ACHIEVING OUR BEST SELF

Achieving our Best Self
Victoria Díaz-Zorita
not so, what probably is taking place is a situation in which you go on working on a project
or challenge in order to satisfy your family/friends/public and obtain no satisfaction for
yourself.
Unlike the previous analysis, those who were training for the Marathon of Buenos
Aires I interviewed shared a same objective. But still, I could spot some differences among
them as a result of their personalities as well as their way of facing the challenge. They all
coincided on the idea that internal motivation is essential and even more when the
challenge is as complicated as running 42 km. The three of them believe that their major
goal, to complete the race, is enough motivation in order to train and prepare for that day.
But as weeks pass, the preparation is as well a great motivation. This is reflected in
something Ivana Minutto 12 said during her interview which is: “Para esto hay que pensar
todo lo que lograste hasta acá y recordar ¿por qué corres? Y cuando recuerdes el motivo
todo se hace más fácil”.
What other runner, Luz María Francione 13 , clarified to me during the interview is
that probably the objective is the major motivation because she is naturally very
competitive and if she does not have a challenge in mind that actually forces her out of her
comfort zone, she is incapable to go on training. It was then I asked her if she considers
that others such as her trainer inspire her as well. Her answer to this was that from her
point of view, all motivation is internal and that Hugo’s (coach) role is just to guide her in
order to reach this goal as good as possible.
Finally, what Alejandro Garcia Roselli 14 told me is that motivation is what keeps on
moving us towards our goal but we need not only internal motivation but as well external
(trainer, family, other runners, etc.) as well to stay focus on what we aim to achieve and
help us not to give up. Alejandro is the only one who actually mentioned the fact of how
important external motivation is or at least took it into account at the moment of
mentioning what motivates him as a runner to compete on races such as marathons.
On the other hand, as mentioned before, I interviewed Juan Bautista Thorne and
Hugo Bressani who showed me how they work with motivation in order to inspire other
people. Each focuses motivation from two different views respecting the areas each of
12 Gym teacher and member of the running team “Ironteam”
13 Sole trader of a cloth brand and member of the running team “Ironteam”
14 Math teacher at Colegio Santa Maria and member of the running team “Ironteam”
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