With the year coming to a close, it’s a time when many are working hard at finishing up the current year's goals while looking ahead to new goals in the new year. Regardless of the goal, it’s motivation that is responsible for getting it done. There is a wide range in the amount of motivation an individual needs to reach their goals. Some of us are intrinsically motivated, while others require one or more carrots-on-a-stick to get us up and out the door. And that intrinsic motivation can change based on current circumstances. This post looks at a few of the different forms of motivation you can try, whether you just need a kick in the pants to get out the door on a snowy Saturday, or whether you need something extra to get you through those last few runs to meet an annual mileage goal.
Many Options
Dictionary definitions of "motivation" say things like:
- the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way
- the general desire or willingness of someone to do something
Let's face it... the fact that you are reading this blog probably means that you are a Runner. (I'm pretty sure my wife - not a runner - doesn't even read this!) That's a capital-R Runner, meaning you make somewhat of a habit out of this pastime. Just that fact alone means you are already more motivated than 85% of Americans. (About 50 million Americans participate in some form of running or jogging, according to to a 2020 report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.[1])
A Matter of Life &Death
For some, it's a simple fact: run or die. Literally. There are a number of chronic conditions that running helps to keep in check. Running has benefits in the prevention of obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and hip replacement, benign prostatic hypertrophy, respiratory disease, cancer, and disability. Running, even in quite low doses, is associated with a substantial reduction in cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.[2]. I can relate! With a family history including hypertension & dyslipidemia, and having had asthma since childhood, maintaining and even improving my health is definitely high on my motivation list.
Annual Mileage Goals
Another good source of motivation is to set an annual mileage goal. I've been doing this for a few years now as a background goal in addition to any events I might have on my schedule. It started in 2016 with a magazine-based challenge for 1,000 miles per year. I thought, "That's less than 20 miles a week, I can do that!" So I started tracking, and ended up that year with a bit over 1200 miles. Every year since then I raised my new annual goal by 100 miles over what I achieved the previous year. In 2020 I had my first "failure"; I topped the previous year's 1600 but failed to reach the current year's 1700-mile goal. I more than made up for that in 2021, when I blew past the 1700-mile goal in early November. At that point I did some quick math and set a new goal: 2,021 miles in 2021. As I write this on 12/20/2021, I am only 24 miles away from this lofty goal. "Running The Year" has been a thing for many years. I never thought it was within my realm of possibility. But CONSISTENCY (that's another post [3]) got me close enough to go for it, and achieve it!
Event-Based Goals
Whether it's your first marathon or your fiftieth, a Couch-to-5k or your weekly Parkrun, races and other events on your calendar are a dependable source of motivation. Most recreational runners run "races" without any hope of winning. But realistically, runners of every ability and experience level can use any event as a motivational goal. Signing up for a race of a distance you've never run before means an automatic PR! In other cases, you can run your local annual 5k against "former you". This always gives you a reason to train and try harder. Successively harder goals are to PR, win your age group, and maybe even some day place overall, depending on your ability and how hard you want to try. Finally, there is always the run-for-charity option at larger events. Raising money and running for a worthy cause can help make training for and participating in an event more about the cause than about you. Any running event provides many goals for everyone!
Running Streak
Again, I've detailed this topic in another post [4]. To summarize here, a Running Streak is a type of personal challenge where the runner vows to run at least one mile every day for so many days. It's fun to start small (for example, New Year's Day to Ground Hog Day. it's only a month!) and then see how long you can keep it going. A Running Streak helps teach you how to run slow and easy, to pace yourself, and to be determined in the face of daily adversities that may arise. By starting with only a month goal for this, you give it time to create a habit but it's not an insurmountable time period... it's only a month!
Friendly Competition
This is the realm of the office Step Challenge or Biggest Loser competition. As long as you can keep it friendly, this is a reliable source of motivation. It's great to be able to pit yourself against each other, driving each other forward to succeed. Even the "loser" is still a winner in this case!
Running With Friends
Whether it's a neighbor or a local Running Club [5], running with friends can motivate you to get your lazy self out the door. In this case, peer pressure is a good thing. When someone is depending on you to be there, your activity- or lack thereof - is no longer all about you. Now there is someone else relying on you. Also, running with others of different ability can help you to either slow down or speed up, whichever you are having trouble doing. It's amazing how much more quickly the miles go by when you run them while you're having a conversation with one or more friends. It can also be amazing to learn that your "conversational pace" is actually faster than you thought it was. On the flip side, if you need to learn to slow down, running while chatting with others who are naturally a bit slower than you are can help you dial back your speed - while it's helping them to run with someone faster (see above). Need motivation? Try running for someone else for a change instead of just yourself!
Epilogue
Please don't ever forsake your running due to lack of motivation! There are so many different ways to get motivated. Bookmark this post. Share it with a friend. Share it in your running Facebook Group. Get to know what motivates YOU, and get ready to use it.
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