Motivate Thyself!

Last night, about 8:30 PM or so, as I was driving home from dropping my daughter off at my parent’s house for a sleepover, I had the following conversation with myself (in my head, mind you!)…

ME: “I’ll workout when I get home no matter what time it is.”

ME: “Awesome idea!”

ME: “What if I don’t quite feel like it though?  Seems like a good idea now, but it’ll be late when I get home and I’m starting to feel a little tired… (hear the voice of Mr. Resistance creeping in there?)”

ME: “True.  Plus you’re getting over that cold too.  You might just want to skip it and go to bed instead. (Mr. Resistance is insidious!)”

ME: “Whoah… hang on there!  You already made up your mind to workout when you get home.  You WILL workout.  Don’t let that negative crap in your head.  Whassamada with you?”

So what happened when I got home?  Well, let’s just say I wouldn’t be writing this blog post if I went straight to bed! 🙂

You are the only one with the power to motivate yourself.  You are the last line of defense against Mr. Resistance. Yes, of course outside influences matter – who you read, who you speak to, what you watch, what you listen to, etc, etc, these things all have an effect on your thinking process and motivation.  But when you are all alone with only yourself to guide you, you make the final decision to do or do not.

Each time you successfully defeat Mr. Resistance you create a stronger pattern.  Your ability to impose your will becomes greater.  You increase your mental and spiritual strength.  You create a habit of winning out against resistance.  The converse is also true, however.  Each time you give in to that small voice of Mr. Resistance and stay on that couch in front of the TV or sleep in late instead of waking early to go to the gym, you create a stronger pattern.  Yet this time the pattern is harmful.  It works against you.  It makes you weaker.

At the end of the day, who is making the decision to get you off the couch, out the door and into the gym?  Who sets the alarm clock earlier to get up and go do the work?  Push Mr. Resistance back in his place.  Kick his ass.  Motivate Thyself!

Jon

Jon Haas, "The Warrior Coach" has been training in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu for more than 25 years and is currently ranked as a Kudan (9th degree black belt) under Jack Hoban Shihan. He has also trained in Okinawan Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Russian Systema, BJJ, Krav Maga, as well as Internal Martial Arts of Yiquan and Aiki.He is a certified Underground Strength Coach-Level 2, a certified Personal Trainer as well as founder of Warrior Fitness Training Systems. In 2008, Jon wrote the book, Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts, and since then has created numerous other online training and coaching programs helping people around the world become the strongest, most capable versions of themselves!

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