COMMENT: Did you know that by far the most common place for a marathon runner to collapse is on the final stretch when the finish line is in sight? This is why paramedics are always stationed around the last bend after the finish line comes into view. The Central Governor theory of fatigue offers a potential explanation. This model suggests that when we come close to pushing ourselves to the point of causing physical harm to our bodies, our brain creates subjective feelings of extreme fatigue to keep us from going too far. Thus, the brain acts as a ‘governor’, limiting how hard we can push ourselves. However, when our goal is in sight we can override the governor and push to the absolute limit. As Anita DeFrantz suggests in today’s quote, this can be applied to our life goals as well; selecting goals that are too far away, or ‘out of sight’, may limit your ability to push yourself hard enough to achieve them. Also, studies show that spending a moment each day to visualize your goals improves motivation in much the same way. Are your own goals too lofty or too mundane to properly motivate you?
Andy's Quote of the Day 