Keep Fueling The Fire

Motivation helps us accomplish some of the most toughest and intimidating things in life. Motivation can help you accomplish that new personal best at a race, it can help you work harder and make a big accomplishment such as obtaining a college degree, or it can help you make a strong comeback when you encountered a setback in life. I always hear about different ways people get motivated, but something I do not hear about a lot is just how they keep that motivation. Because if you do not continue to feed your motivation, you will eventually run out of it. As a runner, I find that my motivation can quickly be drained by the most grueling runs day after day. Not only is my body taking a beating, but so is my mind. And taking a beating like that for so long can drive you into the ground and zap away even the strongest motivation. So what do I do to keep my motivation strong? I remind myself every day why I am doing this. I think about and focus on the goals I want to obtain. Do I still have bad days despite this? Of course I do! But I do not let it faze me. I keep my eyes on the prize and remind myself that there will always be highs and lows. And I do this everyday, because I know that motivation is hard to hold on to. And in my opinion I think everyone should do something to feed their motivation everyday. Why? Because think of it this way, you would not let your car run on empty before you fill it up with gas again. So why would you let your motivation do the same?  And sometimes I find it resourceful to look back on past accomplishments to remind myself of the feeling I got when that moment happened. It makes me crave that feeling again. But the only way I am going to get it back is to go out there and put in the hard work to earn it. Things will get tough, whether its during training, during studying, or during life in general. But motivation is what will help you keep moving forward through those tough times. And it will help you discover an inner strength inside you that you may have not known was there.