How Inspiration Fuels Motivation

Swimming California from Jamie Patrick on Vimeo.

Motivation by itself isn't enough to get the job done.  That's why you often hear people say, "I'm looking for motivation." There is a gap between a goal and the motivation to do it and it's called inspiration.

Inspiration is what actually causes motivation.  Remove the inspiration and motivation quickly becomes frustration and then failure.  Why is this and where do you find it?  Let's check it out and also look at some examples -

Inspiration is when you see a goal so clearly, you can actually visualize yourself doing it.  Not only that, but the path is something you see as pretty much the only way in life, and obstacles are just temporary roadblocks that you easily push aside.  Motivation is a result of this inspiration, more of a symptom of upcoming success than anything else.

What really helps Inspiration come to life is to find a role model.  When you can actually see somebody doing what you want to do, it makes it all that much easier to replace them with yourself in your mind's eye.  Then, boom!  You have everything you need to be sufficiently inspired and then motivated.

Check out the above video of Jamie Patrick swimming.  This is a perfect example of a role model that can inspire to motivate.  When he asked me to swim across Lake Tahoe with him, it took me all of 0.0001 seconds to say yes.  There was a map on his wall of his previous crossing, he would make sure I was OK, and we would have fun.  It was easy to visualize me doing it, so I was sufficiently inspired.

When I ran into obstacles to get in the training, I practically mowed them down like a bulldozer.  Pool closed?  Find another pool.  Pool not open long enough?  Find another pool.  Not enough lanes?  Fight for more lanes.  Not enough time?  Get up earlier.  Bad nutrition on a swim?  Go back the very next day and try it again.  There was absolutely nothing that was going to stop me from getting in the training to finish that swim.  I was sufficiently inspired to be motivated.

Now let's look at this picture of Rich Roll.  This is the exact same picture I put up right above my pull up bar in my house.  It was this combination that led me to losing 15 pounds and getting to the same weight I was when I was captain of my high school swim team.  When I struggled with nutrition, I saw this picture and then asked myself what Rich Roll would eat.  With this image in my head, I was inspired to be motivated to eat as well as possible, and had my best-performing year in triathlon ever.

To summarize, and if you read between the lines, it's inspiration that allows you to blast through obstacles that halt your motivation.  When you have inspiraton, the distance between you and success is nearly zero.  It's only a matter of time until you get there, because it has now become your destiny. Even when Emily made fun of my picture of Rich Roll above my pull up bar and asked if he was my boyfriend, I didn't take it down.  I wasn't about to take it down.  It was working.  In fact, when what she said didn't bother me, I knew I was on the right track.

Lucky for you, there are tons of inspiring people on the Internet.  Anything that you want to has loads of great role models that can inspire you to have the motivation to hit that goal.  Your job is to find those people.  What's stopping you?

How to Fail at a diet

STEEL cut oats, not STEAL cut oats.

I was forwarded this picture by a buddy and it made me think about how people take diets to extremes, causing some pretty epic fails.

Even though dieting might seem simple, there's a lot more to it than you'd think.  It's a whole study of psychology and sociology that we are not even close to figuring out.  Still, there are some basic truths that experienced dieters can tell you:

1. Don't take it too seriously. 

Look, there's a lot more to life than just what you put in your mouth. The point is to eat to fuel a great life and get out there and live it, not just focus 100% on food all the time. If you're living for food, then you've got things a little backwards.

2. Don't try to convince everyone around you.

The best way to get others to follow you is to lead by example. Not everybody is as interested in the same things you are, or should they be.   You will drive people away by being all preachy about things. When you demonstrate success, people will come to you for advice.  When they come to you, they are actually listening. 

3. Don't diet for the wrong reasons.

The way you eat has to ring true with your inner vision of how you see yourself. Do it for superficial reasons or to impress others and you will run out of motivation quickly.

4. Don't think that what you are trying is the last way you will ever need to try.

Did you know that eggs are bad for you? Wait, they're good for you, just like chocolate. Hold on, chocolate is bad for you.  Crap, where were we again?  If you think the current knowledge on diet and nutrition is the final word, you're smoking kale. Don't be absolutely rigid about a certain way to eat and be open to learn from others.  We are only just beginning to understand how the human body really works.

Podcast - Training with Zombies

Click here to listen!

Join in as training for the Ironbaby heats up and we start looking at the Rocky Raccoon 100 on the horizon.  Plenty of cool announcements in this episode, so check it out!

Click here to download or listen... because you know you want to.

12 Simple Steps to Enlightenment

After lots of listening to podcasts on the interwebs "studying", I've pretty much concluded that being profoundly happy most of the time can be found by using the following technique:

1. Sit and be still... some hippies call this "meditating." :)
2. Try not to think of anything.
3. Realize you can't do it.  Stuff will always pop into your head.
4. Realize you're not in control of your mind.  If you can't make it stop, it's got it's own agenda.
5. Realize that your mind has it's own agenda and makes up stuff just to keep itself entertained.
6. Realize that if your mind makes up stuff, most of it is not real.
7. Freak out.
8. Realize that if nothing is really real, YOU'RE mental image of yourself is not real.
9. REALLY FREAK OUT.
10. Realize if you're not really real, your freaking out is fabricated as well and stupid.
11. Realize everything is actually the way it's supposed to be.  Everything is "normal" and it has been your brain's fabricated image of how the world should be that has been making your life difficult.
12. Never freak out again.  (= enlightenment and/or happiness).

Most of these steps can take minutes/hours/days/years to finally come to terms with.  Enjoy!

"A snake has no idea how much it wants to wiggle until it's put in a bamboo tube."  (A phrase describing watching the brain freak out when you try to tell it to do nothing and sit still.  Basically, proof that it's on it's own agenda.  Try to stop it.  You can't.  Just like you can't stop your heart from beating or your skin from aging.)

Or, just go run an ultramarathon.  100 miles of prancing around in the cold woods for a day straight might give you the same results.

VIDEO - Start and Finish of Third Freebirds Burrito Run

Check it out!  We filmed the beginning and end of Brandon and I running the 8.1 miles between all the Freebirds locations in town.  I'll buy a burrito for the winner if I get beat.

Here's the start:

And the finish:

My burrito money is safe for now, but Brandon is getting faster.  He shaved two whole minutes off his time from last week!  And look at that smile.  Running truly is happiness. :)

The challenge isn't just for Brandon; it goes for you, too!  Show up for the next one and I just might be buying you a burrito if you can take me down.  See you there!