My Greatest Motivator...

A viewer sent me a private message the other day to my Youtube account. She asked me: "In all honesty, what is your greatest motivator? What is it that really drives you to keep going like you do and have done in the past?" My answer may have shocked her, but I felt it was worth sharing here for those of you who are also curious. What was my answer? ANGER. Plain and simple.

Many of you may have gasped (or at least felt confused) when you saw that word, 'Anger'. But its so true. Very early on in my life, my Father taught me one very important lesson (among many others): "Julie Janee, Anger is one of life's best motivators. Use it." Of course, the older I get, the more and more his words make perfect sense. So, what was I (or am I ) so angry at, that it keeps me driven to get to my goal weight and peak of physical fitness? Well, my anger has shifted to different mediums. And by 'mediums' I mean, who or what it is directed towards.

It started out that I was angry with myself for letting my weight become the problem that it was. I was angry at my own body when it couldn't walk up stairs without feeling like it was going to collapse. That was enough to get me started. Then, after a few pounds were shed, I started to hear some negativity from the "haters" or "nay-sayers" who thought they were oh-so-clever with trying to hide their snide comments. But ultimately, I was made aware of what they were saying about me: (For example) "I mean, she says she eats healthy and works out a lot, but she's still fat!" "She thinks she can lose weight, but I just think she's a fat person and she can't change that." And I could go on and on. So, my anger then shifted towards these people. I told myself, " I'll show them! They'll never have room to say these things about me EVER again." I cannot tell you how great it felt to be at a certain event with these negative people and see their mouths literally drop when I walked into the room. "Thats right bitches, I did it!" <---That was resounding in my head and resonating on my face in my 1,000 watt smile.

So, what about now? Am I still angry? Where is my motivation coming from now? Thats a great question...and I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I can honestly say that I no longer have that "Anger Drive" (as I like to call it). I think now, its more about being super excited to reach new limits of personal fitness that I never thought were possible before. I mean, here I sit weighing in within the 170's and I still can't believe it! I NEVER thought I would actually get back down to this weight and here I am, about to surpass it with a bit more work. Its amazing! So, to answer the question, what drives me or motivates me now? Excitement for what the future has in store.

For many of you who are just starting your journey, this may seem like its not enough to keep you going. And I would say, that at your beginning stage you're absolutely right. That was true for me when I was 260lbs. Simply being "excited" for the future is not what got my ass out of bed at 6am every morning to go and work out. Nope. But after you start to see yourself transforming and losing weight, you begin to realize that these things, which you once thought were impossibilities, are actually attainable! THATS when the excitement kicks in.

Yes, it is my personal opinion that sometimes you just have to get pissed off enough to actually DO SOMETHING about whats going on. I find that this is especially true with weightloss. So get angry! Get mad at those pants that are too tight, get up and go for a walk or run or go to the gym and do something that will only bring you that much CLOSER to fitting into them. If you treat all the obstacles in your life like this, then you'll be one VERY successful human being. Thats what I've always done in my life. One of my many famous personal quotes is this:

"Go ahead and tell me that I can't do something. Then when I do it, and do it better than you could ever imagine...you can kiss my ass."