Category: Motivation

Spartan Series #76 Chains We Make

by Doug Graham, posted in Competition, General, Motivation, Training
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Chains of Self Limitation

No matter what we do we always have to do far more than required to accomplish our “stated goals.” We have to work when others sleep. We have to stay after work while others go home to their families. We have to constantly be on the look out for the skills and motivations that will carry us to the top. Get the picture! Nothing worth having is free and often it takes all that we have to get it done.

Also, in the midst of being all we can be or attaining that which we set out to. achieve we have to battle the greatest boogey man in the show, “SELF DOUBT AND SELF LIMITATION.” The things are the personally applied chains that will hod us back for sure. In fact these two boogey men will cause us to self eliminate from the quest to have or to be better.

We talk about all the things that need to happen in order to win and we readily accept them as the price that has to be paid. We slip into this reality like champs. We push we fight, we self discipline ourselves in every possible way imaginable to reach our stated goals. Then, seemingly without notice we stop believing in ourselves. We start looking around at the other competitors and we begin a destructive self talk that our minds construct to get us to think. we are not good enough, or beautiful enough, or not handsome enough to win. We then surrender ourselves to the self fulfilling prophecy that relegates us to a position below our expectations.

These are the “CHAINS OF OUR OWN MAKING” that keeps us from winning. Never listen to these demons. Final advice: “Never listen to the voices of self destruction. Never wear the chains of self doubt. “NOW! GET ON WITH IT AND WIN.!”

OUR OWN CHAINS BE DAMNED!

CHAINS ARE TO BE SHED!

28 August 2014 — “Raw Motivation”

by Doug Graham, posted in General, Motivation

All of us wants to be a Champion.  All of us wants it now.  All of us would do just about anything to be a Champion.  Let’s assume that all of us aspires to be a Champion and we have decided that we will pay the price.  The very first thing we have to do is generate the “Motivation” to accomplish the feat.  Having a goal that is worthy of our time, learning, and effort is the starting place.  The next thing that I believe must be in place is “Motivation”!  We can want something with all our heart, but until we establish “Motivation” as our energy source we are doomed from the start.

Right Biceps Peak!
Right Biceps Peak!

In my world of bodybuilding there has to be a large amount of “Motivation” that causes me to arise early in the morning to be at the gym to train. Training is hard, methodical, and demanding of every fiber of my being.  What is my “Motivation” that keeps me coming back for more?  For me it’s the sheer joy of training so hard that nobody else can keep up with my desire and effort to be better.  

Next, I “Motivate” myself by imagining winning at a much higher level.  My current “Motivation” that will push me over the top is that I must see myself  (visualize) as an under dog and the dark horse in the National Masters Bodybuilding Championships in Pittsburgh, July 2015.  I close my eyes and I can see the crowd and the judges and the stage.  The field is so good that I feel as though I do not belong here, yet it is this precise feeling I get just prior to ANY competition. But, I comfort myself and “Motivate” myself with the thought that I am an outsider and that I will take this crowd by storm despite being a relative unknown……I tell myself that I must win because everybody else will have a ton of resources and I will not. Call it “The Rocky Syndrome.”  

All this self-talk takes me to the next level which I will describe as the “bring it on” level.  I have trained as hard as anybody and have paid my dues.  It’s time! Better yet, This is MY time! Come and take this moment away from me, if you dare. There is no Dr. Phil to provide a myriad of outlines and concepts. The only thing to do now is reach deep inside and summon the warrior that longs to be on this field of contest.

Front Tricep
Front Tricep

As I stand in line to go on stage I am in the best shape of my life.  I am mentally prepped to perform. I reach for a strength that comes only from my core.  The rest that happens from this point forward is between me and God.  Winning will take care of itself.

Surrendering to the idea that we can have what we work for frees us to actually do it.  The “Motivation is Raw” and drawn from our souls.  

These are the things I think about as I push myself along this long path to success.  We have to hold ourselves to expectations that are far outside our previous experiences or we will stagnate and we will settle for a finish that is one step above mediocrity.  A terrible place to finish after so much work.

"Most Muscular"
“Most Muscular”

THIS IS OUR TIME!  Dig deep for the “RAW MOTIVATION” required to participate in life and attain the impossible.

Douglas E. Graham