On my last two visits to my folks that live just south of Tulsa, I have purchased a one week pass to Life Time Fitness. It is a huge two story gym with the latest fitness equipment. Everything from pools, basketball courts, a rock climbing area, to the traditional weight machines and treadmills. To this wide eyed country boy it looked like hundreds of treadmills grazing a 40 acre pasture. It is immense and dwarfs the gym I use in Ulysses. It offered me a pleasurable place to maintain my workout schedule.
Motivation, I struggle with it from time to time. There is stuff I know I should tackle that just gets put off, delayed till I either forget about it or it the desire goes away. Eating right is a common example we all relate to, we know we should yet those Girl Scout cookies overcome what willpower or motivation we have. We can start that project tomorrow, and have the cookies today. If there is no urgency, no immediacy I can sometimes lack the motivation to undertake the task. If you add a little discomfort, pain, or require some money I can become slow to act. This is not the same as procrastination but it sure must be its paternal twin.
When I look at people in almost any venture I think the difference between success and failure is contained in how individuals respond when things appear to be non-urgent and how they respond to fear and discomfort. The successful see urgency when others do not. When facing fear or discomfort some become frozen, unable to act, the successful are called to action.
We could use some new appliances and some new furniture, stuff we can afford but I really don’t need today, so I don’t fork over the money, I delay. Now as soon as I miss a supper you can bet I’ll have that new microwave the next morning. Let my coffee brewer go on the blink and I’ll be on my way to the nearest 24 hour Wal-Mart faster than you can say “Good to the last Drop”. Sometimes I am frozen, sometimes I respond with acts of urgency.
Not only does this paralysis appear in me with larger purchases but sometimes it can show itself during my workouts. Last week I was running on a treadmill with the goal of something over 10 miles “maybe I can get in 12 today” I thought. At 6 miles I was truthfully feeling good, at 7 still great. Between 7 and 8 I started to fade and each tenth of a mile ticked by slowly. Each step wore on my determination and willpower. I was visiting an unfamiliar gym and running on an unfamiliar treadmill. Suddenly the treadmill went into cool down mode and slowed my pace, I stutter stepped, regained my balance, bumped up my speed, and returned to my original pace. A few seconds later the machine slowed my pace again. I lost my focus and the doubts crept in, “were my knees about to give out?” Frustrated I stepped off, picked up my wallet and my phone which was currently serving me my latest favorite music. Then I went to get a drink of water.
I came back, set my phone and wallet in the cups at the front of a different treadmill and pressed start. I was stubbornly determined to finish. However, my body and mind argued. I was done, too tired to go further, muscles cramping, calves sore, back aching, knees slightly swollen. I resigned and picked up my phone, “I didn’t have to do this today”, I told myself, “there is no urgency”, “the Chicago Marathon isn’t till October”. I walked down stairs to the showers. Justifying myself for quitting.
As I walk into the men’s locker room downstairs and on the other side of this pasture full of fitness equipment and perspiring athletes I realized I had left my wallet, which on this rare occasion had a sizable amount of cash in it. My heart leapt, the adrenaline flowed, I spun, sprinted to the stairs, bounded up two flights skipping every other step, and raced across the wide building to the treadmills on the opposite side, my wallet is there and so is the cash. I walked briskly back and down the stairs with a smile. Seconds ago I was too tired, seconds ago I was in pain, seconds ago I could not jog another step, and now I was not even breathing hard. An active response to fear can be exhilarating.
Fear those things that ask for no action, that say there is no urgency, that call for complacency. Greatly fear the things that ask you to give up, and especially those that offer up an excuse. Run!
David
