Motivation
Recently I posted a comment in someone’s journal about motivation and decided to expand on the concept today. Lately I have been reading and hearing a lot about motivation or the lack thereof.
“I just can’t seem to get motivated” or “If I could just get motivated!” These are two of the most frequent complaints I come across and then follows a long list of reasons why motivation cannot be attained. As if it were some magic spell the weight loss fairy (not me) bestows on a lucky few. I hate to tell you this but….
There’ s no such thing as motivation. There. I said it.
Not in the way most people think anyway.
I’m a musician. A damn good one too. But I didn’t start out that way. I’ve had years and years of classical training in voice and piano. I’m talking years of blood, sweat and tears. Not once during those years did any of my coaches and teachers mention the word motivation. It’s not in a musician’s vocabulary to tell you the truth. It’s fool’s gold. In other words, a false hope.
As a musician you learn to set up a routine of training and practice. Practice time is sacrosanct. Lucky for me I spent my childhood learning this lesson. My dad is a phenomenal guitar player and had the priviledge of jamming with guitar virtuosos like Buck Owens and Chet Atkins. Yes folks, he’s that good. He played for dances throughout northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. I used to fall asleep back stage to his music. Mom would lay coats on the floor and we’d snuggle up and listen while he played. When my mom’s depression was severe he would sit on the floor next to the couch playing and singing as mom laid on the couch. He is extremely shy about singing and would only sing to her. We would crack the bedroom door open and fall asleep to him serenading my mother. He sounds a lot like Jim Reeves.
Sorry about that trip down memory lane but, I have a point. he didn’t start out an excellent guitar player. It took years of practice and dedication. Notice I’m not using the word motivation. My dad used to say, “You can go broke waiting on motivation.” That is so true.
This is related to weight loss in many ways. Get a routine. Set up a schedule. Make sure that everyone who interacts with you in your life understands that it is very important to you. Don’t allow anyone or anything to interfere with your schedule. You’re a skinny person in training. You don’t start out as a weight loss expert. It takes time. It takes a routine. It takes effort. Blood, sweat and tears folks. It’s hard at first and you wonder if you’ll ever be any good at it. But as you go along you realize it gets easier and things that you found hard before are much easier. Slowly and surely your proficiency increases and your mistakes decrease. But this can only happen with practice and dedication.
For example, a year ago I decided to learn the mandolin. I have never picked up a stringed instrument before and I was a bit intimidated. Not only was I learning the mandolin but I wanted to learn bluegrass style. This style has it’s own techniques that you don’t see in most music genres. So I had to tailor my training to include these techniques.
The same goes with weight loss. I have found what works for me (Dr. Gott) and have modified it to fit my lifestyle. With the mandolin my fingers weren’t designed for stringed instruments and I have to do some substitutions to work around my physical deficiencies.
Sound familiar?
So, don’t depend on motivation to get you through life. Find a plan and routine that works for you and treat it as the most important thing in your life (aside from God and Family that is). You’ll find that it works and the more you do it, the easier it gets.
This is a great blog!
That’s always been my problem - I needed to make a plan and stick to it. And it’s finally working now that I’m more determined and have been encouraged by my buddy slim friends. Thanks for your words of wisdom.
Great post Sam. I’ve never looked at it from this perspective but I completely agree with you.
I was never a morning person, didn’t like to exercise, didn’t know the difference between a barbell and a dumbell, didn’t know a roundhouse from a side kick, but after exercising for a couple of years, albeit hiccups in between, I’m a gym rat, love to work out. People thinks I’m high on drugs when they see me after a workout.
I was telling my boyfriend last night I have to force an off day today but a day without working out feels like a day without my right arm.
“Do, or do not. There is no ‘try.’”
— Jedi Master Yoda
K
Baby steps for us all.
Great blog Sam. I’m going to have to borrow the phrase ‘Skinny Person in Training’ and turn it into a badge & sign for my desk when I get back to placement to remind myself & everyone else what journey i’m on.
Thank you….you really got it right. I like the phrase also…gonna have a shirt made…”skinny person in training”. Thanks for a great blog and a new perspective on so called motivation!
You made perfect sense. I have not looked at it in that way before. I am a “skinny person” in training from now on. Thanks for the blog
Thanks Sam! You are so right!
great blog! we all need motivation
I agree about the practice and dedication…slow and steady there she goes…
BUT…I don’t want to argue…(oh no…here she goes: )but I believe in motivation as defined like this: Motivation refers to the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of human behavior.
I think there is such a thing…it can be internal or external. It is a desire within. Selfish or unselfish. It is the gasoline that gets us where we are going…but not the engine.
Your dad was motivated by his desire to help your mom even when he didn’t want to sing out loud…
You picked up the mandolin, because you wanted to learn bluegrass style…
I know I am motivated to lose weight…because I want to be free from it! I am not AS motivated as some of the people here that are willing to only eat certain foods, or go to the gym multiple times a day…but I am motivated…because there is a skinny girl trapped in here…and she really wants out: )
One of my friends here has a motivational list that she reads when she starts to lose steam and it re-lights the fire in her to keep going…on those days she needs fuel for her engine.
ok…I’ll be quiet now…: )
“There’ s no such thing as motivation. There. I said it.
Not in the way most people think anyway.”
I thought I had clarified that. What I’m referring to is motivation as some kind of magic panacea.
Composers can be motivated by nature or a true love hence Chopin’s Fur Elise and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons but to utilize the motivation you have to have the background in education and training to express that motivation.
That’s all I’m sayin’
excuse me.. Fur Elise is Beethoven. I had a brain fart.
You’ve got it!! Juat keep doing it and doing it and it will happen! Don’t feel like exercise….TOUGH! You exercise. Want to nosh all day? TOUGH! Stick with your plan and have a cup of white tea. Big bear hug, ole Marge
Yes Sam. I was 5 years old when my daddy bought a piano. And for three long years I was doing exercising and driving myself crazy and my mom crazy. I cried and complained. I pouted and stomped my feet. It was BORING! Difficult! Time consuming!!!
Then came a day when i could play Beethoven and Mozart. Then came a day when I enjoyed the piano and loved the music.
By the way, my dad is a classical guitar player. A really good one. And he was self-taught. Hours of practice.
The weight loss is the same. Start slowly, accept resistance, plug alone, and don’t look for immediate gratification.
I hope you are feeling better.
((SAM))
WOW Sam! You said it! It’s not about motivation, it’s about following a routine. Thanks for the reminder!
YAY, I love this post! Well said
Freaking awesome tough love. My favorite quote… “I’m a skinny person in training.” Well, yes I am! Awesome blog.