Motivation

I wasn't sure  what to write about this week.  Sometimes I think that I should use more pictures - they take up space and you can add a caption or two and be done with it, but I kinda like trying to be thought-y (that's probably not a word).  Which is why this is turning into a weekly, not daily blog.

This semester, the fall semester, is always my toughest one in terms of commitments.  I teach more than I do in spring, the lab coordinator gig is harder because I usually have a crop of new TAs starting to teach for the first time, and I'm usually tired from summer teaching.  This fall I'm also a faculty senator (it REALLY, REALLY beats the SAC office - I  wasn't bitter and angry after my first senate meeting; I was almost always angry after a session in SAC.  So, I'm trying to make myself a little more of a priority in all this.  Selfish?  Maybe.  But the ESU swimming pool is cheaper than therapy and more legal than killing everyone who frustrates me. (I sound like I have all this pent-up aggression - I really don't.  I really do love my job.)  In the past, 30 odd years, I can't say that exercise has been a priority.  But I kinda dig this swimming thing.  In fact, I might even be a little bit good at it.  And I feel accomplished and justified in eating out for lunch if I get in my 1500m in 40 minutes.  But, when things get busy I tend to drop stuff like this.  Swim for an hour (including getting in and out of the pool)? But I could be doing x, y, z.  Yeah, I could, and in the past, I did.  Now, I've figured out that even more than exercise I need 40 minutes to myself.

But swimming is tiring sometimes, especially when you're upping your distance like I am this week.  I have a waterproof iPod that I love a lot and I had a pretty good playlist, but it was feeling stale lately.  So I loaded some new stuff on there for this week and boy-howdy, let me tell you it worked.  40 minutes to myself AND swimming to the Top Gun soundtrack?  Yes, please.  Seriously, try it.  It doesn't matter what you're doing - you could be cleaning toilets, but if you do it to the Top Gun Anthem, you're suddenly wearing aviators and a flight suit and are a total badass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCTJmXrgsFg

I can backstroke to none other to this song.  I'm pretty sure if I keep playing it as loudly as I do, I will be deaf by the end of the semester.

My other new favorite motivating song is Say Hey (I love you).  This one is so catchy that I did my last 100m to it, got out of the pool, and started dancing while I was putting my gear away.  I'm sure there are now several football players who were wondering who the crazy pale girl on the sidelines trying to dance was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehu3wy4WkHs

Some people are intrinsically motivated to exercise - healthy, feel good, blah, blah, blah.  Me, I need stuff - the lure of a new swimsuit, new music, the ability to picture myself swimming with aviators on in a music video for the Top Gun Anthem. :)  Hey, you gotta go with what works, right?