What Drives You? || Coach Mark Grande

What Drives You?

My CrossFit Austin family, I am beyond happy to write about motivation/goal setting and why we should choose to make ourselves better through physical fitness. I will start with this simple question for you to ask yourself. What drives you to step through the doors at the gym and put yourself through hell for an hour? Take a moment to really look deep within yourself. I would like you to think past the basics: physical aesthetics, feels good to workout, weight loss, improve health status, and camaraderie. Although these few basic reasons are great, I believe that individuals seek self- improvement on a much deeper level even without their conscious recognition of it. Look at the above mentioned reasons and ask yourself (why?) to a few of them. You may begin to understand the deeper connection to what motivates you. Before I go any further towards helping you discover your hidden drive or motivation, I would like to share why I’m driven to push myself every day.

As many of you know, I have been a lifetime athlete and competitor within sports and academia. However, I have never been more motivated or serious about my health/wellness than I am right now. Last January, I stood at the foot of my father’s hospital bed and witnessed him struggle with tremendous amounts of pain as he just endured his 5th, 12+ hour long, operation due to cancer. I could not bear the sight of my father in so much pain and had to leave the room. As my brothers and I were leaving the hospital, I could think of nothing else but the image of my father writhing around in pain. I decided right then and there that I would do everything in my power to NOT put myself, family, or future family through that type experience. I am driven by the image of my father lying in that hospital bed. I am also driven by each and every person I coach, teach, or train. My goal is to be the best role model I can in support of a healthy lifestyle. Whether I am working out at the gym or in a competition, I will represent what CrossFit Austin expects. That’s enough about me, but I hope you can now begin to see that fitness & wellness is much more than what we see on the surface. We all have the iceberg under the water!

So…I’ll ask again, “what drives you?” Let’s take a deeper look at one of the basic answers I mentioned earlier (weight loss?). Yes, I’m sure you want to look and feel better…but why? If you are on medication due to being overweight, I think that is pretty damn good reason to lose weight and get in shape. Who the hell wants to be told they have to take medicine for the rest of their lives in order to combat illness? I sure don’t, and I hope you feel the same. Would you like to play with your children or be active with your friends/family, but feel limited due to your weight, condition, or mobility? Let THAT feeling drive you! Have you ever been told that you’re too big or out-of-shape to do something? Let THAT feeling drive you! These are just a few examples, but I hope the light bulb is starting to turn-on about how serious motivation is.

I have news for everyone; motivation is NOT an action but rather a raw feeling. Motivation is an emotion that tells us to do one more rep as the clock is 2 seconds away from hitting zero. Motivation is a feeling triggered from the bully or wise-ass way back when. Motivation is the emotion we get as we look at our loved ones, and recognize that we will do whatever possible to be there for them. Lastly, motivation is also the feeling of failure. Yes, I said failure. To quote Arnold Schwarzenegger’s keys to life, “Don’t be afraid to fail.”

Look DEEP within yourself and find your MOTIVATION.

– Coach Mark