Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 104, March 2018 | Page 9

WALK THIS
WAY
By Anel Oosthuizen
First step: Accept it. Acknowledge the way you feel. Yes, you don’t want to go training.
That’s okay, you’re allowed to feel that way! Life is not all rainbows and unicorns, everyone
knows that. The secret behind it all is in those moments when you acknowledge the way
you feel, get out of bed and still do it anyway. One should always remember, you are lapping
everyone on the couch, no matter how unsuccessful you might feel about your training!
It does take a lot of courage and
determination, and the best way to
stay motivated is to do that as often
as you can. The more you do it, the
easier it gets, and that’s why one of
my favourite quotations is, “It never
gets easier, you just get stronger.” I
live by that.
FINDING MOTIVATION
T
hey say the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step,
but what happens when the motivation is not even there to take
that first step? What do you do when you start questioning the
reason for your time, effort and suffering out on the road or track?
There have been countless days when I have woken up and dreaded
my morning speed session, or my Sunday long distance session, or my
excruciating gym nights, not wanting to go out there and train. There
have also been countless days of feeling like I have failed in specific
training sets, because I didn’t reach the times I wanted to. There can be
so many reasons for feeling demotivated. It might be not reaching the
goals you set, or not finding time in your busy schedule to train, being
too tired, or maybe just being plain lazy...
My coach always asks me, “How
would you eat an elephant?” The
answer is piece by piece. By just
focusing on right now. By not thinking
that if I feel like this on Monday, how
am I going to make it to Sunday? But
by doing a bit of ‘soul searching’ while
going through the motions, you will
feel your mood and attitude change,
and the motivation will slowly but
surely return. Always remember that
Rome was not built in a day!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Race Walker Anel Oosthuizen is a multiple SA Champion and
Record Holder, who represented SA at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
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