When Motivation Fails....

... discipline prevails.

Or so the saying goes.

I'm working on it...

After a few months of low motivation and sporadic attendance, I got up at 5:20 a.m. this morning and headed in for the early class, which I have to admit was quite awesome. It was definitely worth the sleep I lost, and hopefully something I can add to my MWF routine when we get back from the beach. Mornings are busy for me this summer - driving Little to his job dismantling cars and getting to work myself by 8:30 a.m. - but barring unforseen circumstances, it's doable.

In other developments, Middle graduated with multiple honors from high school on June 3rd, and headed off to Penn State on the 25th for the LEAP summer program.  He's taking English and a Kinesiology class which will include a 5 day backpacking trip.  Am I jealous?  You bet I am.

And I miss him.

We spent the night before he left watching videos of him as a baby, which was quite entertaining and seemed apropos.  My sweet little guy... sigh.

In a few hours, we'll be headed for our annual trip to the Outer Banks of NC, but this time without Middle, and also without the Eldest, Girl of the Eldest, and That Dog, who devoured one of Little's first real paychecks today. They have to work, and That Dog is getting too old for travel.  Maybe he'll find more delicious Important Things around the house to eat this week.

Last year, I spent the entire beach vacation trying to rehabilitate my bad shoulder. Fortunately, this year the shoulder is pretty much okay.  Not perfect, but okay. I can do most of the things I did pre-injury, except for judo.  My judo career may have ended at Orange Belt. I'll spend some time this week on yoga and strengthening exercises, and swimming, of course.  But the main goal for the vacation is to get my mental mojo back.

My goals:

Sunday: Women's class and open mat - I need to start bringing a second gi
Monday: 6am BJJ and evening kickboxing
Tuesday: 10 am JSD and evening co-teaching kids and women's self defense classes
Wednesday: 6am BJJ and possibly evening BJJ or kickboxing - or rest - we'll see
Thursday: Two evening BJJ classes
Friday: 6am BJJ and evening open mat
Saturday: 9am yoga and no-gi open mat

Yoga and lifting a few times per week will be icing at this point, but I'm willing to try for those as well.

One of the pieces of encouragement I got from a brown belt at early morning class today was to commit to rolling at least 3-4 times per week when I feel myself hitting a plateau.  Resuming my previous schedule and adding those early morning classes should help get me back on track.

So... discipline.  Until recently, my rule for days I'm not feeling it is that I have to drive to the school and then decide if I'm going to train or not. 9 times out of 10, I'll roll if I'm there, even if I had to drag myself in. Adding the early morning class will help a lot, if only because it's novel and fun and means training with a smaller group of highly motivated people. Discipline is contagious.

It's an ambitious plan, but I'm going to try.