One thing I'm really good at is setting goals. I've always loved to dream big and imagine all the cool things I could do in life. My desire to set and achieve big goals led to me to run my first marathon while I was still in college, graduate college a semester early, move back to DC to pursue a new career and even tackle my first triathlon.



But sometimes what I struggle with is the motivation after the initial excitement about the goal wears off.

Sure it's easy to plunk down money on a race entry fee and totally rock the first six weeks of a training plan. The motivation is kicked into high gear, and I want nothing more than to dominate my workouts.

But then the excitement starts to wear off a little bit. I struggle to balance training with real life, and suddenly I'm missing a workout here or a workout there.



We all go through moments when our motivation levels dip a little bit. Maybe we're super swamped at work or we just have a packed social calendar one week that makes it hard to get to the gym. Life happens.

When I feel my motivation starting to run dry there are a few places I turn to remind myself why I made the commitment to whatever goal I set.

 

I go back and read old blog posts from the start of training when I'm all like "Yayyy racing!" I read race reports from other bloggers. I look at everyone's pretty fitness boards on Pinterest full of motivational pictures and slogans. I hit up my people on Twitter and they usually send me some words of encouragement.

The online fitness world is a powerful place to find motivation when you need it.


 

If you've been reading for a while, you might remember that I wrote about Under Armour's What's Beautiful campaign when it launched back in the spring, and I even took part in their online challenge as I trained for my first triathlon. Watching all the other women go after their fitness goals was hugely motivating and made me want to tackle my workouts with as much vigor as they were.

Well apparently, I wasn't the only one who found the What's Beautiful challenge motivating. Lately the What's Beautiful community has exploded and more and more women are signing up and pushing themselves to Sweat Every Day. If you're one of my lady readers and you haven't signed up, I definitely encourage you to check it out.


 

Seeing other women tackle all sorts of crazy fitness challenges is completely contagious. It makes me want to throw on my running shoes and nail my interval workout or have a kick butt long run.

Plus Under Armour is giving away lots of free gear to What's Beautiful participants, and if you enter the challenge, you'll have a chance to win a trip to Florida for the Under Armour Women's Camp Sweat, where you can train with elite trainers, meet with nutritionists, oh yea, and indulge in some spa treatments.

I don't know about you, but I'd love to have my butt kicked Under Armour style.

So that's where I go to find my motivation when I'm struggling to get out of the door. Tell me, where do you find your fitness motivation?

Standard FTC disclosure: FitFluenital LLC compensated me for this campaign. All opinions are my own.