What's your carrot?

I wasn't asking how to keep the motivation...

I want to know what the motivation is & as an instructor, what you offer your students as motivation.

That's the carrot.

My motivation?

Perfection of technique and power behind the technique. Loss of power behind the technique pi$$es me off. Too much power and little to no technique also pi$$es me off.

I'm obsessed with finding a good balance between my techniques and strength.

For students;
Tag along and you might learn something useful, as well you get to have fun.

Also, I figured out a way to reach the carrot if it was attached to your forehead. Just lie down and let gravity bring the carrot to you

-Taison out

Thats a good one Mark. Right on. My motivation lies within that pyramid, often at the very top.

I guess what motives me are the unconscious drives for each of those steps along that hierarchy, which is consciously just thought of as, "its fun". The camaraderie is great. The constant "tests" of yourself and the knowledge gained (of self) is incredible. I would not be the person I am today without such tests and knowledge.

I suppose others things like physical conditioning, etc. play a role as well. That's pretty important as you get into your 40's and beyond. Staying active is so obviously important for a long healthy life. I look around me at other people my age and see the results of a life that has become all too sedentary for them after they graduated college, got married, had children, and then sank fully into a life of "domesticatia". My own father is a shining example of that. If he had just stayed active through those years from his forties and fifties on he wouldn't be suffering from the weight gain and it's effects on his knees and back (etc) that he is now.

There are so MANY "carrots", it's sometimes hard to at once even remember them all.

A very interesting post...

I find what motivates me has developed over the years, and each one has built on the previous on. First it was fitness, then it was learning new moves, then is was fitness again, then it was wanting to be more flexible/ faster, working on techniques... and so it goes on.

Fundamentally there was a learning curve which kept me going forward... but at the moment my motivation is wavering, so I look to my instructor for a bit of guidance.

So, as Hedkikr asked...

"Instructors, what do you offer your students to maintain their motivation?"

It would be nice to know.

Three things:
1. Going to classes is a social gathering of friends.
2. As others have stated, perfection of what I know.
3. Learning new things. I'm amazed by what's out there.
I met someone yesterday who showed me something RADICALLY different and highly effective. I want to start training with him, too.

I guess I'm deranged, but training "took" with me at a very early age... I train, as the zen saying goes, "because there is training to do"... Class is at 6 or 7 o'clock, so I'm there...

Feel good... go train
feel bad?... go train
got something important to do... go train

Pretty simple, really...

What do I offer students to keep them motivated?... more training. One on one teaching and "specific point" analysis of what they're doing "right or wrong" to help them build strong skills quickly. Also, I teach them the body mechanics of the arts and how they differ, so they can fight against other arts.

I enjoy being around training as well... to see others doing things differently... to analyze their strengths and weaknesses, and to adapt their training into the skills we train against... not so much "stealing their technique" as "preventing or dealing with their attacks"... and it's a thoughtful process, not just "what would I do about this"?

I guess my carrot is "I like training"...

What I present... the manner in which I present it would be the "carrot".

If they like what I do, or more importantly the way I present it... they will stay and learn my understanding(ie my understanding of my instructors art)

Jeff

It has become the air I breathe and the water I drink. How and when it got to that point I don't know. It just became necessary somewhere along the way...

Listening to my iaito sing.