What a great photo. Someone out exploring the Mountains on their Mountain Bike. Now I love to go out on my Bike, though I'm not quite as adventurous as this fellow clearly is. Also, I live out in the Fens in Whittlesey which is in Cambridgeshire, so it happens to be one of the flattest places in the United Kingdom. This means that a realistic picture of me would be on a very flat peice of road with only a few potholes for added adventure and danger on my journey.
All the same, I'm not out on my Bike like this guy is, though I would really like to be. I'm also not really training much either at the moment, yet a few weeks ago I was cycling 30k in Spain and exercising nearly every day in some way or another. So whats happened?
Lack of Motivation is whats happened. Which is something that those who possess very little of, very often think that those that have it, find being motivated as easy as switching on the TV or ordering a Pizza. The reason these people like to think that motivation is just easy and natural for others is that it gives them a reason outside of their own responsibility to have some kind of unavoidable genetic fault which makes it hard for them. Basically, an excuse.
Unfortunatley, for those of us that really do make all the hard choices and have to really try hard to be disciplined, it's a very large insult to be told that we find it easy, by someone who just clearly has no concept of the meaning.
I was in Spain a few weeks ago and the weather was lovely, plus I had a friend with me who loves going out cycling and exercising so I will admit that it did make motivation extremely easy. I am now sat at home in my office at around 4pm in Whittlesey, it's nearly dark, it's raining and a Hurricane called Barney is apparently moving it's way across the UK towards us with wind speeds of 70mph. Motivation as at an all time low. I did try cycling a few days ago but it was like cycling through mud as the wind was blowing in my face. It was also not very warm and the road was still greasy wet from earlier rain. I have even been in my Barn for a workout several times, but this has usually fizzled out quite early on.
I look at the picture on this blog and it certainly motivates me to want to jump on a Mountain Bike and go exploring. Trouble is, the sky on the picture is bright blue with some wisps of light cloud and the grass is lush green with gorgeous Mountains in the backdrop and I then look out my window and realize that it could be actual suicide to get on my bike right now in this weather. It does motivate me to book a flight though to Spain.
What is my point?
Motivation is hard. It is hard for everyone including me and I am not immune to feeling really fed up with grey skies, wind and rain. I'm also tempted by bad food instead of healthy food and late nights instead of early ones.
Motivation comes from within and motivation differs from person to person. I have friends that have different hobbies to me. They may get up at the crack of dawn and travel in a car for 3 hours to watch an air show or go to a classic car rally. I couldn't find the motivation to do that, but thats because I have no interest in it. So when someone says it must be easy for me to exercise, keep fit and healthy, thats not true. Whats true is that I have an interest in it and I care about it. And it's this that makes it easier for me to be motivated by it.
So motivation exists in all of us in some way or another. If you want to find motivation for exercise, then choose a type of exercise that you feel is of interest to you, as opposed to something that you feel you should do or it's the latest trend.
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