Sunday Story…Laser Focus

Let’s talk motivation. Why is it that sometimes it is easy to stick to your program, easy to keep your eyes on the prize and other times all it takes is one little distraction and poof! You are off your goal path.

Motivation is a funny thing. What works for one person doesn’t work at all for another. What works for you this time won’t work at all next time.

Sometimes it is the nature of the challenge. Sometimes it is the motivation itself. Sometimes it is your nature. Yep…I just went there. You are a quitter. You have been training yourself to quit stuff all the time. So when the going get a little rough, when your partner doesn’t show up, when daylight savings time comes or goes you decide it’s easier to give up than it is to show up.

I get it. You start something and then the next shiny thing crosses your path and zip…there you go. Off to the races after that thing like a kitten running from room to room chasing imaginary mice. You can’t do that and be successful. You can’t do that and hit your goals. You can’t do that and finish anything.

Here are some concrete tips to maintain focus:

Just do it. You aren’t “feeling” it today? Tough luck, suck it up buttercup and do it anyway. No matter what it is, you will always feel better when you are done than if you don’t do it at all

Celebrate how far you have come, not how far you have to go. You started; you made progress…do the happy dance. Lather, rinse and repeat. Realize that the plateaus are not losses but the new take off point.

Break it down into small pieces. You eat an elephant one bite at a time. Looking at writing a novel can be daunting but one page? Not so much. Every journey begins with a single step.

Burn the boats. Make it so you have no choice but to be successful. I used to snow board shirtless and in shorts (in the spring!) and if I fell it was like hitting the asphalt with bare skin at high speeds. I called it an exercise in focus. You can’t fall. Falling is going to be costly. Your focus will get much sharper if you have no choice but to succeed.

Focus is the key to staying motivated. If you can’t stay focused your motivation will wane and disappear. If you flit from thing to thing you will always be frustrated by your progress, of lack thereof.

Learn to maintain laser beam focus and all of your goals will be in sight.

John Mariotti

www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday–stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412