Hi folks,
Remember that great old movie, ‘The Wizard Of Oz?’ Each character was motivated by something different, a brain, a heart, courage, or going home. What is your motivator? What gets your juices flowing? You need to find it, and be sure that it is truly yours, not what you were told that it should be by your parents, teachers, or other authority figures. Make sure that it is what you want in your heart and brain, and that you have the courage to pursue it and find your way home. For me it isn’t the finisher medal, which I would lose eventually if my family didn’t make sure they ended up on our Christmas tree (strange but touching idea). In fact, it took me a while to work it out. It is just being in the sport. That’s it. I love doing it, especially the feelings I derive from being in good shape.
What is your motivator? Work it out. You may be surprised. Once it is truly determined, then you can be ‘the man behind the curtain,’ and give it to yourself as a reward for a job well done.
So it is okay if I am motivated to watch the tele, drink five beers whilst eating a mountain of garbage food just prior to poppoing my clogs!
Right, that is clear then.
Actually I am motivated to walk in nice places and feel and experience all that is about me.
A friend of mine did the Land’s End to John 0 Groats cycle run. He did it in his personal best. He had a regret. He wished he had taken three times as long and admired the countryside….
As for me, I have given up on the futility of the search for a rhyme for “silver orange”.
Hi Trevor!
If your goal is to become obese or at least not in optimal shape, I suggest that you have found the means to achieve that goal, but that is not the underlying motivator of the technique you describe. Presumably, a person wishing to undertake that type of activity would be motivated by some underlying psychology or even psychopathology. I am talking about the motivator of the action, not the action itself, but I am also discussing this issue in the context of training, and more specifically endurance training.
OK! Lunch time!
-k @FitOldDog
PS What is ‘poppoing in one’s clogs,’ I wonder. I’ll have to look that one up but food calls.
Did you enjoy that cellery stick
Had a great Chinese meal. Ironman training comes with lots of food. -k
11,000 calories before a race?
I jest of course.
I have come across individuals who seem to have an active pursuit of indolence.
This can be for simple reasons, thyroid gland problem, or complex psychological problems.
I like the idea of due care in the exercise routines and training programme. As we get older there is a need for much more care in just how we tailor our exercise programmes. (I am much more prone to injury now than when younger. Yes we need to tailor things…This you describe well.
To pop an object is to take down to the pawn brokers for a cash.
Your clogs can only be popped when you are dead. You cannot walk barefoot in the North in winter.
I think the saying comes from Lancashire.
Clearly the five pints and junk food ought be avoided but many seem to go that way. This it seems may be a brain issue but is more a heart issue. Sadly some souls get lost and end in self neglect.
Hi Trevor,
I really like that expression ‘popping your clogs,’ and it’s origin, which you kindly clarified. Language is fascinating. You should look at the names of genes. They have been named randomly by the people who found them, like MADD (mothers of decapentaplegic, to do with number of legs on a fruit fly with this gene mutated), and menage a trois (gene is a key member of an interacting group of three, associated with a risk of severe problems?). The history of a word can be really hard to track down, but when one does the word comes alive. Words certainly play a huge role in sculpting our thoughts.
Thanks for the insight on the clogs issue.
-k @FitOldDog
When I was about 12 or 13 I was reading a lot of HG Wells. I went down to Cheltenham Road Library and saw the poetry shelves adjacent to Wells.
I looked at Chatterton and was unable to understand his made up version of Middle English. The next book was John Clare. I read his poem “The Flitting” (means moving house) and in that instant was hooked on language and on a desire to write as well as Clare. Nothing has changed since.
Should we have considerable social disruption (war, famine, plague) it could be that the names of genes could survive but their origins be lost.
There could then be scope for creative philology explaining “how it got that name”. Many so called origins man be false but they sound good nonetheless and add to the language.
I have read lots of web sites and books that seek to communicate but do a poor job despite good content because the language is drab, is boring.
However beware of becoming over flowery, that can be aweful too.
To date your writing seems good to me. That could be a result of my three legged gene, some dim remnant from evolution, some pollutant in me ecosystem or, or, down to I just like it
correction: may be false
Hi Trevor,
Thanks for the encouragement with respect to my writing. I am learning a lot from my ongoing writing course, where they constantly indicate constructive approaches to improvement. I think that the author who most impressed me over many years of reading was Thomas Wolfe, in ‘Look Homeward Angel’ and ‘You Can’t Go Home Again,’ as I seemed to be carried along as if I was riding a wave of words. John Cleese in the cheese shop was also very inspiring.
I’ll just keep working on it, and thanks again.
-kevin @FitOldDog