What do you do to stay motivated?

Over the past year, I've done a TON of work on building a car that has the potential of running up front. This is the same model/make I have run previously, so I already had done a significant amount of homework although there was a significant amount more necessary this time around. During this build, I decided it was time to do things "more right" and get myself into a no excuses car. Funny how I came up with a new set of excuses. LOL! Only with the help of others, I was able to get the improtant things complete. (I owe a lot to Grant McStay & Matt Kessler!) The car ran great during my first race exceededing my personal expectations and I feel there's more to be had. I wrote down list of to-do items, but just can't get the motivation to get it done. Fortunately many of the items are either cosmetic or items not critical - maybe that's it? Tonight I got home from work and my wife had to work late, so I planned on getting some of the items done on the car. Well, I started painting the cage and completely ran out of motivation. I kept hearing "watch the Rolex Iowa race, watch the Rolex Iowa race, beer, beer, beer". Hmmm. It would be wrong for me not to watch the race now while Melissa is at work. Then I found myself checking out a few things on the Internet including IT.com. Go figure. I know I need to get my butt in gear in time for the big Mid Ohio event, but how? I watched some race videos hoping that would do it, but that just got me wanting to drive vs. work on the car. It's quite possible the wish list stuff will just have to wait a bit and I'll finally feel the need to get in gear next week to do the necessary stuff. Maybe I can simply blame it on a long day at work?

My father keeps telling me that "you'll appreciate it more". I think to myself "Blah, blah, blah." In reality, he's right but I'm just grumpy with this stuff. What types of things do you do to give yourself that extra kick in the butt? I have a package for the Prelude at the post office waiting for me to pick up and could use some ideas. I suppose tomorrow's another day.

So I am not alone.......... :(

YOUNG WIFE.

Lots of strong coffee or one of those energy drinks. I'm just kidding, you really need some meth. Really just kidding again.

It took me 4 days just to unload the trailer this week after last weekend. I humped my a$$ 6-10 hours a day for over 3 months working on the car to have it ready for that race. After all that it's hard to get up and work on it some more but I need to replace the steering box and unfortunately it ain't gonna get fixed by itself.

Try mixing some of the mundane work with something cool like adding some flashy new part. Or do what I do...suck it up and get back to work! ;)

The young wife is a good idea. Anyone got one I can borrow for a couple of minutes?

Part of my problem is old age! I'm a "young 59" but still 59. As Mark Twain said, "If I had known that I was going to live that long,
I would have taken better care of myself!"....

I hear you guys!

I'm near burnout myself

We are running two ITA Miatas in the local endurance series this year, with some good sponsorship, but its killing me. The worst part? We are one-two in points and have won all but one race. (We finished 2nd & 3rd that race)

I've got two months before the next race, and I have zero motivation to do any prep work on either of them.

We have two test days planned before then, as well as shaking down our 3rd SM and continuing the build on our Uber-Subi.

ugh. I need some hot tub time.


Marcus

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What types of things do you do to give yourself that extra kick in the butt?[/b]

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Lose. It works wonders...

But I did lose. :( The things I'm having the toughest time with are ones that won't make the car go any faster (i.e. painting the cage, installing the dash2 buttons somewhere instead of zip tieing them to the roll cage, etc.).

I find waiting until the last minute gets me motivated!!


You've had a tough 6 months Dave. I think the only way to get your head back in the game is to spend some time away from the car. Do what's NEEDED for Mid O then pick away at it after.

I know how you feel. I was intending to get the race car done this weekend for Mid O and spend next week packing and small details......But instead, I spent yesterday putting a new radiator in the M3........Like I really needed to spend that much time and money on the street car!! So today I'm tired and feeling behind schedule.....Hmmmm, maybe I'll have another cup of coffee and read the paper..........

It appears that I'm going to have to stop reading FasTrack and these boards to both stay motivated and keep my blood pressure in a range that will allow me to renew my license. ;)

Edit: Actually, we're seriously considering leaving IT and just going completely with SP, in part due to the direction the IT rules changes are going. A completely open rule set looks easier to deal with if you (a) have a tight budget and (B) don't really care where in the pack you run.

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Edit: Actually, we're seriously considering leaving IT and just going completely with SP, in part due to the direction the IT rules changes are going. A completely open rule set looks easier to deal with if you (a) have a tight budget and ( B) don't really care where in the pack you run. [/b]

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A completely open ruleset is anything but kind to the budget. Well, unless nobody shows up to race against, but that kind of defeats the point of racing. Might as well go be the High Preformance Driving Experience National Champion....

If you don't care where in the pack you run then whats the issue with IT?

I can't be the ruleset....

To the original poster; You're not alone with your issue! I'm sure that anyone here that has a real 40-hour work week and a family is in the same boat as you.

Personally, I get really worried with myself when I start losing motivation as I'm still pretty young (some of you are old enough to be my parent!) and this is only my second year with my competition license. When I do get distracted, watching in-car video and reading the forums seems to get me back in gear.

I'm not a family man, so my distractions generally involve one of the following: a woman, playing with my street cars, or drinking beer. I decided to sell my fun street car in hopes of getting more done with the racecar, but I'm afraid I will just wind up drinking more beer and meeting more women. Life could be worse, eh? :D

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I find waiting until the last minute gets me motivated!!
You've had a tough 6 months Dave. I think the only way to get your head back in the game is to spend some time away from the car. Do what's NEEDED for Mid O then pick away at it after.

I know how you feel. I was intending to get the race car done this weekend for Mid O and spend next week packing and small details......But instead, I spent yesterday putting a new radiator in the M3........Like I really needed to spend that much time and money on the street car!! So today I'm tired and feeling behind schedule.....Hmmmm, maybe I'll have another cup of coffee and read the paper..........
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One week before the race take all the stuff off the car (always easier to take stuff off!) that you need to replace. You will find the time to make it right before the race!

I've been burned out on racing for at least the past two whole seasons...

The only thing that keeps me going is knowing I'm just a few tenths behind the other guy, always glued to his butt, and that elusive championship...

PHEW! So I'm not alone! And to think that I was thinking about putting a For Sale sign up...

This weekend was exceptionally tough. I spent all last week getting the car ready. Even found time to wax her up all pretty! First session, start of first flying lap, going into turn 1, car dies. Completely. No electrical. Turns out to be an easy fix, but entire session gone.

Session 2, power steering pump fails. Completely. Drops all fluid (pretty cool spin, though!).

Race 1: Flat tire on last lap. Guess who forgot to bring a spare!

Race 2: Finally, a complete session!

Between all that and the money that poured out, I'm even less motivated than before...

On Edit: I guess what keeps me motivated is the fact that I know I can be better and that the car is faster than I am. I'd just like to see the pointy end of the field on a normal race weekend, and not in my rearview as they pass me...

I'm not an IT driver, but I DID stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night! :D

When I ran the GT-1 Corvette I had three guys that worked on it regularly with me, but that's mainly because I took that many guys to keep that car near the top of it's game. The motivation there was for me to prove myself "good enough" to own/drive that car because it was a no excuses, front-running National car. After five years I figured out I really don't have the budget to own that car and I got into something more feasible economically. Although I could run the GTA car by myself, I've got a couple of guys that enjoy helping work on it (one calls it therapy), and that helps motivate me a LOT when it's time to get out in the garage.

I make a list of "gotta-haves" and "nice-to-haves" after every event. The gotta-haves revolve around safety, reliability, and/or performance (replace seat belts, adjust valves, check alignment) while the nice-to-haves are "touch up the door ding, freshen the decals, organize the trailer." Obviously we prioritize and usually everything gets done on the gotta-have list while we pick-and-choose from the nice-to-have. By the end of the season and during the off-season (which is all of two months here), we usually get to most of the items, but I don't get heartburn if we don't.

And while a spotless car is nice and COULD be a draw for a potential sponsor, I'm also reminded of a sign my mom had in our kitchen when we were growing up:

"This house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy."

See ya...

Im finding it very difficult this year to stay focused at the tasks at hand. After MARRS 1 my near roll bent both my rear beam and front cross member, the cross memeber is replaced the beam will be finished this week. Ontop of that I still have a few issues I been trying to sort out on that car.

Then we get to the rental car, and its motor is in pieces still, the wiring harness is mostly swapped out with a fresher one but the car is still consuming my garage. House and yard projects are progressing slower then anticipated and work has me putting in over 50 hours a week due to my counterpart engineer being out on short term medical.

I already gave up all the away races, I am not 100% sure I will make the August race, but I will make the Labor day race down here.

This winter means more work on my car, I still have some body damage from the original owner I want to repair, and now that im wearing a hans I find my seating position is too high and not enough layback so that needs to be cut out and repositioned and rewelded.

You may recall that in '05 I blew up two engines in two races; talk about a downer. After the July blowed-up engine I said "eff it!" and parked the car. I actually got PLEASURE watching it collect dust...

But, come mid-September, I got to thinking about how much fun I had at the ARRC in '04. The opportunity to do that again was the motivation I needed to creak open the wallet to get Kessler to build me an engine, and we worked in prep. The rest, as they say, is history.

So here's what you do:

- Make a list of EVERYTHING you want to do. Even the little, easy stuff. ESPECIALLY the little, easy stuff. WRITE IT DOWN.
- Hang the list on the wall in the garage, where you can easily see it.
- Take the list and prioritize it: "gotta" do before getting on the track (e.g., safety); "should" do before getting on the track (e.g., dependability); "want" to do before getting on the track (e.g., performance).
- Pick something - anything - dirt simple easy and quick from the list, something that takes no effort and is quickly done. Then manually scratch it off the list with a bold red pen.
- Pick one more item, another easy one. Red-scratch it off.
- Watch that list, with its evident reminder of things accomplished, start to slowly dwindle. As the red gets bigger, the motivation grows, 'cause now you KNOW you're being productive.

Just get your butt off the sofa and make it happen. All it takes is a spark...

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So here's what Matt Does:

- Matt makes a list of EVERYTHING he wants to do. Even the little, easy stuff. ESPECIALLY the little, easy stuff. WRITE IT DOWN.
- He hangs the list on the wall in the garage, where he can easily see it.
- He takes the list and prioritize it: "gotta" do before getting on the track (e.g., safety); "should" do before getting on the track (e.g., dependability); "want" to do before getting on the track (e.g., performance).
- Matt picks something - anything - dirt simple easy and quick from the list, something that takes no effort and is quickly done. Then he manually scratchs it off the list with a bold red pen.
- He picks one more item, another easy one. Red-scratch it off.
- Watch that list, with its evident reminder of things accomplished, start to slowly dwindle. As the red gets bigger, the motivation grows, 'cause now Matt KNOWS he's being productive.

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I made some corrections for you......

Greg stays motivated by watching Matt work......... :P

I'm a very list-oriented person as well. Usually the first thing on the list is "Make a List".

That way I get to scratch something off immediately! :happy204:

That was so funny Jeff it actually hurt!

The list thing usually works for me too. I had a list on the trunk of my car, but it looked awefully large. While this sounds pretty silly, I decided to take that handwritten list and type it out in word. It was amazing how much smaller (manageable) it then looked. Nothing changed but the size and how neat the list appeared. This weekend I decided to get my butt in gear a bit. One of the things I did was just a silly/fun thing to the car, which did nothing for performance nor safety. It did get me in the garage and then turned into my painting the roll cage. While I did a far from perfect job, at least now when I look inside the car it doesn't look like rusting tubes. There's plenty more for me to do, but the ball is now slowly starting to roll.

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Greg stays motivated by watching Matt work......... :P[/b]

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You're such the card...butt-munch...

Actually that *is* the way I get motivated when I have to do things, whether it's the race car project (yes, I do) or some other project.

However, the easy way to get MATT motivated is to simply write a check...

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Lose. It works wonders...
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It most certainly does.


The second half of last year was my hardest test of attrition to date. I wiped the front end off the car in early September and we had to seriously thrash to get it put back together in time for the NASA Nationals in only 10 days. We barely made it (the paint was hardly dry) and quickly got it up to speed, but then rolled the damn thing during Sunday's championship race. Right then I seriously left the heap in the shop for a week and didn't even set foot in there - I didn't even want to lay my eyes on it. We then spent the next two weeks fixing the car again in order to get it out for the last GLDiv regional before the ARRC - it was far from pretty, but I needed to test the chassis. It did well going under the track record during Sunday's qualifying. That felt like a huge accomplishment after the previous month I had. Over the next three or four weeks we then took to finishing all of the body work and painting the car to the point that many of you saw it at the ARRC. At the same time we also built a brand new engine for it, got it installed, and tuned it. Overall, it was about two months of pure hell. This was just my Dad and I in our shop at my house, that's it. After it all, going on to finish 2nd at the ARRC seriously made it all worth it and made me realize why I had the motivation to do it in the first place. But that being said, after getting home from the ARRC, I seriously didn't touch the car for almost two months and I loved every minute of it!

I think that knowing I had a good car that deserved to be fixed and deserved to participate in "the big race" made me keep working on it. Then when it actually did, it made it all worth it. I mean, it treats me pretty good afterall. :P

I have that check writing excercise down to perfection. I remember Nick Leverone telling me, "Ben, step away from the vehicle - with your mechanical skill you will write more checks to undo what you have done."

Still trying to learn how to thrash from books - but I did find a new shop this weekend - GT1 guys from Mach 1 Performance. They ran a 1:57 at the Glen this weekend in a hybrid Stock Car Trans Am machine - extremely cool & fast.

Even better - they are 30 minutes from my house.

My list always gets started Monday morning first thing after a race weekend, while it's all still fresh in my mind... and I race every 4 weeks!

But that does nothing for my motivation...

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You're such the card...butt-munch...

Actually that *is* the way I get motivated when I have to do things, whether it's the race car project (yes, I do) or some other project.

However, the easy way to get MATT motivated is to simply write a check...
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I find that when motivation is needed a yuengling helps. Something about beer and working in garage the next thing I know its been 6 hours and I have done an hours worth of work. Without the beer I would have never started tinkering in the garage.

I can find motivation when I want to, its just so well hard.

Solution....Get a showroom stock car!

Seriously, this is a route I would have taken if there were more then one or two at every single race I've ever been to....I really dont like racing alone.

I have a business, a house, a wife, street cars/trucks, and very little time or energy at the end of the day to be going down into the basement garage to work on the race car. Heck, I can barely keep up with the regular chores every week.

Not to mention, very little extra disposable income to be spending on a hobby....
And, compared to every other hobby I have ever had, this one is three times as expensive....


This is why I only race a few times each year. Cant afford the time or money to race much more than that.

I will always get beaten by guys with more money in their cars and more energy/interest in car set-up. I'm sure there are tons of you out there in the same boat.

I personally cant see making those kind of sacrifices for a trophy and some bragging rights...

Kudo's to those that do.

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Something about beer and working in garage the next thing I know its been 6 hours and I have done an hours worth of work. Without the beer I would have never started tinkering in the garage.[/b]

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I can relate and have to get at least some work done before I start drinking otherwise nothing would get done. :birra:

I love beer but in the shop it just makes me lazy. The secret for me is getting started. I have to convince myself to get out there and do something promising myself that if once I get started if I want to quit I will. Once I get going I can usually get a little done and sometimes a lot.

More seriously, it's a matter of knowing I need to do X to make the car faster and better for the next race. I focus on that. Maintenance is easy, it's normal, I could cover than in a half-hour between races - doesn't take that much, just an oil change and a brake bleed.

I agree, splitting stuff up by priorities, time required, or whatever, helps a lot... I figure out what I need a solid weekend day to do, what are little small things I can get done in the evening after work and before dinner, etc. Then I can tackle it bits at a time, and not fall behind...

For us last minute certainly makes us motivate.... last year it was the championship that got us motivated but also burnt out... this year we decided to just have fun and we have not run one race weekend yet. The entire crew gets together every Monday night and we work on the cars prepping for Mid Ohio. Sure we have been a bit lazy but things have been accomplished every night. We made deadlines and on some weeks some of us worked more than others to meet our deadlines. This weekend everything should get finished up without cramming wich will be very very nice. We didn't get everything we wanted done, but I am sure we got enough done to beat Dave in the ITB race!!!

Raymond

1. Try autocrossing. It keeps you in the seat and motivated. I call it "low impact motorsports".

2. Find someone to help you, even if they are clueless and all thumbs.

3. Bribes with alcohol and pizza work well. :birra:

4. Find someone rich to sponsor you. :D

5. I don't know how a young cute Wife/girlfriend would help you, you would be too busy doing "other things" to want to go racing. Matter of fact, you'll want to start doing things S L O W L Y, if you know what I mean.

I'm trying to get back into this after 10 years. Just cant get the motivation to buy a car, because I KNOW what I'm up against.

For me..I see a picture like this one and some how all the work is worth it!




Mike B[attachmentid=1079]

Find minions, they really help keep you going because to new folks there is novelty in working on race cars.

I always promise Jude that if there is a gentleman's club near a track that we can go. That seems to work out okay.

Probably the biggest motivator though is getting to see all of our racing friends.

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I always promise Jude that if there is a gentleman's club near a track that we can go. That seems to work out okay.

Probably the biggest motivator though is getting to see all of our racing friends.
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Wow Jennifer I wonder if I could get my wife to use that Gentlemen's club motivation ;)
Right now she's just pissed that I'm more motivated to work on my car instead of hers. You said it though its not the trophies, it's the racing friends and the BS'ing with them that are the most rewarding motivators.

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I always promise Jude that if there is a gentleman's club near a track that we can go. That seems to work out okay.
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jeeeez, I can't believe nobody has asked yet.....Do you have a sister?? ;)

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jeeeez, I can't believe nobody has asked yet.....Do you have a sister?? ;)
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No, and you should all be thankful that there is only one of me. I am mostly crazy so Jude had to put up with a lot of crap to get to the good stuff but we do have 6 240SX's at the house right now so I guess it is a give and take situation.