True to my SELF: How to stay motivated

Lucy Danziger, True to my SELF, SELF Magazine

Another true confession: Sometimes I just don't want to get out of bed in the morning to fit in my workout.

Sometimes I just want to sleep in, then make a pot of coffee and read the paper. Or I manage to strap on the sneakers but after two or three minutes of plodding along I don't feel like keeping going.

This happened yesterday, Sunday, on what was supposed to be my long run. (Really the only one I have to do because I have no excuses on Sunday.) My body felt stiff and my knees wooden. My muscles didn't work the way they should and my body said let's just turn back and go have a nice cup of coffee on the couch. At that point I had zero motivation, but I have a ritual when this happens. I tell myself, "give it five more minutes" (for a total of seven) and then if it still doesn't feel good I get to stop and have a day off. I chalk it up to fatigue, or too much stress and too little sleep. And guess what? I usually do feel better within those five minutes, and my mind starts to wander away from sore joints and toward something distracting like the work I am excited by or the plans with the family for the afternoon, and before I realize it I've run another mile, and things feel pretty fluid and I keep going, happily.

Motivation has little to do with it. Simply, there are days when I have every reason to feel like sleeping in...like the morning last week after my dog had to (I mean HAD TO!) go out at 2:17 am for her business and then I got up and realized my son, a teenager, was still awake and his sleepover pal needed the air mattress blown up and we couldn't find the pump (because it was put away someplace totally illogical...which I can only blame myself for since I didn't put it away the last time) and after the hunt and the find and the inflating of the mattress and the bed being made and the boys put to bed and the dog getting walked (a short little circuit) and the lost hour of sleep, I still got up to meet my team for an early morning ride and that's when, coffee in hand, I crashed my bike. So yes, some days I just don't have the usual mojo no matter how much I try.

But other days, like yesterday, after a tough start and the usual promise that I will stop in five minutes if it doesn't feel good, something (endorphins? the sugar overload of the night before? Or even the beauty of the day?) kicked in and my body felt like it smoothed out, the way a car that needs warming up begins to run smoothly, and finally I had a fun, enjoyable run. Better than average, in fact.

On days when I'm feeling stronger or lighter on my feet and more motivated than usual, I say I had my "grrrr" on. That is what you wish for on race day mornings. You want to feel like a lioness, all bold and fluidly strong. On days when I just can't get going, I call it "not having my mojo." Well last weekend I had no mojo at all; got as far on my bike as West Hampton (about an hour) and should have turned around and rode the 18 miles home but instead I stopped for coffee and that was it. Called the hubby and convinced him that the ENTIRE family really wanted to come to me, then keep driving another 20 miles to the big Super Saturday event and benefit in Bridgehampton, and that if they brought me a sundress and some sandals we'd all have so much fun! Twenty minutes and two cups of coffee and the NY Post later I was rescued. It was definitely an expensive way out of the last half of my ride (I basically had to buy them whatever they wanted at the benefit, but we all had fun and it was for a great cause...the Ovarian Cancer Fund), but you can't pull that stunt very often!

So, when people ask me how I get motivated and how I do it-train for these triathlons and balance being a working mom who loves her job and her family-the answer is in the question. I am motivated BECAUSE it's for a goal. I get out of bed when I don't want to because I think I have to, now that I have committed to the race date. I don't always feel so great (or find my grrrr power) but goal-setting works for me. More than a number on the scale. More than just about anything other than being on a team in high school and college (peer pressure is powerful too, after all) the fact that there is a goal is the exact thing that makes me get up and get out there.

What's your secret? What's your challenge? Want to reach your own goal? Decide, plan, and then get ready to get into the best shape of your life. It's easy here at Self.com where the Reach Your Goal program is about to kick off, in two weeks. Sign up for the Reach Your Goal program right here at Self.com, starting August 18th.


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