What Motivates Me To Succeed
“He who says he can and he who says he can’t are both usually right.” -Confucious. Being an athlete here at StoneAgeFuel we continue to motivate ourselves. Everyone has their different ways to motivate themselves. As for me, I remind myself that there is always someone out there that is working to beat you, looking into my future self and who I want to be, and being able to set/reach my goals.
During high school, I was a basketball, cross country and track athlete. The most mentally challenging sport for me was track. Not just me but all of my peers as well. We kept ourselves motivated by keeping each other accountable. In the hardest times of workouts, we would remind ourselves that the other 4×800 teams are working harder if not just as hard. Keeping this in our heads made us want it more than the other teams. Yes not giving up on workouts is good too but it could also mean avoiding junk foods and getting enough sleep. I wanted to be that person who could win races and go to state.
Looking into my future self and who I wanted to be was also my motivation. I wanted to run certain races at certain times. I wanted to lift heavier weight, and by having a picture in my head opened up my mind and reminded me on what I needed to do. This helped motivate me to stay on my toes and not fall off because being lazy for the last 10 meters of a workout can mean the inch difference of winning and losing. Knowing that you always finished the workout and giving it all boosted my confidence in winning races. I also looked at athletes on my team that weren’t the fastest but we’re definitely the toughest and they motivated me to become a better version of myself.
Some athletes may also have the same way of motivating themselves. Many have their own little ways, but if i could recommend one way to help motivate yourself it would be to set small goals. That could be going to the gym two times every week consecutively. Next would be to hit a full depth back squat. These little ways can help achieve the bigger goals. It’s not about big steps but smaller steps in reaching your goals and all of a sudden the bigger picture becomes so close as if you can touch it.
If it’s all about the big picture then reaching your goals will become much harder to achieve. Ultimately it is about the long term goal, but setting smaller goals will help set you up so that you have something to look forward to and accomplish. Once you reach your first set of goals, you will then realize that you can do so much more. From there it’s like a snowball effect where when you achieve a short term goal, you know that you’re that much closer to your long term goal.
In conclusion, setting up small term goals will help you achieve your long term goals a lot easier. As a competitive athlete, there are many people out there training just as hard as you are to achieve the same goals as you. It’s just a matter of who wants it that much more. Having a picture in your head of who you want to be will open up your mind on how hard you have to work to get there. Then it all comes back to goals, achieving that certain physique will take a lot but thats looking at the bigger picture.
Take the little pieces of the picture, define it, claim it, and own it.
