To maintain motivation for something, you have to keep your eyes on the prize.

My original intent was to look good for my wedding, but that's not strong enough for me, not competitive enough.

This occurred to me when I was out on Saturday night, breaking all the P90x rules that could possibly be broken (I will do my penance to the gods of body pain this week, I promise!) and there was an acrobatic rope climber. At first I joined in the chorus of "ooohs" and "aaahs" but then I got really irritated. For some reason my mind went back to the kindergarten playground, where mini-me was twice as competitive as I am now.

All the other kids could climb poles, but I couldn't do it. I don't know why I couldn't do it, I was stronger and more athletic at that age than anyone else, but I couldn't. And it would frustrate the hell out of me. Monkey bars, same thing. I just did not have the arm strength!

So in a roundabout way, this brings me to my driving force. I don't want to look good for a special occasion; I want to be more fit and more athletic than I've ever been in my life. I want to be able to climb a damned pole.

And so off I go, into my least favorite workout: core synergistics.