Carrot Motivation

You’ve seen the commercial, Kobe Bryant, Jeeter, Lebron and other professional athletes of the NBA, NFL, MLB working out in Rockyesque scenes of sweat, pain and agony. They are pushing themselfs beyond what most normal human beings can attain. Then, the climax of the commercial is the athlete walking onto the field, court or arena to pit themselves against each other, to go to battle like gladiators in front of thousands or even millions of spectators.
I was thinking of this commercial the other day on one of my daily runs and the same word kept popping in my head “motivation”. You might think I was motivated by these images. When actually I was disgusted by it, let me explain. My passion is climbing whether its ice, rock, aid or any discipline, it consumes me, inspires me and always humbles me. I work for myself and purposely keep a light work load so I have more time to train. And train I do, multi hour runs, pull-ups, kettle bells, hills, slosh pipe, often to the point of complete exhaustion. I think of Kobe with his $100 workout suit and $200 Nikes doing sit-ups in the Lakers multimillion dollar gym. When I come home after a full day of work and go out to my un-heated garage in my Carharts and steel toe boots and use my ice tools to swing around my rafters working on technique and trying to build more strength and endurance for that one mixed climb.
Once, I read that Lance Armstrong has a personal chef that measures every calorie he puts in his body and at the end of the day he has a masseuse work out his kinks. I eat a $5 Little Caesar pizza and if I ask real nice my wife will scratch my back while she watches Grays’ Anatomy.
I know they love their chosen sport, but in the end it is not just a carrot they chase but rather a golden carrot, worth millions and worldwide recognition. So, I wonder would they work that hard if no one cared. Would they still commit if there were no payout at the end? Does it have a higher meaning for them?
So what is my carrot? In the end after all the miles ran, weights lifted and blood spilled. When I go into the mountains there are no fans, no spectators other than my climbing partners and certainly no millions. What is my “motivation”? I think it is best summed up by the great Russian climber Anatoli Boukreev “The mountains are not a coliseum where I strive for glory, but rather a cathedral where I practice my religion”.