Workout Motivation?

What motivates you to try harder during a workout? To push yourself when you don't think you can go any further? To do that one more minute, one more round, one more rep?

Is it mind over matter when physical exhaustion sets in? Does the workout go from a physical one to a mental one? Sometimes that is all it takes -- the mind to take over and push for that last minute, that last rep. If the mind can make the body continue, how much longer could you continue? Could you continue until the muscles fail when the mind tells them to work? When they fail, could they rest for a brief moment, and could the mind tell them to work again, and would they respond? The mind is a powerful thing -- can you condition your mind to help you achieve better results? THINK about it.

Is it peer pressure? When you are working out with others, do you feel the need to continue, even when your body tells you otherwise? Seeing others continue, in the face of similar obstacles, can motivate you to continue, to do what they may do effortlessly. When they get that one more round, it motivates you to get it too, to keep up. We always want to keep up, compare our efforts to others, whether it is weights, reps, time, etc. Working out with others makes that comparison easier. The results are real-time, instantaneous.

What motivates you?

Is in an internal desire to be the best? Do you want to win? Be successful? Do you find inner satisfaction knowing that you did your best? That feeling of, "I did it, excellently". It's that internal flame of achievement that tells you to do the best, be the best, be or do better than last time. It is more than the sense of accomplishment, although accomplishment is achieved. It is the sense of satisfaction or success when you know you have done what you set out to do. You set a goal for yourself, and surpassed that goal. You continually raise the bar on your goals so that you can be better. In your mind, you must continually reach that ever-raising bar, and in doing so, you are satisfied.

Is it a survival instinct? The natural instinct to persevere against all obstacles, animalistic, primal. You may not even know that it is happening -- it just happens. Something is keeping your body going when everything says to stop. Something intrinsic only in nature. People have been able to survive when facing unbelievable obstacles -- deathly experiences. They survive. How?? Has a workout ever been so difficult, that it became survival? Or did it really just feel that way??

What motivates you???