This is a very simple, yet very profound little technique that can increase your focus durring workouts and help keep you going when it gets tough.

It is based on a story about Jeff Cooper told to me by Jim Keating.

With a set up like that, you know it's gotta' be good...

Without getting into the whole thing, the jist of the story is that Cooper is asked by a friend to shoot at a distant target and see who can come closest. Cooper says he will, but only if money is involved.

When the friend protests, Cooper responds that the money isn't the point, it is the mental pressure that is added to taking the shot by having the bet that is important to him.

The point that Jim was making was that you shouldn't always just compete to compete, or spar just to spar. Once you had a level of skill to go and play, you should play for money or pain as it was going to motivate you more than just the thought of "training" where there was no penalty for failure.

Though this may sound strange or barbaric, it is true that too often in "training" we are not edgy and aware, like we would be if pain and real loss were involved, and we are not as motivated to win.

In any case, I applied this concept to conditioning, and it makes for an interesting motivational technique.

Since doing physical conditioning already causes you pain and quitting releases you from that pain, the only thing you can stand to lose here is money.

That's right, money. If you suck wind you lose real dollars, bucks, greenbacks, etc.

Kind of like being on a freaky Japanese game show!

Here's the Deal:

You figure out your own workout plan and such, and then lay down a certain amount of real cash before each workout session.

If you finish 100% of the workout, you keep 100% of the cash. If you only do 90% of the workout, you give 10% of the cash away, and so on.

Really. You give it away. You lost it. Give it to a charity like the SPCA or NRA or whatever.

Ready? Just place a stack of bills on the floor and pick one up each time you complete the circuit.

Remember that you must make the amount of money such that it will be painful for you to have to give it away. That might mean using a stack of $20's, or a stack of $100's, or whatever will hurt for you to loose. A stack of coins probably won't motivate anyone except the very young to work out.

Now JUST GET GOING!