The Importance Of Training When We Feel Motivated And Not

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self, we discuss both the times where we feel more and less in alignment with our goals, motivation and starting point that we initially had for something in our life, such as for martial arts.

We all know the times where we feel motivated and pumped to pursue our goals. Following through during those times with for example our martial arts training is quite easy and smooth. The other side of the coin is the times where we feel misaligned and even start doubting our goals and the initial starting point of our pursuit in martial arts.

However, consistency on our part is the king that will bestow us with treasures if we keep it up. Both high and low times are natural parts of the one, which is the movement and progression of life.

In this episode, I talk about how I try to keep this strand of consistency in myself when it comes to for example the context of martial arts.

Music by Fidelis Spies

Episode Transcript

[00:00] Welcome to the Martial Art of Self podcast, a podcast about bringing the essence of martial arts back to self.

[00:12] Hi everyone, this is Aldin and it today’s episode we are talking about ‘High Activity’ times and ‘Low Activity’ times, and the importance of consistency in both of them, and during both of them.

[00:28] So, sometimes we have periods or times during the week, or during the month, or the year, or whatever period it is where we feel stronger, where we feel up to a task. Where we feel like we are in alignment with our goals, in alignment with our aims. We feel motivation within ourselves, inside our bodies. We feel vital. We feel like our energy is up, and we are generally feeling more willing and energetic and clear, able to see clearly, the path ahead to take the actions, the steps, what is necessary to pursue your goals.

[01:17] Then, on the other hand, we have the times during the week or during the month or during the year or whatever time-period it is where we feel, let’s say weaker, where we don’t feel like we are in alignment to anything. We are not feeling in alignment with our goals that we initially defined or set, to our aims, to our objectives. We feel lower in energy. Almost like completely lethargic, lazy. Where just moving off the couch or out of the bed is just challenging itself. Not to speak of going for example to training, to a martial arts session

[02:00] In those times where feel weaker, where we feel like nothing clicks within us, where we feel — like before if we felt in any way or form or shape like things were right in our life, the paths we chose, the things we saw, the realizations we had about something, or about our goal, or somebody in our reality, something about ourselves – it just feels like throwing out the window, and it just feels like it’s not valid. It’s like completely gone, and we are at this empty, blank canvas again, where nothing makes sense. Where we are insecure, where we feel like we don’t know how to move forward, we start questioning and doubting where and how we have walked before. We start questioning and doubting the path and the action and the goals we have set before, and if it’s really up to us — if we can really do it and continue pursuing it.

[03:11] During those times where we feel like that, where we feel out of alignment with even ourselves – training for martial arts, in my case, it becomes always like second place. It’s always pushed back into the background. It’s one of the lesser important things to do because I am so consumed by these emotions, these waves – these low waves of what’s going on inside my mind, or in my reality, like sadness or depression or fears or anxieties, doubts, you name it.

[03:51] What often happens is that during those and such times we – or at least in my case, I very often and more likely end up inside  a position in my mind within myself where I allow myself, and I accept myself to compromise myself and to compromise my goals, and the initial commitments that I have set for myself.

[04:14] For example an initial commitment that I set for myself was that I will train every single day due to an understanding that I have had of the importance of doing so, in making sure that I align with my goals, and the things that I would like to create through and from the training within myself and my world and reality and for example in martial arts, or regarding martial arts.

[04:39] Then during those times where I don’t feel like in alignment with myself even, like these ‘weaker’ weeks or days, or moment in life if you will, if you wanna call them that – it’s like accepting and allowing myself to compromise that commitment becomes easier, because I am kind of  within my mind in this more vulnerable and already like ‘attacked’-state. It’s like I have no immune system within myself set up against these emotions, or experiences, or whatever I am reacting to within myself, or in my external reality, and because of that it’s like my ‘immune system’ is compromised if you will. My Immune-System of Self is compromised and it becomes easier for my mind to bring me into a position where I accept and allow myself to compromise myself even further by for example deciding more likely to not train, to skip on training, to not do my martial arts sessions, because of the way I feel. Because of accepting and allowing myself to be compromised by my mind and thoughts and the state of the negative emotional state that I am experiencing and finding myself within.

[06:03] But, what I have realized is – over the months and the years is, how important it is to maintain some form and shape of consistency during both the good and the bad times within life. It is of the highest importance, I have realized and seen within myself and from my life, to even despite if I don’t feel like it, even despite if I feel like so out of alignment with myself and my goals during those periods and moments of my life where I feel low and down and less energetic and less up to the ask, or lethargic and lazy and things like that, is how important it is that during those times I still maintain the consistency of pursuing my goals, of deploying, of doing or applying the actions in physical reality, such as going to training, and going to martial arts classes and doing the training. Even at home for myself, practicing techniques, or some strength training, or power training and so on.

[07:13] Because life and living — living doesn’t take breaks, creation doesn’t take breaks. Meaning that, it’s not like during one day living is put on a halt and a pause, and creating is put on a halt and a pause, and then resumed after that break. No. It’s like we live daily and we create daily the things, the goals or not the goals in our lives that we live. If we take a break from that then what we are doing is not taking a break from creating and from living, but we are living and creating the opposite of what we are working towards. Meaning that we are working against our goals. We are working against the things and the points that we would like to have and create, be it inside ourselves as a characteristic, as the human being we are, as the being we are, or in our world, in our reality and our relationships in life and our life.

[08:16] For me, for example, in relationship to this realization of the importance of remaining consistent in moving myself and directing myself in a way that I create and live the actions and the points within myself, of which I would like to create and have, and not work against it by creating and living something that goes against it, is that I make sure for example in my case that – in terms of martial arts, where I have made that commitment to myself that I will train every single day, and I will move myself every single day due to the commitment I made to get to know and develop and redefine my relationship with my human physical body, my relationship with myself. Expand and create and further my self-awareness in the physical. Due to that commitment I made and the understanding thus of the importance of daily training for myself and my goals, for example, I make sure that I do at least every single day one or two of my main exercise or movements that I have defined as the main exercise or movements. In my case it’s one particular exercise that I have defined as one of the core exercises for myself, that I want and commit to doing every single day, and it takes anywhere between 30 to 60 minutes to complete, depending if I do it once a day or twice a day, but I do this exercise every single day even during those times where I feel really shitty, where I feel like I am just not up to anything and I just want to sit on the couch. I just want to binge-watch Netflix. I just wanna play games. I just want to go on the computer, and relax and just browse the Internet, browse through social media, swipe through Instagram, browse through YouTube videos, and entertain myself, and things like that.

[10:28] I am making sure that at least I am making that one definitive strive daily towards the goal that I have set for myself, towards the point, the goal, the thing of creation that I have committed myself to and would like to create. Be it inside me as a being, or inside my world and reality.

[10:55] Feeling weak, and feeling strong – they are not black and white in terms of you only feel strong, and you only feel weak for certain periods. They are more like waves and more like — They are not the same wave all the time. Sometimes the wave is slower, sometimes it’s higher, sometimes it’s lower. Meaning that on Monday I could feel like really, really crap and not like up to anything and feel like lazy, but on Tuesday it gets a little bit better. On Wednesday it gets worse again, and on the next three days it’s a lot better, but during all of those days I hold dear the commitment that I have made to myself to do the training, and do the main exercises that I have defined every single day, and make the time for it. Remind myself of the commitment, remind myself of why I am doing it, and why I want to do it. Then simply breathe, slow myself down within me, and make the decision to just do the exercise. To move me. To work on myself despite not feeling great, and despite not feeling motivated for it, and feeling like I just want to do something else. Feeling really resistant towards doing it, and just wanting to go and do something else completely different. Like relaxing and binge-watching, and maybe doing nothing, or just sleeping.

[12:31] As the days change and as my state during the days change, if you will where, as I said on Monday I feel like the worse, and on the fourth, and fifth and sixth day I feel a lot better — during those days where I feel a lot better and where it gets better I then push myself to not only do my main exercise but also incorporate some other exercises. Even if it’s just slowly practicing some certain techniques, but with attention, and focus. Working, and being present and working on those techniques, even if it’s just doing it slowly for ten or 15 or 30 minutes, it doesn’t matter. What I am making sure is that I am the one that decides to move myself, and live and apply the actions necessary for me to fulfill my goals and create the things that I would like to create inside me as a being, and in my world and my reality, and my life.

[13:33] I find that this is the self-integrity that I owe to myself — that we owe to ourselves, if you will, is to be consistent in being true to our commitments we have made to ourselves. Like, in my case, for example, one of those commitments is martial arts, and to thus do something in relation to that commitment every single day without accepting and allowing compromise within ourselves really in relation to that commitment we’ve made.

[14:09] This means that I am the one, I as the being, am the one that is directing myself to train and work on the creation, or whatever it is that that I want to create. Be it martial arts, or something else. I am essentially making sure that I am not waiting on, or I am not waiting for some positive feeling experience, some positive energy to come up in my mind and start consuming and being felt and present in my body in order to only then make me, through that medium being the positive feeling energy, like motivation, or happiness, or desire – to make me move myself, and make that decision to train and work on my goals, and work on creating and living what I would like to create and have as myself and in my world and reality. But instead I make sure that I am directing myself, that I am directing myself to not allow and accept these positive feelings to direct me, as well as not letting, and accepting, and allowing the negative emotional experiences, like fear, anger, depression, sadness times and so on to also not make me give in and give up, and accept and allow myself to abandon my self-directed living, and my self-directed creating of the creation-points that I would like to have, and create, but that I, myself, am the driving factor in all of this. That I direct me, and I move me to train and to live and to create.

[16:08] Thank you very much. See you in the next episode.

[16:12] Thank you for listening to the Martial Art of Self podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, then please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. You can also follow this podcast on Twitter and Instagram. For more information about the Martial Art of Self, please visit martialartofself.com