Happy Monday! It’s time for that Monday Motivation message to get you through the week. I’m still in Missouri but there is one thing I’ve learned this weekend. You can improve. No matter where you think you are, the challenges you’ve faced or the backslide you may have taken; it is possible to improve.
When I ran the Chicago Marathon, I didn’t have my finest hour. It was hard and rough. I really questioned if I was ready to continue my quest because things have been so rough for me lately. I thought that maybe I could just put it on hold while I regrouped and got better. I doubted myself and the work I had put in.
On Saturday, I ran a 5:15 marathon which isn’t my fastest marathon (but they all can’t be the fastest or the best). But I didn’t struggle and I had a great time. In Chicago, I ran a 5:45. I felt like myself again. I really thought I was stuck in this one place and it worried me because I thought I was taking a backslide. I realized that my mind was standing in my way of progress.
Just because you falter doesn’t mean that you need to stay in that point. You can work to make things better. You can work to change for the better. There is always room for improvement, but there has to be something behind that improvement. How can we continue to measure success without improvement? If you’re not going anywhere, you are literally not going anywhere. That’s not a great place to be.
Improvement is a way to keep you motivated because you’ll be working toward something that is measured by your own means. Progress is taking the steps to make a change and improvement will come and then success will soon follow!
Our minds are complex things and will make or break us. Don’t get psyched out by the psyche. This is where platitudes come into play. I always say platitudes give you attitude. You know things like, “team work makes the dream work.” Or what about, “just be yourself.” Sometimes you just need to “meet in the middle” to “push through the pain.” It sounds silly, but those are the things that save me when I need the boost.
It will be different for everyone but that is my tactic. It’s VERY important for me to see improvement in myself. I don’t really compare myself to others (I have my moments though) but at the end of the day, I compete against myself. I want to continue to grow and learn as a person. I want to be nicer than what I was yesterday, stronger than I was last year, and more mentally tough than I was five years ago. The point of reference is always myself because I am the constant in the situation.
How are you looking to improve?
