Bragging just a little

* Today's daily dose: Bragging just a little bit
* Motivate Me to exercise: Don't make excuses
* 100 Day Challenge: The Daily Posts
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Today's daily dose: 29th September 2010 - Bragging just a little
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My son always seems to have some kind of paper, pens, paints, pencils, texta's and anything else he use to draw on and with. His school books are covered in drawings and I can guarantee that every single piece of paper on the other desk will have his art work liberally spread about on it. I've bought him hundreds of sketch pads over the years and they are crammed with his work.

My son is an artist and he seems to spend every single minute of every single day drawing.

The school where my son is a student was part of a group of schools chosen by the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia and Transperth to design some posters for the 2010 Urban Art Project. We have been told these posters would be used by Transperth and the PTA to prove that not all street art is graffiti. We were also told that the top kids from each of the 5 schools would be part of the design team to paint (pimp) a 200 metre wall at the recently built Thornlie train station during the first week of the schook holidays.

Once the designs were drawn, the top kids from each school were given a canvas and taught how to use spray paints - properly, by the professional street artists.

What happened then was interesting. My son and 4 of his mates then used their pocket money and bought themselves some more canvases and paints with all the correct nozzles and in their own time created their own works of art. Believe me when I say it wasn't easy getting the finished canvas into the back of my Fiesta. But we did.

And then we heard nothing with regards to the main competition - for weeks, and I'm sure my son got a little miffed when I kept asking if he had heard anything.

A couple of weeks ago I got home to find a certificate on the counter - congratulations on being part of the 2010 urban street art competition... I picked my son up from his work several hours later to be told that not only had he been picked to paint the train station along with several of his friends, but that his canvas had taken 2nd place.

We are well into the first week of the holidays and I figured there wouldn't be any painting done by the kids, even though Eden had seen it being worked on (he's a regular train user). When I got home today I found a letter advising us that Eden and his friends will be onsite for the next 2 days to help paint the mural with the professionals. Thank goodness the mail wasn't delayed. He doesn't know yet, he's at work, so it will come as a nice surprise to him when I pick him up.

He has a camera to go with him so hopefully we'll get some shots of work in progress.

What can I say, as a parent I am immensely proud of my son's achievement. But I am also as pleased with the motivation he shows and his friends have shown to hone their craft - every single day. Can we honestly say the same thing about our own goals? Do we work on them every single day?

Given the right kinds of incentive, kids can out motivate us adults any day of the week. And how brilliant is that.

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Motivate Me to Exercise: Don't make excuses
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I really didn't want to go to the gym tonight. I am beyond tired and still sore from the weekend. Not just the gardening you understand, but the strain on the right arm - yes at my age, injury is part and parcel of trying to keep fit.

I changed my mind twice on the drive home, but in the end I decided to do it anyway. I made a point of mentioning the pulled muscle / tendon to the trainer so he was able to give me a different kind of arm / shoulder exercise, and it wasn't too bad. Now I am sitting here typing this and I can feel it - but I shall ice it later and once this has reached you I will be turning off the computers and resting it anyway.

I am also basking in the after glo that is a serotonin release that always comes post exercise "the runners high" - well let's face it, there has to be some kind of payback for working out. I could have made all sorts of excuses as to why I couldn't or shouldn't have trained tonight - but not tonight - sometimes you need to talk yourself into doing things, and I'm glad I did.

Now you could say is that so you can say "see if I can do so and so then you can do it too?"

Yes and no.

You are all old enough to make up your own minds about whether you should or should not do something. I may be beyond tired, but I also know that the exercise is too important to miss, even when injured / sore. Why? Well way back when, in the dim and distant past, I fell down a flight of stairs, head first and nearly broke my neck. The exercise helps keep the migraines at bay that come when I don't exercise. Given that I can feel the muscles crunch is always a good sign that my neck will cause me more problems if I don't than if I do. Which is why I went.

So for me, if I make excuses I simply make more problems for myself.

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100 Day Challenge: The daily posts
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September 29 #Day 93: http://www.motivateme.info/100-day-challenge/2010/9/29/september-29-93-first-week-down.html
September 28 #Day 94: http://www.motivateme.info/100-day-challenge/2010/9/28/september-28-94-today-is-gonna-be-a-looooong-day.html