I’ve told you before that the whole “military style” motivation at boot camp is more funny to me than motivating but I have to admit that Jim has found the strategy that pushes my buttons and gets me going.
Four words: “Kolette, you’re the timer.”
There are between 3-6 people in our class – depending on the day. Up until now, each of us has been required to do each exercise a certain number of reps before moving on. This is where my slowness hasn’t really bothered me but I admit that sometimes I bog down the flow of the other members of the class.
That all changed when Jim said that the person in front of me couldn’t move on to the next exercise until I had finished the assigned reps on my exercise. That certainly lit a fire under me! I didn’t want the person in front of me to have to do more reps than they would have if they were doing them on their own. My own exercise routine is one thing but my motivation to move more quickly certainly increased dramatically when I knew that my actions affected someone other than myself.
Jim must have realized that this is an effective motivation for many of us because we have been doing various versions of being “the timer” the last few sessions. It’s interesting how when we all stick together, we help each other, encourage each other, support each other even more than when we are only focused on our own tasks. We become a team, working as a group to reach our goals.
There are many situations where working together gets us further than working alone. The encouragement and care and motivation to improve increases when we approach our tasks with the High School Musical philosophy that “we’re all in this together.”
Enjoy today’s download, celebrating “the timer” in all of us.
Interesting – but I don’t like the idea of running between machines!