My thighs were burning and felt like concrete stumps. My heart was pounding and my lungs hurt. Not to mention how bad my crotch hurt as I haven’t sat in a saddle for that length of time in over 5 months.
So what possessed me to get on my mountain bike this weekend?
I was inspired.
Motivation is something that pushes you into the direction you want to go. It lights a fire to get the job done.
You want to lose those few pounds, get “ready” for an event, or clean up your diet. So you join a gym, enlist friends to help out, or join the Clean & Lean Challenge…. All of which are worthy endeavors for igniting motivation.
There’s a thrill in setting an intention, getting clear with your goals, and surrounding yourself with motivating people and situations.
What a thrill it is to reach those goals!
While Motivation is like the nudge (or push) to keep you moving in the right direction, I wonder instead, where do feel inspired?
Inspiration is more of a pull…. a draw toward something rather than a push into it.
While I’m not claiming one to be better than the other, they do come from a different place.
One is a push. The other is a pull.
I was deeply pulled to have the full experience of mountain biking this weekend. And that full experience included fresh air, beautiful scenery, connection with a close friend, and feeling the familiarity of my bike underneath my body.
It also included painful climbing, sketchy downhill sections, bruises and scrapes, and aches and pains all over (it’s been a while since I’ve been on my bike!)
I take the good and the bad together. I wrap them up and love the totality of the experience. (Sounds like my last relationship…)
Motivation Monday was created to give you a worthy push in the direction you know you most need and want to go. Motivation is worthy, admirable, and necessary!
But put that aside for a second and feel into the spaces where you’re being drawn. Something might be pulling you in a direction that doesn’t even seem logical, yet you can’t shake it… you have to go there.
This is inspiration.
For me, running just doesn’t do it. I hate running. But ask me run a 5K to raise money for a good cause; I can probably get motivated to do it.
But the pull I have to be in nature on my bike (despite the pain) is something I can’t deny. The deep desire I have to jump into the ocean and feel the sting of salt water in my eyes and on my mouth is so profound, I’m willing to get in 50-degree water to do it.
I am pulled.
