October 21, 2011

“Choose your motivation wisely

Rant and tip for the weekend of October 22, 2011

Quote: “Choose your motivation wisely” Wesley Kipp

I have never heard anyone else make this statement before, however as I sat here this evening I was thinking what motivates me. I have to be honest it has changed over the years and I guess that is a good thing. If you read the page “Who is Wesley (Jim) Kipp” you see it was my health and my children that motivated me to get fit. Then as I worked out to get fit and changed my diet to get healthy my body composition changed. I was fit and healthy and stronger than I had ever been. That is when my goals and motivation changed. While I still want to stay fit and healthy for my children so I am around for their future, I also have goals in regards to powerlifting.

My powerlifting goals came about when a High School friend Ted Kruzinski contacted me on Facebook and subsequently called me, and asked me if I would be interested in lifting in a local bench press competition. I was a little reluctant at first. I did not think that I was even close to being competitive. He said to me that he did not think there were to many guys our age, 48 at the time and my weight class pressing close to the weight I was pressing. I decided to give it a shot and I won my age/weight class. I was even more please when I realized I would have won the open division as well if I had entered it. In any case I thought that would be it for me, until my friend Ted called me a few days later to inform me he thought I set a NY State record for my age and weight. I did a little research to at that point and found out that while I did press more than what was the current record, it was not done in a sanctioned meet by any of the recognized lifting federations. It was at this point my motivation changed. I now wanted to see how far I could progress as Bench Press competitor. Now a few months later my motivation is changing again. I not only want to continue lifting competitively in the bench press I want to lift competitively in a full power meet.

My point here my friends, is your motivation may and should change as you reach your goals. This will keep you progressing forward and give you something to look forward to each day. Since I want to become stronger without putting on fat, my diet is pretty strict and I make sure my body is getting the nutrients it needs to be properly fueled and successful in reaching my goals.

Now the reason to choose your motivation wisely. If you choose to motivate yourself to get the attention of others it is a recipe for disaster. You may succeed in getting fit and even healthy. However, will you be able to maintain that level of fitness and health when the others are gone? I know I will. I did not make the changes I needed to make for anyone else but myself. You may sit there and say wait a minute he did it for his kids. Well yes I did, but mainly because I wanted to be around myself as they got older. There is a selfish part of me that wants to be around as they have children and be there for them as the get older and hit life’s hardships.

Have a great workout!

Tip: Access your motivation and goals often. Do not let your goals get so far out in front of you they seem to daunting and yet do not make them to easy either. Where is the reward if

No comments:

Post a Comment