Motivation 103: Just Do It

Winter Joggers in Prospect Park

Judging by the stats recorded in my dashboard, my reach is worldwide (as I hoped). Thank you all for reading. Even though you don’t comment directly on this page (and I’m perfectly cool with that), your feedback is much appreciated. Some of you have reached out to me sharing some of your challenges and personal concerns. I’m not claiming to be a life expert (and I’m surely not perfect) but it is cool that I can share some of my experiences that gives you some insight into your own. The stats indicate that not only do I have readers in the United States, but my friends in France, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand have all taken some time to read some of my postings.

Anyway, last time I talked about how the environment and events around you can sometime be so overwhelming that it puts a damper on whatever you are trying to accomplish. Lately, I have been having a hard time motivating myself to run and train for my next race. I don’t really like to call these excuses: but things like my knee hurting and weather events hinder me from going out there as much as I should. I know this isn’t rocket science, but a lot of it has to do with my motivation to just do it. In previous races, it was simple… I sign up and work my best every day with scheduled training runs and complimentary rest before the event. I guess now I realize that my motivation needs to be strong in order for me to get back to where I was. I say this because lately I have been hesitating to sign up for races.

One thing I know about myself is that when I am motivated to do something, I keep moving forward and worry about whatever later. Case in point, back in 2004 I was on one of my many drives across the United States. With my then career-related goal in mind , I did not hesitate to think about the danger of driving through unpopulated areas of this country, nor did I care about the sweltering 115 degree heat of the Mojave Desert with no rest stops or water for over a hundred miles, nor the four days of driving it took for me to reach Los Angeles from New York City. I had the motivation to do it, and did not spend too much time anticipating the obstacles. Where did that motivation come from? Hard for me to say, but I did set a goal and did what it took to get there. To me, that’s very simple.

It is often harder than it sounds. Corporate managers go through hours of training in how to motivate themselves and their underlings, using theories like Maslow, Herzberg, and Theory X and Y, blah blah (boring to read but applying it is insightful). It doesn’t seem that scientific to me. Nike had an ad slogan back in the day that runs across my mind all the time, “Just Do It.” Yeah. In my perspective, it’s that simple. Don’t overthink, just do. So maybe I need to just sign up for a race. Whatever the case, I have the end goal of running the New York City marathon, whether it is this year or next year (hopefully this year), it will happen. Whenever I feel I am ready to train hard again, regardless of what is happening around me, I will “JUST DO IT”.