Finding motivation in the current climate.

Like many others in the period of craziness that is our current world amidst Covid-19 I am unemployed. Unemployment can be great for some things, you might finally finish the blanket you've been crocheting for six months, catch up on entire seasons of shows, learn a new hobby or... improve your fitness. Fitness and I have a messy relationship, we get together and everything is all sunshine and roses, until it's not and we break up. Then do it all over again down the track. During the beginning of lock-downs we were off again and I was deeply involved with my kindle and Netflix. One of the contributors to our off-again status was my mental health. When I spend days on end in bed not showering or doing anything, finding the motivation to flirt with fitness isn't exactly easy.

No matter our relationship status I've never really enjoyed gyms. I've dabbled in the past but often prefer to stay home and listen to apps that tell me what to do or walk on my treadmill whilst still watching a show. However sometimes it's hard to build up motivation even for a 15 minute work out. Enter, my paranoia (or maybe realism) and my love for dystopian future novels. One of my favorite childhood novels is 'Tomorrow When The War Began' and the rest of its series. (If you've never read them, I highly recommend doing so no matter how old you are). Breaking it down, a group of Aussie teens go bush (camping/hiking) for a week and when they come back, they find Australia has been invaded and they have to figure out how to survive and even fight back against the invaders. Of course I also loved The Hunger Games and Divergent series along with multiple other featuring everything from zombies, plagues and EMP's to insane challenges set by the government to be faced by young adults with failure resulting in death. The genre covers a wide range of settings but there is one common theme throughout. If you want to survive, you're gonna have to get fit.

I don't exactly think we are going to have an apocalypse, but I'm not discounting the possibility. Reading and watching the news doesn't really give me hope for the future. Instead, in a twisted way I picture myself living in situations similar to the heroes and heroines of my favorite novels where being able to hike for kilometres through the bush could mean the difference between life and death. This, I can twist into motivation for myself.

Along with motivation, exercise should be at least somewhat enjoyable. Walking, jogging or working out at home I rarely find enjoyment and find it difficult to go the distance. It's so easy to bail out early. Hiking on the other hand, once I start I tend to enjoy it and at some point you just have to keep going if you want to make it back home. You really can't just bail out.

Linking all these things, my tolerance (and even slight enjoyment) of hiking, love of dystopian future novels and fear of a potential apocalypse, I have managed to rack up a fair few kilometres in more recent weeks.

I am extremely lucky to have fairly close access to fire trails, hiking trails, hills and even biking tracks where I can stomp through bush and farmland. In addition to this quite often I am completely alone which enhances my dystopian fantasy. I can pretend I'm hiking into the wilderness to make it to safety, or to escape those who might be chasing me. The mornings where I could in no way bring myself to exercise or even shower, I can remind myself of the strength of the characters in my favorite novels and tell myself "The apocalypse is coming, I need to be able to be able to go the distance"

This in turn creates a positive circle where the nature exposure and endorphin and dopamine releasing exercise can actually help my mental health. Even knowing how good exercise is for me, that knowledge in and of itself is not quite enough motivation. Some people are motivated by how they feel, their strength, their speed, new personal bests, competition both friendly and serious. I am motivated by the potential end of civilization. Whatever works for you, do it your own way.