Motivating the Unmotivated

There is a particular form of lethargy that settles on me after a long car trip. Maybe it's because as a kid we lived in different places around the country but always drove home to Oregon for holidays. Whether it was from Oklahoma City, Albequerque, or San Francisco, my parents would throw us in the back of the enormous Vista Cruiser station wagon and start driving. Car travel became associated in my mind with sleepiness, one reason I won't drive after dark without downing copious amounts of caffeinated food and beverages. As hubby could undoubtably tell you, I can fall asleep in any moving vehicle at any moment, often in mid-sentence.

So here I am, post-Thanksgiving-holiday-car-trip, trying to motivate myself to head out to a garage that's colder than hell's backside in order to do some kind of workout. It ain't happening. As you noticed, I'm obviously sitting in front of my nice warm keyboard, happy purring cat curled on lap. When we reach the finish line of  a race, or the achievement of a big goal like the black belt I'm working toward, the sweet taste of success is measured in moments such as these. These are the times that try an athlete's soul and measure their worth. Or, as Bruce Lee (who would've incredibly been seventy years old today, November 27!) put it “A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.”. 
So how do we motivate ourselves when we are absolutely at the bottom end of unmotivation? I think for myself, I'm going to go up on Crossfit's website and find the hardest workout I can do with the equipment I've got. Sometimes when I least want to be challenged, that's when I need to put the biggest challenges in front of myself. Then I'm going to crank up the tunes and go to it. I know I'll feel better when I'm done. Then maybe it's time to rent a Bruce Lee movie or two.

How about you? How do you motivate yourself to work out when you really don't want to? What is it that separates those of us still exercising now in the darkest days of November from all of the New Year's resolutionists who will start on January 2nd and fizzle out by mid-February?

Happy Birthday Bruce, you are still an inspiration!