What motivates you?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately of what actually motivates me? What drags my ass out of bed on a Saturday morning to go coach an early morning derby session (I LIKE MY SLEEP INS!!) and then stay on skates for another 3 hours? What fuels me with energy after a long, busy day at work that sees me make a quick green smoothie when I get home and jump in my car to head to the gym? And now, what makes me feel so inspired to take on a new sporting challenge, which for some reason hadn’t even crossed my mind 3 months ago?

I’m actually not sure.

Some of it stems from the feelings of responsibility. Does responsibility breed motivation? That other people rely on your efforts to be a part of something bigger (for example: my derby community). You can be held accountable for your actions and relied upon to show support to your league to help foster the development of your learning skaters. That makes me feel worthwhile. I like to coach and I like being coached. I do sometimes question whether I’m any good at it, but I like helping other skaters have that light bulb moment and work through something that they might have been stuck on for some while. Or to share something new I’ve learnt so that they too can be super pumped about it as I am. This in turn gets me energised and excited to stay on and work on my own skating development. Pushing me to get better in my own training might mean that I can then translate my experiences on to others.

I think having a clear goal in mind helps with your motivation when times are tougher (or slacker/lazier?). I know I’ve gotten home from work on MULTIPLE occasions where I’ve felt like lying on the couch watching the latest Block episode (don’t judge me I watch Masterchef too!!) and letting my brain switch off. This is totally fine to do, of course it is, but it’s not helping me achieve my goal so it doesn’t tend to become a habit. You know when you really should stop and slow down when your brain and body are refusing to play ball. So I find in these moments to feel the rush of inspiration again I’ll read a blog about someone’s training or a book about someone’s adventures to reach their potential, and it always reminds me that I can reach mine as long as I stay focussed on the prize.

Sometimes I can find motivation simply by scrolling through my Instagram feed. I am selective with who I follow. Friends, family members and happy strangers fill my feed. Along with some top athletes and people on the same journey as myself, I find that double-tapping on a photo of someone’s running trail or delicious breakfast (#donthatemebecauseiinstagrammyfood) or their own motivational quote just makes happy. Happiness is a great motivational tool I think. Almost without fail after every training session I go to I feel happy IT’S CALLED ENDORPHINS PEOPLE!

Talking with friends (or even strangers) about my passions and goals also motivates me. I love feeding off their excitement when we share tips about training, or they have suggestions about gear to use or books to read. Love it! It’s great to seek out people you can learn from.

What motivates you? What makes you excited about pursuing your goals?

The magical goal setting pyramid!

Today I read this ‘Goal Setting for Roller Derby’ blog post by Sandrine Rangeon. The article was great at breaking down how to set goals, what type of goals there are and how to organise your goals in time. I started to think more about my Tri-dream that I spoke about in my last blog post and how I should be looking at setting myself the specific goals needed to achieve my end result.

Taking on Francey Pants’ Goal Setting Pyramid idea I decided to create one specific to the challenges I have set myself (slow day at work FTW!). My long-term outcome is to compete in a sprint triathlon. I’ve already picked out which event I would like to participate in and that’s what I’ll be aiming for (Triathlon Pink). I needed to set myself a Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound goal and this long-term performance goal ticks all the SMART principle boxes.

Working my way back from my long-term goal I had to think about what smaller, mid-term and short-term goals could I give myself to help achieve my greater dream. These felt easy to add in to the pyramid. I had already been talking to friends to sign up for a fun run in December, the weekend of my birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!). I had toyed with the idea of running in my first 5k run while I was over visiting family in Adelaide in October and now I’ve decided to actually commit to it!

The three short term goals are smaller actions I can put in to place. I wanted these goals to include all three disciplines to remind me I need to work on them all and find the ways to do this.

Here is my magical little pyramid!

I think this pyramid could potentially be a dynamic thing. Perhaps my short-term process goals will change as I exceed them, or perhaps struggle with them.

I also read Fear’s blog post today entitled: Trust the process – how to be a derby badass and took away this super relevant quote:

“…you need to focus on the process that will get you to your goal, not just on the goal itself.

…but a really simple rule of thumb is to do something each day that your future bad ass derby* self will thank you for”.

*derby / triathlon / future awesome human!

How do you like to set goals? What steps do you put in to place in order to achieve them? Love to hear your thoughts!

#Fridayderp

WHEN YOU HAVE A SUPER AWESOME TRAINING SESSION!

Derby Girl vs Triathlete

 

So my dream-slash-obsession for the second half of 2014 is to train for a triathlon. I’m not really sure where this brand new idea came from!? I am NOT and runner. I am NOT a bike rider, and my only real foray in to swimming was winning the 50m breaststroke in a swimming carnival back when I was in grade 5!

But the more I thought about the challenge the more I pictured Barney Stinson in my head reciting the phrase CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! I started reading triathlon blogs. Buying magazines about running. Reading about each discipline and the training, nutrition and gear required. It is like a new obsession… it reminds me SO MUCH of myself when I first got in to roller derby. People involved in triathlons talk about it being like a cult. It takes over your life and has a fantastic community that surrounds it… hmm sounds familiar!?

Since I got back from Rollercon* I’ve slowly started putting in to place some extra training specific to my pursuit of triathlon glory! I started telling people my goal. The more people I tell, the more it becomes real to me and I want to hold myself accountable and DO THIS! I’m looking at training and competing in a sprint distance Tri by January 2015. Leading up to this, I have my sights set on some 5k fun runs too. Small steps and realistic goals! High five to that!

It only dawned on me when I first started looking at my weekly derby training schedule… where the hell was I going to find the time to make this tri-dream happen? Can I maintain my active involvement in derby and work towards this new challenge? Do I have room for derby and work AND life AND EXTRA TRAINING!!?? But then that Old El-Paso ad came in to my head and…

While I was at Rollercon I took a Krissy Krash off skates seminar entitled ‘Beast Mode Activated’ which she spoke about how to balance cross training, time management, positive mental attitude, eating right, practices, and everything in between to truly active your beast mode. She spoke about this book called ‘168 Hours, you have move time then you think’ by Laura Vanderkam. Now, I read some reviews later and it doesn’t seem like it would really be relatable to my current situation BUT… the main thing Krissy mentioned in her seminar regarding the message from this book was that we ALL have 168 hours in our week. Those people that are successful in their careers – they have 168 hours in their week. Those super awesome professional sports stars you admire – they have 168 hours in their week. We ALL have the same amount of time in our lives to allocate to our priorities. So what is your priority? Is spending your weeknights on the couch watching the latest Dr Who a priority? Excellent, that’s great. But own that decision and don’t say you don’t have enough time to pursue what really deep-down you’d love to be doing.

I’ve caught myself multiple times saying “I don’t have the time”… lies, ALL LIES! I have time. I have 168 hours in my week to MAKE the time. So I’ve started to think what IS a priority for me. Setting goals, giving myself challenges and making them happen. Planning never really was my strong suit… but it’s time to change that for myself.

I do want to find the time to start writing again. I have had a long hiatus from this blog and tonnes of things have happened. I want to start filling in the blanks on here and rekindle my happiness for sharing. I’m going to start documenting some of my new found adventures in the quest of achieving some personal goals and I hope you come along for the ride (or run, or bike, or swim! ;))

*I will write about Rollercon… PROMISE!

 

I’m all about that Bass

Considering I haven’t written on this blog in OVER A YEAR!

What’s an easy way to start writing again?… a Music Monday post! Woo!

 Look its Oklahoma roller derby girls miming to a song! High five to that!

…HERE is the original song.