I was going to name this post "Mandi the Motivator", but I thought it'd be more important for the 2 or 3 of you who are reading this right now to start thinking about yourself from the very get-go. When it comes to this CF life and going through the daily grind that we do, it's so important that we stay motivated. For the past 31 years my motivations have changed from being the best athlete I could be, to being a good big brother, to being the best husband I can be; the important thing is however, that for the most part, I've always had an external motivation. You'll hear a lot of people out there say, "you have to want to do it for yourself before you can want to do it for others". My honest opinion: HOGWASH. Not to offend my friends out there who believe that, but I just couldn't disagree more. When it comes down to it, it really doesn't matter who or what your motivation is as long as you're motivated. I think that any family member would agree that they would take their loved one being motivated by an external source over no motivation at all. It certainly helps to have a love for life and for yourself, but for the purposes of this conversation, it's not necessary.
[Now, let me tell you where a lot of them are coming from (which I do understand): Let's say that your girlfriend is you're one and only motivation and then you guys break-up. Now what? Is all of your motivation gone? Possibly. But if that time were to come, you better pull yourself up by the bootstraps and find another reason to kick butt (and it just may be yourself). Either that, or choose your motivations more wisely :) ]
I've written in blogs before that my wife and family are my motivation. That doesn't mean that a small part of me isn't committed to taking care of myself for me, but I can assure you that it is a very small part. For me, it's always been that way. Yeah I love my life. Yeah I love living. But I love the people in my life even more and they are the sole reason that I work as hard as I possibly can. When I look back on the best times of my life, they never involve me alone. They ALWAYS involve my friends and family. When it comes down to it, my only motivation is to be healthy enough to create more of those memories with the ones that I love.
Oh yeah, I have another motivation that will be here in 28 weeks...
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