I think I can, I think I can

"Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly." - Stephen R. Covey

One of the hardest things to do is stay motivated. We are capable of so much, yet we accept defeat or satisfaction prior to reaching our full potential. While the ultimate goal seems to be perfection, we lack the self-motivation to even reach our personal bests. We just stop trying to improve.

This year I'm running cross country for the first time. I joined believing I was decent at running from soccer season, but slowly I grew more unsure of myself, especially after seeing the capabilities of others and their long strides. Never had I taken much care to being short, infact I like being short. As practices started going by, I lost all motivation. I wasn't a runner, why was I doing this to myself? I realized I just wasn't cut out for this. I just wasn't good enough. Instead of motivating myself to try harder and improve my times, I ran to get it over with. Then, the weather started changing. The first day there cool breeze, rather than heat and humidity, the workout was distance. Since I have a preference for distance workouts and the weather was simply beautiful, I just kept on running. As I calculated the miles in my head, I became surprised at how much I ran without stopping to walk or rest. As I became tired, I convinced myself to keep going.. "Just a little bit more and you'll be done with 3 miles Sehar... Well now that you finished 3, you might as well do a bit more to be able to say you completed 5K.." and that's how it continued.

I felt so accomplished after finishing that day, not because of my time or the distance, but at how much I pushed myself to continue while others had taken the easy way out and just walked. From then, I realized that I could do it, the only thing I lacked was motivation. I now see my timings improving as I bring out my dedication and confidence from within. My problem was that I had accepted defeat too easily. To make matters worse, I didn't accept that I wasn't trying to my fullest potential. Instead, I made excuses for myself. "Oh the weather isn't good today... Oh I'm fasting... Oh my legs aren't as long as hers... Oh I didn't get enough sleep..." Now I realize that yeah people will encourage you, but in the end, it's all you. Just like in a race. The people on the sidelines can cheer you on, but once you pass them and that burst of energy you received from their encouragement is gone, it's all you. The truth of the matter is that you can do it, because it is possible... you just have to know it's possible. It's easy to tell yourself that you're not good enough and therefore there's no point on trying, but you have to remember that if you expect failure, that's exactly what you'll get. When you fall down, you can't give up, you have get back up and keep going, because that's how life is. As long as you don't give up, you can always improve. You just have to get past the pessimistic view of "I can't do it", because that won't get you anywhere. The hardest barrier to overcome is your own mind, and once you overcome that barrier, all that's left is to put forth effort and dedication.