Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 2:52PM | Amy C How Strong is Your Foundation?
That first step. It can be exciting, exhausting, exhilarating and terrifying all rolled together in one big bundle of motion.
Your limits are stretched. The future is uncertain. Can you do it? What’s it going to be like? How long ‘til you reach your goal? The questions come barreling toward you like tumbleweed, blowing in every direction.
New situations or goals—regardless of whether we’ve chosen them or they’ve chosen us, run the gamut of emotions. But what makes them more exciting or more challenging than others?
What tips the scale between welcoming the change and resisting it?
A strong foundation: the strength of the foundation and the source of the foundation.
A strong foundation is your base. It provides grounding amidst the changes and shifts that occur with beginnings. It can provide a sense of calm during rough seas.
I’m no contractor, but I imagine that if you build a house without a strong foundation, it doesn’t matter what it looks like on top—eventually it’s going to crumble.
Your health and fitness is like that house. If you’re working out without a strong foundation, a sudden injury, life change, or conflicting goals can erode the best of intentions.
So what do I mean by the strength and source of your foundation?
the strength of your foundation
How much are you invested in your goal? Is it something you want; or something someone else has suggested would be “good” for you?
How convinced are you that you’ll succeed? There’s a lot of truth to the quote: “Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right.” Are you sabotaging your own success by questioning your ability to achieve? (I know I’ve been guilty of this.)
Do you have a vision of yourself succeeding? What about the path to get there? What are the milestones? The baby steps? (Both are vital to progress.) Are you recognizing each and celebrating your motion forward?
The stronger you build your foundation, the better equipped you’ll be to withstand the cycles of motivation to assure sustained traction.
That brings us to the second aspect of a solid foundation.
the source of your foundation
Is your foundation internally motivated and directed? Or does it come from external sources?
We all know that working out regularly is good for us, yet so many of us have trouble creating a sustainable routine, or finding a way to integrate it into our lives in the first place.
Sometimes it helps to have someone to run with. But when that person moves away, or gets injured, we suddenly find ourselves lost and unmotivated to continue alone.
We’ve lost an external source of motivation.
Here are some additional examples of external motivators:
- Losing/gaining x amount of weight
- Training for a specific event (marathon, triathlon, mountain summit)
- Time goal (i.e., breaking your PR; coming in first)
- Friends/family (you only work out with others; a friend is introducing you to something new; you don’t want to disappoint others)
External motivators are extremely effective. (Having a race to train for is a great motivator for me to get up early and go for those long runs.) Knowing that others are cheering us on in our quest can be energizing.
Internal motivations are a bit different—and somewhat harder to pin down and recognize. Here are some examples:
- How you feel when you reach your goal (more energy, less stressed)
- You have increased confidence and self-esteem when you’re working out regularly
- You experience increased emotional stability throughout the day (i.e., less drastic mood swings)
- You are more self-aware and conscious of your day-to-day choices
- You feel pride in yourself and your actions
There are people who will tell you that the internal motivators are what makes a goal more likely to succeed. That you’ll be a better person if all your actions come from within (and you aren’t swayed by others’ opinions or expectations).
While noble, I think it’s unfair. Recognizing your internal motivators is an important key component to building a successful foundation, but it’s not the only one.
Our motivations shift and cycle all the time between external and internal. And we need both for a strong foundation.
The trick is to recognize them and assess which are stronger and more reliable for you in different situations.
For example, it’s all well and good that you workout because it makes you feel more energetic (internal motivator), but what happens the day when that knowledge just doesn’t get you out of bed for your 6:30am run?
Do you get discouraged? Afraid that you’re sliding into a bad habit? Tell yourself “I’ll never be able to keep this up”? For many of us, the answer is “yes.”
What if you called a friend the night before and planned to meet them at 6:30am at a nearby trail? When someone’s waiting (external motivation) for us, it’s a lot easier to get going.
Developing and refining the tools to utilize all your motivators in various combinations is the key to building a strong foundation.
how strong is your foundation?
It’s easy for our foundation to become a little lop-sided when it’s strictly built on one type of motivator.
Internal motivators are much harder to identify and than external ones. External results are tangible and often visual. Losing weight, gaining muscle, your finishing time, climbing at a harder grade.
But when we wrap ourselves up too tightly in the numbers without clear knowledge as to the why, our foundation leans precariously over.
Some people have a stronger internal compass. Others have a better understanding of the external motivators that work for them. (Do you know which one you are?) When you have clear knowledge of both types of motivators, you can build a solid foundation using the strengths of both.
Do you know what motivates you? Are you more internally or externally driven? Do you struggle with plateaus? Is it easy to find time to work out and stay conscious of your health (or do you tend to let it slide)?
How strong is your foundation?
welcome
Tomorrow, we’ll look at how to begin building a strong foundation. If you're interested in learning more, you're in luck!
If you’re interested in learning more about this, you’re in luck! I’m launching a new workshop to tackle this exact issue. Read about the Building Your Foundation for Fitness workshop and sign up today. Space is limited.
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Reader Comments (2)
I love this post. While I used to be consumed by goals of getting better--climbing harder grades, kayaking more difficult rivers, skiing sicker lines--now I focus on being present in the moment. I've recently learned to surf, and being a beginner again reminds me to focus on the fun of the sport, not just the numbers.
I can't wait to meet you one of these days (maybe this summer when theadVANture reaches the NW?). I learned how to surf last winter and it was the best and worst experience all rolled into one! It took some time, but remembering how to be a beginner again was one of the best lessons I learned!
And having FUN is so. freaking. important. :0)