The best motivation is no motivation at all.
There I was, sitting at the edge of my bed, sore, tired, and groggy. I was running on about 5 hours of sleep in the last 40 hours or so. It was midnight and I was going through all of the mental gymnastics that it took to get up and put my gear on to run miles 36 through 40 of the 4x4x48 challenge. There was no one pushing me. There was no medal or recognition at the end of this challenge. There was no real tangible reward whatsoever for what I was doing. It was in that moment that I was grasping for something, anything to get me motivated.
You have your typical training montages, hype-up songs, and motivational speeches that most people refer to when they need that extra kick in the pants. I think that these only go so far, especially when you are in a scenario where you are on the brink of pushing your proverbial limit. So the question becomes, how do you find motivation when there is no motivation to be found?
I think that the best motivation comes when there is no motivation at all. What I mean by that is this. We have a superpower deep inside us that we all have access to. We don’t give enough credit to the power of our mind and more importantly our spirit. Our internal voice has the power to push us through just about anything. We don’t access this internal voice to its fullest extent very often, if ever. Before I started making positive changes in my life, I never accessed the power of my own mind and spirit.
The ability to “manifest” positive thoughts and motivation is very real. All you need is some tips and tactics to access this oftentimes dormant superpower.
Repetition- The ability to access that internal voice that can push you through any obstacle is through repetitive practice. Every time we repeat a fearful or defeatist thought, we strengthen the connections in our mind that make it easier to have that thought again. If you focus on negative doom and gloom you will remain under that cloud. If you focus on positive thoughts and have goals that you aim to achieve, you will find a way to achieve them with massive action. So quite simply, make it a practice to give yourself positive affirmations daily. An affirmation is a thought that you consciously *choose* to think. You can read them, write them, listen to them on audio, or say them aloud. Affirmations are about becoming mindful and intentional of your thoughts. Tell yourself that you are a badass daily, because in reality, you are!
Pull a cookie out of the jar- I have talked about this in a previous blog, but it is so relevant in situations where you have no motivation. The cookie jar method is a technique defined by David Goggins. Your cookie jar holds all your victories which you can take a bite off when need be. You make a list of all your victories and triumphs along with obstacles and challenges you overcame. Together they serve as an imaginary jar to remind you of what you have achieved in life. To start, write down 10 setbacks you have overcome. They do not have to be major challenges. Whenever you face any hardship, recall your cookies. Think about the effort you put in to overcome a prior challenge. Remember how difficult or painful it was to go through the obstacle. Realize the fact that you could have given up, but the champion within you kept going and came out victorious.
So I got up and started running miles 36-40, but I intentionally left without my headphones. I ran sore, tired, cold, in the dark, with nothing to motivate me but me, and I loved it! I got a boost of serotonin just from telling myself how much of a badass I was. At that moment I knew I was creating a big cookie to pull from the jar later down the road.
