You Can Get Anything You Want

Does your obstacle course have a name?  Something to make it personal?   I think I'll name my backyard course "Alice's Restaurant" because there, I can get anything I want (except Alice).  Oh, and one other thing - motivation.

There are two kinds of motivation according to the people who study that kind of thing.  There's extrinsic motivation, the kind where you need a KITA.  Then there's intrinsic motivation, the kind where you have that inner drive to push yourself and you don't need anybody else.

Take for instance the FB posts we see every day in the OCR world.  Catchy phrases to pump you up.  Folks post their workouts to encourage others.  At the starting line, we have our beloved motivational "speakers" to get us hopped up before a race.  But out there on the course, all of that is gone.  You have nothing but intrinsic motivation to get you through.  It can be tough and lonely out there when nobody is in your face.

I was halfway across a 125-foot Tyrolean traverse when I started to flag.  I could hear my buddy Joe Bendy yelling at my like crazy, "C'mon Larry!  This is what you trained for!"  I thought to myself, "Well, I certainly don't want to let him down, so here goes."  I tried a few moves to get going but it was not enough.  Off the rope I went.  Penalty box.  Not one single stinkin' intrinsic motivator came up to give me what I wanted, that little air horn at the end of the rope.

Sometimes I tell myself I need those people yelling at me.  But honestly, I usually don't hear them.  I'm in the zone.  When I'm in that quiet place, the intrinsic motivators are firing on all circuits.  Really that's all I want and all I need.

Here's the problem with extrinsic motivation.  It's not always there for you.  So if you rely on it and never internalize your motivation, there is a lurking danger.  You won't get what you want.  Weight loss?  Faster time?  More power?  If you need someone to always push you, you have a greater chance of giving up when they are not around.  That's what the experts say.  I believe them.  Here's why.

At work, most of us in the ranks can't stand motivational posters.  We know they are not real.  They rarely tell the same story as management.  The man responsible for turning around the economy of Japan after World War II, W. Edwards Deming, told his followers to do away with slogans.  Give people the truth instead.  Motivational posters are necessarily lies.  But they don't always tell the truth about the bottom line.

The same goes out on the course.  My bottom line is all about the truth I tell myself inside my head when nobody else is around.  I can get anything I want.  But I have to draw very deeply.  That day on the rope, well, that was unfortunately just a bitter taste.  Next time, I want a full meal.  That will happen in my backyard between now and the next race.

This week's Mud Smear Award goes to Joe Bendy.  Brother, you tried.  The award is not for trying.  But for that totally bad ass picture of you on FB at last weekend's Savage Race.