Motivation - Part 1

   After all of the ups and downs of my training lately, I figured it would be worth including a few entries on what serves as my motivation for taking on such a big goal and continuing to try to fight through the adversity that has seemed to plague my recent training.  I guess its hard to really describe what motivates a person.  I think we all have different things that push us forward to achieve certain tasks.  I know that over the past few years, I have spent a lot of time reading stories about people who seem to accomplish amazing things despite having the odds stacked against them.   Most of these stories revolve around soldiers in a time of war (Flags of Our Fathers, Lone Survivor, etc) but others were just inspirational stories like the one about Team Hoyt (Devoted). 
    In my last few entries, I have referred to this ITB / knee pain as a "speed bump" in my training.  It really reminded me of a YouTube video that I became very fond of a few months back.  It was something that I had seen on a TV special and had always wanted to get around to watching.   Finally, on a slow call night I had the opportunity to watch the video, and I think I have watched it at least 30 times since.  The name of the video is called "The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch"(just clinic on the link to be taken to the actual YouTube video).   Its something that I would recommend everyone watch at some point ... just make sure you have the tissues handy.  The reason that I referenced this video clip is because there is a quote in it that I have continued to think about lately.  It comes about 3-4 minutes into his speech when he describes his multiple rejection letters from a job he had always desired.  He calls these hurdles "brick walls" and insightfully says that:

   "The brick walls that are in our way are there for a reason.  They are not there to keep us out, they are there to show how much we want it."

   I don't know why but this quote seemed to strike a cord with me recently, since I seemed to be up against my own "brick wall" with this nagging injury.  Fighting through and overcoming my "brick wall" should serve to show how bad I want to achieve this goal.