Craig Alexander on the Forging Iron Podcast and our latest YouTube video:
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