Motivating yourself

[durron597]

Starting this off with a personal story:

I have always kinda vaguely wanted to get myself in shape and lose my gut for the last 5+ years. I would go on "health kicks" where I would diet for a month but not exercise or alternately I would lift weights maybe 6 times in 2 weeks and then stop. Reasons for stopping would be various "oh I'm tired today", or "I feel sick". One time I started going swimming and got swimmers ear the 2nd time out, bought swimming earplugs, they kept falling out because I suck at life, then I just felt like crap for awhile and got busy at my job and just stopped again.

However, I have now lifted weights 3 times a day and spent 45 minutes on the treadmill 6 times a week for a month straight. I have also completely restructured my diet, I eat breakfast every morning now and do the whole "lots of small meals" thing. I see no signs of me stopping any time soon. What's keeping me going? I paid $540 for 10 sessions with a personal trainer and I'll be damned if I waste all that money.

I wasn't going to post this thread because I have pretty high standards for threads I start in this forum but then I read this post in STTF. A pretty standard post really (not really important to click on); basically somebody asking "how do you get the discipline to spend enough hours grinding SnGs to make real money at them". Pineapple888 makes a great reply:

[ QUOTE ]


This has been asked 234124513456 times.

Typical answers:

1.) Just do it, you lazy bum.

2.) Work set hours. Although to some that feels too much like a job.

3.) External enforcement, either with someone you know in person, or prop bets/challenges.

If none of those things work, poker may not be the right career.

[/ QUOTE ]

Which got me thinking: I know a lot of the SnG regulars make prop bets about leaderboards and such with each other to keep themselves going in what boils down to, really, a very boring game (SnG poker, not all poker ldo).

I don't know where I'm going with this really. In college it was hard for me to motivate myself to do my schoolwork; except in group projects where other people were depending on me, and I had a much easier time. I guess the question I ask is - what do you all do to motivate yourself? I suppose many people (especially in this forum) have enough strength of character that they are just go-getters; doing what they need to do because that's the type of person they are. But if you're not that type of person - what do you do to achieve the same results?

[El Diablo]

durron,

One big motivator is having other people count on me. So, for work, it's having employees, investors and partners who count on me getting stuff done. For exercise, it's being on teams or having workout partners who depend on me being there. I definitely find external motivation like this pretty key in most aspects of my personal and professional life.

[tpir]

Good call on the other people factor. I tried for years and years to get back into shape but didn't break through until I joined a running program with a bunch of friends. Knowing I would be loled at for not showing was a huge boost to get my ass in gear for a change. Your milage my vary.

[amplify]

This has to do with the inherent disconnect between human beings and their perceptions of what will make them happy versus what actually does. Maybe I would be happy if I was 30 pounds lighter, but in the meantime I might really enjoy cookies and ice cream more than watching my diet. So this thing called "will power" goes away and another thing called "yummy donuts" arrives. The immediate pleasure is so much greater than the assumed future benefit that we have no chance. Or we can hold out for a week or a month or a year but eventually we cave. And we never just miss one workout or eat one donut, we miss a month and eat a box.

So the key seems to be getting the focus off of future results and putting it on the pleasure obtained immediately. Running a little faster today. Eating really tasty 300 calorie meals. Otherwise you face some dreary trudge on a stupid machine and rice cakes every day and it's not long before all that mess goes out the window.

So I keep myself motivated by setting a long-term goal and breaking that into smaller short-term goals and then breaking those into daily tasks that are at the least acceptable and at best enjoyable.

[ike]

[ QUOTE ]
This has to do with the inherent disconnect between human beings and their perceptions of what will make them happy versus what actually does. Maybe I would be happy if I was 30 pounds lighter, but in the meantime I might really enjoy cookies and ice cream more than watching my diet. So this thing called "will power" goes away and another thing called "yummy donuts" arrives. The immediate pleasure is so much greater than the assumed future benefit that we have no chance. Or we can hold out for a week or a month or a year but eventually we cave. And we never just miss one workout or eat one donut, we miss a month and eat a box.

So the key seems to be getting the focus off of future results and putting it on the pleasure obtained immediately. Running a little faster today. Eating really tasty 300 calorie meals. Otherwise you face some dreary trudge on a stupid machine and rice cakes every day and it's not long before all that mess goes out the window.

So I keep myself motivated by setting a long-term goal and breaking that into smaller short-term goals and then breaking those into daily tasks that are at the least acceptable and at best enjoyable.

[/ QUOTE ]

amplify, you are quickly becoming one of my favorite posters.
will you be my lifecoach/spiritualguide/rolemodel?

[BDaws]

Sponger,
Did he have any idea how much money you were making? 50 bucks a week as a ceiling for pay just wouldn't be worth it to run errands for me at least.

[ImsaKidd]

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Sponger,
Did he have any idea how much money you were making? 50 bucks a week as a ceiling for pay just wouldn't be worth it to run errands for me at least.

[/ QUOTE ]

His friend was a broke college student. Thats a very cushy/profitable job for a college kid IMO.

[Sponger.]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Sponger,
Did he have any idea how much money you were making? 50 bucks a week as a ceiling for pay just wouldn't be worth it to run errands for me at least.

[/ QUOTE ]

His friend was a broke college student. Thats a very cushy/profitable job for a college kid IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah if anything I was overpaying him. I had a few friends tell me they'd do the same job but for less money. The others were shocked that I was paying out that much to someone who wasn't really doing that much work.

Also, he did know how much money I was making.

[daryn]

[ QUOTE ]
Sponger,
Did he have any idea how much money you were making? 50 bucks a week as a ceiling for pay just wouldn't be worth it to run errands for me at least.

[/ QUOTE ]

how does it matter if sponger was making $1000 an hour or $50 an hour?

[ImsaKidd]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Sponger,
Did he have any idea how much money you were making? 50 bucks a week as a ceiling for pay just wouldn't be worth it to run errands for me at least.

[/ QUOTE ]

how does it matter if sponger was making $1000 an hour or $50 an hour?

[/ QUOTE ]

His friend might feel like he deserves more/sponger can pay more if his hourly was like 1k.