Keys to Motivation

Personal associations and relations with other people are extremely important to exercise motivation. Like it or not, we naturally give weight to what other people are doing and what they think of us.

Because most of us live in a society of unfit people, we must exert unusual personal effort to inspire ourselves to move. People with leadership qualities are best able to muster the magnitude of will power needed.

And one way to refill depleted reservoirs of motivation is to become part of a group where fitness is the norm. It might just be easier to form a sort of “jogging club” composed of husband-and-wife team with some of the children participating.

We would like to see the day when other civic, social, or religious organizations form their own fitness groups, whether it be a walking club or a jogging club.

For Creative Ideas, Lie Down. Your ability to think is greatly affected by your position. On your feet, you think faster, but you are also prone to make hasty, even rush conclusions.

In a standing position, you have more sales resistance, are more commanding, and your ability to remember is at its worst.

Stretched out in a reclined position, you are more apt to think creatively. Thoughts will come slower, more profound, and according to studies at the Michigan State University, memory is at its best. As opposed to the standing position, you are more receptive to suggestions and ideas of others when prone.

Fit to Quote. Here are some “food for motivation” gleaned from physical fitness publications:

• People who cannot find time for recreation are obliged sooner or later to find time for illness. – John Wanamaker
• You show me a man who has an abiding interest in some form of pleasant physical activity, and I’ll show you a person who is feeling better on his job and who has greater stamina. – Dr. Frank L. Bauer
• It will come as a shock to the sedentary American male that his body is middle-aged by the time he is 26. – T.K. Cureton
• The ultimate state of physical fitness has been defined in a variety of ways. Doctors have explained fitness in terms of health or lack of disease. Physiologists have called it responses to certain stimuli. Physical educators tend to think of fitness as a factor in the capacity for physical performance. We choose to take the broadest view, that fitness is an evolutionary prescription. In past times, only the fittest survived. Today, only those who are fit will be able to sense the true pleasure of living. – Robert Rodale