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In this blog I have written previously about motivation, and how I keep focused by ‘surrounding myself’ with it.
But what exactly do I mean by that? How and why do you surround yourself with motivation? And when is this approach absolutely imperative?
Update: Since writing this post, I have started a new blog that follows my attempts to run every single day for one year. To learn more, please visit iRun365.com.
Today was day 12 of my 28 days of running program. All week I’ve been semi-obsessed with this day because I knew that completing the run was going to be extremely difficult, simply because I had an awful lot to do. Plus, today is Friday 13th, and while I’m not a superstitious person, if anything was going to go wrong then today was as good a time as any!
As I’ve said before I like to run in the morning, really as early as possible. It not only ‘gets it done’, it means that I can then focus on the rest of the day with a clearer, more energised mind (and body). It’s a fantastically empowering feeling to know that you’ve finished your workout first thing. You feel free.
Contrast this with leaving your run (or any kind of workout) until the very end of the day. Often you will be tired and possibly irritable, distracted, focusing on something else, have to deal with something that cannot possibly be put to one side (i.e., a family emergency), feel sick, have not eaten or hydrated properly, or any number of things that can lead to you skipping your workout. As the day lengthens, the thought of a run becomes more of a burden in your mind. Instead of being a positive, it becomes a negative. A problem, as opposed to a pleasure. This naturally can be very destructive.
You can find an excuse for anything - and worse, justify it - if you allow yourself to do so.
Knowing that running early this morning was simply not going to be an option (explanation to follow), it was essential for me to keep myself as motivated as possible. I was well aware that if I let myself become complacent or negative about ‘having to run’ - as opposed to wanting to - I could very easily find any number of reasons to pass on it. Once you’ve let that negative mindset consume you, the most lightweight and otherwise easily-solved ‘problem’ can seem like the most important thing in the world. Therefore, I had to do everything in my power to keep myself focused on the run.
I had to surround myself with motivation.
What I’d like to do is take you through my mindset over a 36-hour period, starting yesterday, so you can see how this was achieved. Over this timeframe I had to squeeze in an 11-hour work shift, eating, running, shopping, a job interview, collecting my children from school and the general minutiae that comes with any life.
Thursday, June 12
10am - I go to bed, having worked my shift the previous night (10pm through 9am).
1.30pm - I wake, after 3.5 hours of sleep.
3.20pm - I collect my children from school.
4.30pm - I run for 22 minutes. Even though it’s late, I feel great, and I’m approximately 30 seconds faster than normal (I know this because I run to and from a fixed point).
7.30pm - I eat.
10pm - I start my next shift. (This is still Thursday night.)
Friday, June 13
5am - I compile my Motivational Mashup post. This immediately puts me in the right frame of mind.
7am - I spend a good hour browsing the Internet to read and watch material on running and triathlons. Specifically, I digest the material at Dean Karnazes website, YouTube, Xtri.com, Traithlete, Runner’s World, Wikipedia and pretty much anything else I can get my hands on. I know that by cramming on this information I will have something to refer to throughout the day.
9am - I finish my shift. I hurry home, shower, change, and then have to race down town to buy some new shoes, knowing I have a job interview at 11.30am. Why did I leave it so late? Simple: today is payday. I get everything I needed, but in the process don’t find the time to have anything to eat for breakfast. Not good.
10am - Off to the interview. Thankfully I have arranged a ride. However, it is worth observing that at this point I have slept only 3.5 of the past 24 hours. I bring a transparent folder of notes and print-outs I have made that were relevant to the job (i.e., some last-minute swotting). I also include a couple of running articles that feature fairly motivational pictures, and bring Dean Karnazes’ book with me - just a quick glance at the cover will keep me focused.
11.30am-1pm - The interview. It went very well. Thanks for asking! 
We even spend a few minutes talking about running.
1pm - The journey back home begins. By this point I am totally famished. I start to move my mind from focusing on the interview to focusing on the run. I continuously think back to the videos and articles I digested earlier this morning, and take a moment to read the print-outs I had included in my folder.
2.30pm - We stop to eat. I had sea bass and crayfish risotto. It was fantastic. However, as I eat a low-GI diet six days a week, it was possibly not the wisest of choices, even if my options on the menu were relatively limited. Prior to this I had not eaten white rice in months. I turn down the offer of a beer - I have to run later, I say. (This alone is a useful motivational tool, because by sharing my plans with another person, I have put it ‘out there’, and this makes it harder for me to talk myself out of it.)
3.20pm - I collect my kids from school.
4pm - Back home. At this stage all I am thinking about is my run. I haven’t slept for 26.5 hours straight, and have only had a total of 3.5 hours in the past 30. I quickly dismiss these thoughts, however - plenty of time for sleep after the run.
4.20pm - I run. Does it feel good? Not really. Is it difficult? Yes - the presence of a gale force wind against me on the way out did not help - it takes me about 30 seconds longer than normal to reach my turnaround point. Does it hurt? A bit - the food in my stomach feels like a baseball-sized rock. It bounces around and makes me feel quite nauseous.
4.42pm - I finish my run (22 minutes). I cool/warm down for a few minutes, and then head home. I shower.
5pm - The joy of bed.
8pm - I’m awake. I eat a nutritious dinner of grilled chicken and salad.
10pm - I’m back at work for my third consecutive 11-hour shift, and I begin writing this article.
If I had to plot a chart of this day, it would look like this.
What this hopefully shows is how up to the point of my run I had done everything in my power to keep it within my thoughts, and do to so at all times in a positive manner. At no stage did I let myself start to feel negative about ‘having to run’, even though it would have been very easy to do so.
Clearly, by 4.20pm I was completely exhausted, and I had every right to be. But because I kept motivational resources at arm’s length throughout the day, and used every opportunity to remind myself that I was going to run later (by introducing it into conversation, for example, both at the interview and over lunch), it became an inevitability - it was going to happen. I was so focused on this reality that to some extent it felt like it already had.
Once the run was complete, my motivational processing went from a ten to a one, almost instantly. This is also an important step. You can’t maintain that level of focus indefinitely. You need to relax the mind.
By the time my head touched the pillow at 5pm, I was asleep in less than one minute.
Good thing, too - to some extent, albeit in a day that should be slightly less chaotic, I have to do this all over again tomorrow.
Wow, that is some focus!
I think we all have days when we feel like we can’t fit in a workout, but you’re right - you just to stay focussed then you will do it.
Incidentally, I’ve started running again. I’m not doing the daily thing - I’m running every other day. Last week I ran 5k every other day - and this week I’m moving it up to 7k every other day.
I’m pretty slow at the moment - it takes me around 34 minutes to do 5k, but I’m not worrying about the time, just concerned with not stopping and/or walking. Besides which, I figure I will get faster as I keep training.
Baby steps I know, but I’m feeling pretty good.
Exactly. Speed at this stage isn’t an issue for me either. I reached the two week mark yesterday - fourteen consecutive days of running - and today I’ll raise my running time to 25 minutes per day for the next week or so. It’s going well, even despite having a head cold the past few days, which I think, thankfully, is now over.
Great stuff on your own running.