Finding My Motivation Ninja!

Joy here...I've written before about being a leader not a follower, and what I mean by that is a comment about motivation.  One might be motivated by the challenge of being passed by a faster bike rider or a faster runner out there, or one might be motivated by staying ahead of someone else.  And by that impersonal, third-person "one," what I really mean to say is that the very personal, first-person "I" struggle with trying to discover what motivates me best.

Because in discovering that motivation, I may well be motivated.

Maybe.

I hope.

As you can guess, I struggle with motivation.  February was a tough month when it comes to workouts, and while March has been better, it's not been a knock-it-out-of-the-ballpark success.

But one thing that I've learned that helps with motivation issues is that it's not like I can just sit and wait until motivation magically lands in my lap.  Instead, I have to get out there and run and ride and workout and in so doing, slowly but surely I will build in the motivation to keep doing that.

So even though it's spring and the temperatures are still freezing, I'm going to get out there on our new snow bike and go for a ride.  And tomorrow I'm going to hit my run workout.

And slowly but surely when the weather starts to warm up, I will find that with the arrival of spring and new buds on the green shoots, there will be new buds and green shoots of motivation taking root in my heart.  And then, my friends, I may just emerge out of this winter.

Joy the motivation ninja!

Over and out,

Joy

Keep Moving Forward

Joy here...So I've been a terrible blogger and a terrible sportiste (um, what's the word for sport-doing-person?).  But I'm about to change all of that.

Even though spring is being its bi-polar self, swinging from -10C one day to +10C the next, I'm feeling like the unending cold of February and the attendant funk seems to be lifting.  I'm starting to feel guilty about not getting out there and doing sport throughout February, but March is a new month, a chance to start over, looking forward, not backwards.

Which got me thinking about a great quotation from Martin Luther King Jr.  He once said:

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

And that makes a whole lotta sense to me right now...you have to keep moving forward...

I spent much of 2014 on planes, in cars, and generally travelling back and forth.  I spent more time in other places than in my own home throughout 2014, but hung onto some fitness by the skin of my teeth, but now with the start of 2015, I've been focused on some aspects of business development that have kept me rooted in Ottawa for much longer periods of time than any in recent memory.  This stasis has kept me static...I've been busy and buried under tasks which have taken precedence over sport.  Never a good thing.

But I really do feel like I "have to keep moving forward," forward in life, and since I truly, deeply, honestly believe that sport affects life and success in sport gives dividends in life, if I am not moving forward in sport, there's a good chance that no matter how busy I am and how much I think I'm getting done in the rest of life, I won't really be moving forward.

Soooooo...I just signed up for my first running race of 2015, a 5km race at the end of May...here's to moving forward!

That's me...moving forward!

Just keep moving forward,

Joy

Ups and Downs, and then some more Downs...

Joy here...Okay, so my last post was in October when we got back from a whirlwind trip to Malaysia and I did a 5km running race right upon our return to Ottawa.  Then there's been a bit of radio silence.  My mom used to say:  "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all."  And, well, I guess that sums up the past 5 months or so.  They were/are 5 months of one of the toughest winters I can remember in a loooooooong time.

We had another whirlwind trip to Malaysia planned, but because we were a little behind on our business milestones, we ended up taking no time off and, instead, had our computer programmers move into our Malaysian apartment to work around the clock with us for 6 days.

Working around the clock...not much of a Christmas break!

Then we came back to Canada to find ourselves in the midst of what felt like a very long and hard winter.

Panoramic view of the interior Dome and running track (with me in my pink parka!)

But now it's March and I'm slowly clawing myself out of the winter doldrums.  I've probably gained a bunch of weight (I'm too afraid to step on the scale to confirm it one way or the other), but I've been hitting my Saturday morning workouts at the interior Dome in Ottawa, and I've even done a few little runs outside.  I've gone for one cross country ski and one ice skate this winter; heck, I even went for a ride on a "snow bike."

Me, The Man, and "Fatty," our new snow bike!

I find when in this situation, it's best to think of life in terms of its ups and downs.  There will always be ups and downs, and so long as I keep that perspective and enjoy the ups and survive the downs, it'll all even out in the end.

So here's to evening out...Hey, did someone say let's have an evening out????

Joy