Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Motivation and the "fitness bug" bite


The "fitness bug" bite can provide us with a long term or short term jolt of motivation.  It ignites the fire that burns and keeps us going or gets us started in fitness, but where do these “bugs” live?

There are many flavors of motivation that can impact our lives, the motivation I'm referring to relates more towards fitness and health and not necessarily to the motivation that drives us to succeed in our careers or our relationships, although sometimes they do feed off one another.   Sometimes the source can be right under our nose hiding in plain sight and sometimes it's like a cold slap to the face:)

I hope everyone still remembers their first "fitness bug" bite and still feeds off the fire.  There are several places where these "bugs" are plentiful and are sure to bite you.  The beach is obviously one, but even better than that, how about family reunions or high school reunions, yeah all kinds of "bugs" live at reunions! 

My friend Steve, who never really had an interest in getting fit, finally got bit by the "fitness bug".  It so happens he went to his family reunion in Iowa a few weeks ago and was severely bitten both figuratively and literally.  All of his relatives were thin and somewhat in decent shape due to their way of life.  Getting up at the crack of dawn and working the fields seemed to keep his relatives in good shape, even the young kids are up early, running around and playing outside.  After a few days of this, he began to take a long hard look at himself and his way of life and then the paranoia started.  He started to wonder what his relatives and his friends back home thought of him and with every glance from his relatives the fire grew stronger.  Of course his family was not judging him, but sometimes what we already suspect or know about what we need to do is under our nose, we just need a little slap of motivation to see it. 
 
Steve returned from his trip, like a cat getting sprayed with water, he was fired up and joined the local gym the next business day and even started working out two times a day.  Although Steve was real motivated and eager to get started, one must be careful not to over do it at the beginning.  The jolt of motivation the “fitness bug” provides may bring you in too hot sometimes so be careful and make it last, and don’t get injured. 

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending." 
~Maria Robinson


Read more about Motivation and how to make the “bite” last, review the SFF elements

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