Monday, May 05, 2008
“It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime; so where's the motivation?”The other day I was at the gym doing a rather difficult workout named "Murph," in honor of a Navy SEAL, Lt. Michael Murphy, who came up with it.
- Peter Gibbons, Office Space
A third of the way through, as I was sprawled on the floor of the gym gasping, with people glaring at me while they interrupted their long rest breaks to do some preacher curls, my brain was filled with compelling excuses about how I had already gotten a decent workout and should pack it in.
And I probably would've gone home, had the workout been named something else. But instead, I thought about how finishing this workout was probably about 1% of how much Murph had been eventually tested, when he sacrificed himself by staying in direct Taliban fire to try and radio for help to save his SEAL team. The LEAST I could do was finish a workout that this guy did (in full body armor) in his play time.
So for the next 30 minutes I tried to avoid vomiting and finished the workout in an unimpressive time of just over an hour.
What's my point? First and foremost, thank god, despite the vagification of our society, we still have dudes like Lt. Murphy in this country to ensure that, when needed, the tip of our spear is razor sharp.
Second, everything worth doing is hard. The problem isn't the difficulty, it's the motivation. Whether you are trying to lose weight, write a thesis, climb a mountain, or improve the environment by making sure we get enough CO2 into it, don't worry about how hard it is, worry about not caring enough.
