Goals

Here we are, back again. Sorry for the extended absence but it was for a good cause.

The trip away over the weekend went very well, a great relaxing time camping with friends and family. Boy am I exhausted now though. A combination of a busy weekend of solid activity and a poor sleep last night makes for a tired me.

I was very keen to get out for a bit of exercise this morning, but once I was up this morning the will to do so very rapidly evaporated.

I am a big proponent for getting up and getting the work done, no matter what. Tired, fatigued, no matter, get on with it. Consistently doing the work day in, day out is what gets results, simple as that. One thing that nearly every champion has in common is their lack of excuses. They do the work unless they are injured or unwell. It is a message I am well familiar with and I personally know the truth of. Less excuses, more work

However, part of the problem for me this morning came from the fact that I am not really training for anything at the moment. When I was racing, the ultimate motivation came from the fact that I knew I had a race to get ready for, the countdown was on. Nothing got me out of bed like the fear that I would get to race day and not be ready. I know this sort of motivation varies from person to person, but for me an event was the ultimate driver, it still is. This is one of the reasons that I usually encourage people to set goals when they are exercising. Races are good goals as they can't be moved, but other types of goals can be useful too, the key is putting a time frame on them.

With respect to exercise at the moment I have vague goals, lose some weight, get better at paddling, get fitter again etc. These are admirable goals and are motivating, but they are long term goals and as such are not time critical. It is hard to get bent out of shape about missing a session when you are working on a 12 month timescale. In the context of a year, one session really doesn't make much difference to long term goals. As such, it was pretty hard to get myself out of bed this morning.

However, I know that missing a session can become a problem if that one session becomes two, or you are consistently missing one session/week. As such, in order to achieve any goals, long term or otherwise, it is important to not get in the habit of skipping exercise. I may have no pressure on myself, but I do want to achieve my goals and as such I need to be consistent. I suspect it may be time to set some smarter goals. Give myself something to work towards.