Staying motivated. It has to come from inside yourself.

One of the toughest things is to continue to do something everyday on a regular basis.  It does not mater what it is but if you don't have a motivation you will more than likely give up and stop.  I have had this problem, as I am sure most of you reading this do to, with a variety of things.  The toughest of all must be staying healthy and exercising regularly. I know for me it is easy to listen to the aches and pains and wimp out on getting out everyday and getting in shape.

This is also true for bloging everyday.  For a while I had been very good but then I just found it to be a chore and other life activities made it easy for me to have an excuse not to write every day.  It also seamed futile as I really don't know how many people actually read my words regularly and missed it when it was not there.  So I would start to make excuses, no ones reading, I don't really have anything to say, there are so many better writers and blogs out there. This is what stood in my way and I let it stop me for a few months.

Yet some how I have managed to take a photo a day for 650 consecutive days now (started December 31, 2010).  I have had no outside motivation here, just a desire to keep shooting and not let the streak end.  I started with my DSLR and this year have mainly used my iPhone.  While I have had some compliments to images through out the project, these are not the reasons I have kept shooting.  It has just become part of my daily routine and as such I anticipate it can go on for a while.  (The photo below is today's Instagram 366 image of a water droplet on one of our tropical plants).

So what do I do for the first two.  If I learned anything from my photo streak it's that my motivation has to come from with in and not from recognition or adulation. I have to do it for myself and I think the bloging will probably be the easier of the two.  It maybe late every night when I write, but I plan to set a side time before I go to bed and share my photo(s) from the day and my thoughts.  I make this as a promise to myself.

Now the first one is going to be more of a challenge.  Time is not really the issue, focus and motivation is.  Here I might need to give me a target, something to strive for.  the main one I can think of right now is to sign up and train for the Calgary Marathon on May 26 of 2013. Now I did complete the race in 2009 in a time of 6 hrs and 58 seconds and can set a goal to better that time.  I'm sharing this here not for people to keep me on task as I know that no one will really care if I finish or not. I do so as a way to motivate myself.  I will share my progress on a weekly basis more for my own record, but hopefully a few of you will cheer me on.