Response to "Motivation".

Below is an email I received from my good friend, Lance Corporal Mike Aylward, who is stationed over in Iraq right now. If you do not like to read curse words, don't read this.

Hey Sull, as always I loved the blog man. I wanted to leave a comment but I had no idea how so I said whateva and now I am writing an email. My mother was actually asking me like 2 days ago how I was able to motivate myself and train everyday. First I told her that even though we are currently doing nothing and the chances of me getting in any kind of trouble before we leave is miniscule there is always the thought in the back of my mind that my physical fitness relates directly to whether or not I will live or die in certain situations. This doesn't apply to any of your clients but I did tell her a few other things to think about that might. One of those things was that everyday I am confronted with stress, and a shit load of it. Most people with a good job are. One way to alleviate that stress is to work out and work fucking hard. I told her that as long as my body was in pain and sweating so bad that it looked like I pissed myself I was thinking about nothing other than that pain and getting that next damn rep and everything else that has gone on that day disappears for that 30 minutes of straight intensity. This could help your clients out in two different ways, motivate them to get into the gym first of all and then second, get them working on a level that you expect. We both know that if you aren't putting in 100% you aren't going to get desired results. The other thing that I brought up was something from a class that we were given before we deployed and that was on a combat mindset. When I thought about the class I realized that it could be applied to anything, life in general even if you are willing to look at it as combat.In a combat situation there are certain things the body will do automatically, one is the fight or flight instinct. The others are all reactions to stress being imposed. I am not going to get into the whole class but one thing that applies was the question posed to us...how are you going to get the job done without being properly prepared mentally and physically. I know this sounds like moto bullshit but hear me out. One of those stresses is fear. Not matter what the job military or civilian there is always going to be fear involved (especially for civilians now with the economy). One major cause of stress is the fear, and no one likes to say it but it is actually the biggest cause of fear, is that of letting your buddies down (getting someone killed because you can't perform your job correctly). While no one will get killed if someone is too tired to make the important call or email, other peoples hard work has the potential to get fucked up. Where am I going with this? Do you really want to let down a guy who put his faith in you to do a job because you were too tired to fucking get it right? How does that look on your character? "Oh sorry sir, I actually didn't make that call, I was really tired yesterday and went home and figured I would give the client a call in the morning." Thats bullshit, training your body will at the same time train your mind to fucking do the job, overcome stress, overcome fear. Because fuck it, why would you put that weight down and take a breather when you only have to bang out two more reps? Are you going to put your injured buddy down when your fireman carrying him out of a kill zone? Fuck no. The same applies, why would you put off a call and go home when you can make that fucking call right now before you left? It may not seem applicable when you are driving home and can't wait to get on the couch crack a beer and forget the stupid shit that happened during the day but, Training Your Body Trains Your Mind. Maybe thats something a client can tape on their dashboard or put in their little leather work folder thing. I can't believe I just spit that shit out, and I am sorry if it was long winded and moto but I really enjoyed the topic of the blog and I just get fuckin antsy when people talk about motivation and dedication and shit, plus I get sick to my stomach when shitbag marines are like maaan I just can't do it today I'll go in the morning. I love you man. Keep improving lives
Ayls