How do you stay Motivated?

Good points, Jim. Jeanette - the thing with swimming is that learning to do it correctly can be difficult and frustrating, therefore easy to give up. As Jim said, getting with your coach and setting short term goals is doable rather than saying, "I'm going to swim 5 days a week and learn butterfly!" - which is too general. But breaking your general goals down to smaller, short term goals is more reasonable and will help keep you from getting frustrated and wanting to give up.

I agree with the essence of what Fishgrrl and jim clemmons are saying, but it's a slippery slope and I'm not sure it's the answer as it pertains to the author of the question. If "how do I stay motivated?" is the question, it seems to me that something unmotivated the person asking. This doesn't sound like a question from someone who can't make goals, but someone who sets them too high.

I stay motivated by training for specific meets and events. On days when I feel tired I do LSD (long slow distance, usually with a pull buoy), or off strokes/IM. Without goals it's eaay to talk yourself out of a workout.

I know we posted at about the same time... but, "saying motivated" and "getting motivated" are two different things. Get motivated by making goals and attempting to achieve them. Stay motivated by achieving them. If you're not achieving your goals you will become unmotivated. My advise to 'take it easy' is intended for someone who's become unmotivated after months of effort. I think jswim has goals. I believe (by the question) that they're too high.

My motivation is that I can't fool myself. Maybe I can fool others with excuses and explanations for why I didn't swim today, but I can't fool myself. (And it's time to start worrying when I find a way to fool myself!) Some days I can't get out of the locker room into the pool fast enough. I'm eager to fly. I'm convinced that today I will do the mightiest workout I have ever done. I'm hoping that the water temp will be extra crisp and cool so that I can work even harder. Would that every day could be like that! But that's not the day I need self motivation. It's the day that I got no sleep the night before. The day I have a headache or a hangover. The day after pulling a muscle in my neck. The day after a mighty workout that I'm still paying for. It's the day that I get into the pool and it feels extra cold -- even though it's the same temp as yesterday... "Maybe today I can "treat" myself to a shortened workout. I've earned it..." It's the day that the alarm clock seems to have gone off two hours early. "Damn, this bed feels warm and cozy. Maybe my body needs to sleep in..." It's the day that the car is caked in ice and I will have to stand out there and scrape in the bitter cold before I can drive to the pool. It's the day that I have to get into work early. Or work late. It's the day I wake up to find water leaking in the basement. Or the contents of my garbage cans strewn all over the yard by stray dogs. It's a day that my religious practices call for fasting. On any of these days, I could justify to someone else why I will not (or did not) swim, and to most other people it would seem reasonable. But I can't kid myself. I even swim on Thanksgiving Day and New Years Day because my local pool has limited hours on those days. In fact, I swam on the morning of my mother's funeral, getting up at 4:00AM so that I could be back before anyone else in the house woke up. I knew some people wouldn't understand. And I believed my mother DID understand! I eat every day because I know how it feels TO ME when I don't. I brush my teeth every day because I know how my mouth feels TO ME when I don't. I swim every day because I know how I feel (both physically and emotionally) when I don't. Once I start making excuses for any discipline (not just swimming), it gets easier and easier to make more excuses. That's what happens when I kid myself. I can't kid myself. I won't let myself kid myself.

Well said, Guvnah.

What a great post! "In fact, I swam on the morning of my mother's funeral, getting up at 4:00AM so that I could be back before anyone else in the house woke up. I knew some people wouldn't understand. And I believed my mother DID understand!" If you don't mind me saying, that doesn't seem odd to me, really...

Originally posted by 330man Ande, you should write a book. You always seem to have the right things to say in a no-nonsense kind of fashion. Most of it is elementary but sometimes people overlook the elementary in search of something that is much more complicated. It's also very lyrical :)

I can similarly attest to the "staying motivated" thing....but my story's a little different, and maybe it will help. I can agree with what you guys have all said on here. However, I have goals, very specific ones, I compete regularly, and I have teammates, but I still lose my drive after a small jolt of "take the world by storm" motivation. It would seem that not even those things are enough to keep me training hard. And so, to the author, I offer this simple, long-winded advice: Maybe it's more the idea of the training that unmotivates you. I've been a competitive swimmer since I was a small child. For me, the pool has always been about being a workout medium, a training spot. The little kids playing in the pool next to me while I work out have an entirely different perspective about the water than I do. I can't remember what it's like to play in a pool, or splash around with no real intent on doing anything, or to wear a suit that isn't supposed to be sucker tight. So the last time I got unmotivated, I went with it. I said "Self, you really don't want to train today." So I DIDN'T (shocked?). I went to the pool, anyway, in one suit (no drag suits), and I PLAYED. My version of playing anyway. I swam in little circles in the deep end, I floated, I dove clear to the bottom and came back up as slow as I could. I had no workout, no drive, no measurable distance (I really don't think I even made it up and back the lane ONCE)..... And I had a blast. And the next day, I played again, only I did a couple laps, because once I was in the water, I wanted to do a couple laps, in addition to play. So, for about three or four days, I would go, swim a little, abstractly, and I'd play a little. After a few days, I'm actually motivated to get something done, so I resume my workouts again. My point is this: Sometimes, it's a matter of taking a little time to have fun, and that makes you refocus, when you purposely get into the water and do nothing, instead of not going and then feeling bad for being unmotivated. BE UNMOTIVATED for a day, and ENJOY IT. Doesn't matter how old you are, if you get unmotivated, it may not be the goals, or the lack of teammates, or lack of competing, or WHATEVER. Maybe you just get tired of it. So take a break and play. You'll still be in the pool, working out more than you think, though without the structure, and that's fun. Life is too short to miss out on having fun. Especially in the water.

Wow Guvnah! I was going to post but after reading that what I have to say means nothing. Well since I'm here I'll put my two cents in. I get motivated by doing meets. My goals are to always beat my fastest time. To get a personal best I know I have to workout and work hard. Another motivation is that swimming is my way of loosing weight. I am terrible at diets but I love to exercise so it works out. I have gotten to the point where almost nothing can get in the way of me swimming. I have my time to swim and I am going. That is my time away from the world and I need that time. Although I do bring my six year old when I swim but even she knows not to bother me when I am doing laps. Actually she has help me to keep going to the pool on those bad days that you have every excuse not to swim. Try telling a six year old that you are not going to the pool after all. It doesn't work. I learned not to bother, I just go.