Thursday, February 14, 2008

My Inner Drill Instructor

Okay, I've started talking about the mental aspects of training a bit lately and one mental aspect that certainly affects how successful someone will or won't be with their training revolves around their ability to motivate themselves to exercise. I agree with Matt Furey when he says that getting started takes about 50% of the effort needed to exercise. Physical training is difficult to the point of painful. We instinctively avoid difficulty and pain. So, the ability to get past the mental barrier that we all have about physical strain is key.

One thing that anyone who knows me personally knows that I have a bit of an eccentric and wild imagination. I've use that to get myself going and keep pushing myself through the pain. I've had this odd fascination with Military Drill Instructors. Maybe I missed my calling but I can picture a drill instructor hovering over me, upset at me when I don't put up my best effort and get the goals that I set for myself.

More often than not, it gets me by. It's an image that makes me remember seeing documentaries of Navy SEALS, usually fatigued beyond what I'm currently experiencing, still pushing through the pain and doing the task set before them. It's something that makes me realize that I have something left in the tank.

Okay, maybe it sound goofy to you to think of an asshole screaming at you to do more push-ups. I'm not going to pretend that my visions are going to work for everyone. Still, visualization can play a key part in your training. There is a lot more to getting your mind right to train than simply determination.

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