I was having a conversation with a coworker today about what motivates us to train or exercise. The topic of motivational quotes came up. No surprise there, they seem to appear everywhere these days and I’m wondering whether they’ve lost their special meaning.
Do all those little quotes really mean anything?
I thought, of course! She wasn’t convinced. And she had a point.
The little snippets of motivation on Facebook or the blogs you read or on the walls of your gym or pages of the magazine you’re reading mean nothing at all unless you’re prepared to act on them. They aren’t the ones making you get out of bed at 4:30am and dragging your butt to a spin class. There not the ones making you push through mile 20 when all you want to do is sit down, put your feet up and eat a chocolate brownie. It’s you doing the hard yakka.
Motivation comes from within. You make the choice to get up and train or you choose to hit snooze and get an extra hour of sleep because you stayed up watching NCIS till midnight the night before. It’s all up to you ladies and gents, and you better believe it.
Motivational sayings do have a place though. Even world class athletes use them to push through a race. ‘Pain is temporary, pride is forever’, that’s certainly one to remember when you’ve just swam 2km, cycled 90km and still have a half marathon ahead of you.
I recall running the marathon a few months back and to push through the pain all I was thinking was ‘Move it biatch, you’re not giving up now. You can do it, you can do it.” as well as other obscenities I’d rather not mention here and would never say to somebody else. Maybe if I had a powerful quote meaningful to me it would push me harder and help me get a PB. Maybe not. At least it’s something to try next year.
In Chrissie Wellington’s autobiography ‘Life Without Limits’ and also many articles featuring her, she mentions writing Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’ on her drink bottle before each race. She’s one thirteen out of thirteen Ironman’s so maybe she’s onto something.
I think what these motivational quotes do is remind us that we can achieve what at first may seem impossible. These quotes are there to give us that push when the going gets tough, a shove in the right direction. However, once social media saturates us with them, it’s easy to become immune to their meanings.
Lately, when I’m reading these types of quotes on Facebook or other social media, I find them more annoying than motivational. They mean nothing unless you do something with them. There are a few favourite that always light my fire but there are many more that no longer have the same effect.
Do you use motivational quotes when training or racing?
