As far back as I can remember, sports and exercise have been a top priority in my life. As I am sure many of you athletes can attest, my life truly would not be the same without them. I began swimming competitively when I was young, and although the meets, practices and training were all helping me to improve in the sport, there was something beyond the competitions that actually kept me going.

Swimming continued all through my high school career, along with a fairly serious commitment to soccer. These two sports brought a lot of joy and a lot of hard work. But most importantly, they brought a whole lot of learning.

I first would like to cover an important point: The environment any given sport creates, in a way, shapes you into who you are. Being a team sport, soccer taught me how to rely on others and also how to hold the weight of others relying on me. With swimming being an individual sport, I acquired a level of confidence and learned that being hard on yourself when you don't succeed won't get you anywhere. But as my high school athletics career came to an end, I made the decision not to continue playing in college.

During this year away from sports, I was not completely surrounded by others who had the same type of commitment to exercise I had in the past, and this proved to be extremely hard. I was no longer required to be at practice year round or work out in my spare time, so I didn't fit time into my schedule to do so. As my time spent towards exercise dwindled, I realized that my motivation did, as well. School became harder, work became unbearable and anything other than laying around was utterly exhausting.

I realized that with my lack of commitment to health, my motivation had been thrown out the window. But as I dug a little deeper into why I felt as though I couldn't do any of these things, a rather more important question came into my head: Why was I not doing them? And that was really all I needed. The realization that I had absolutely no reason to not be doing something that I knew would help me in the end. After months of forcing myself onto the treadmill, I started to realize why I had spent my life committing to exercise for years: Because it made me feel good.

For the next part of this little journey, I was lucky enough to have some help. My parents are both involved in endurance sports. My mom took up UltraRunning my senior year of high school, and my dad has been committed to gaining miles on his road bike since I can remember. With these kinds of role models, it was hard not to see why endurance sports would soon have me itching for more. Soon enough, I was signing up for races and events left and right, but the best part was that I was happier and more motivated than I had been in what felt like an eternity.

Now, I have found myself in an entirely new environment which, not to my surprise, still revolves around sports. I have taken up trail running and cycling, and a more recent endeavor involving a triathlon. These sports, more than any I have done in the past, require greater endurance and motivation from myself than ever before, and I could not be more content with them.

All those who participate are there for the same reason. A happy and positive sense of self-love, self-motivation and the satisfaction of completing a goal. This is a community I could not be more happy to be surrounded by. Involving more supportive energy than any other sport in which I've participated, I know I have found something I can be a part of for years to come.

Finding something that helps keep me happy and motivated has been one of the most important lessons I've learned so far. I am now able to answer the question: Why do we do it? Why do we spend countless hours training, studying, practicing and preparing? It's because it pushes you forward, it challenges your mind and your body and it teaches you to find motivation from within yourself rather than some outside vice.

For me, my output for motivation is still supported by sports and exercise. But whether its a job, a career, volunteering or starting a business, I want to ask you all a simple question: Where does your motivation come from?