Monday, October 31, 2011

Healthy Competition

I must admit I am pleasantly surprised at what a motivator a little competition is.  From a scheduling perspective, I am thinking a lot more about when and how I will fit a workout into my day.  I simply have to do it.  None of this see how I'm feeling crap.  I woke up this morning with a killer headache that had carried over from the night before.  My first thought was, "Shit, today is a workout day I can't be sick."  I decided in the beginning of the competition that being sick was not an excuse to miss workout days.  In the real world, it is, but for the sake of our one month competition I decided to leave no room for excuses and loop holes. 

Tomorrow I am getting a massage after work, so in my head I'm trying to figure out what I should do.  Do I take a rest day tomorrow and workout Friday?  Do I do a workout dvd at home after my massage?  Do I get up and workout in the morning?  Without the competition I wouldn't even consider factoring a workout into my day tomorrow.

I had thought I'd lost a lot of my competitive spirit, but I feel a strange sense of motivation to complete this.  I think going through a goal like this with someone has been helpful.  In the beginning of my Happiness Project when Melissa had decided to do it as well I felt excited.  As time went on we did different 'month's' themes at different times, and were rarely, if ever, working toward common goals.

It's really the accountability that I needed.  I've created a win win situation for myself with this gym competition.  I use a little reverse psychology on Flash, pretending to be excited at the prospect of him missing two days in a row, or failing, but I only do that because it makes him mad and motivates him to prove me wrong.  Really, I want him to go, I want him to complete the challenge.  The only real benefit to me is not having to buy him a prize if he does fail.  It's like reverse nagging, instead of constantly reminding him to do something I'm instead getting amped at the idea of him not doing it.  Go ahead and lie on the couch tonight, because then I will be the winner. 

No comments:

Post a Comment