She may be Australia's most decorated Olympian, but there are days when Emma McKeon just can't be bothered.
But the champion swimmer has never let this stop her.
In fact, she told a rapt audience of Canberra Times subscribers last week, it's not possible for anyone, especially an elite athlete, to stay motivated all of the time.
"That super motivating feeling, it's just not realistic to maintain that every single day, so you can't rely on it," she said.
"I probably feel motivated 50 per cent of the time ... but you show up and you do it anyway because you've got goals that you want to achieve."
Just weeks on from the Paris Olympics, her new medal ranking - 14 Olympic medals to her name - was still sinking in.
A world away from Paris at the National Gallery of Australia, where French impressionist painter Gauguin's works were on display, the Young Australian of the Year gamely answered multiple questions about the life of a consummate champion.
The 30-year-old athlete, who is also the most successful Commonwealth Games competitor in history, confessed that, like anything in life, there are parts of swimming she doesn't like.
"It's finding something that you're ... passionate enough about that you're willing to deal with those crappy bits," she said.
As the world has seen several times, McKeon has been able to perform her best at the Olympics, winning 14 medals (six gold), and breaking four records.
But she didn't always believe it would happen.
After narrowly missing out on the 2012 London Olympics, she stopped swimming, focusing instead on finishing year 12 and having fun with her friends.
But that quickly grew old.
"I missed having a goal that I was working really hard for ... that goal was still in me to go to the Olympics," she said.
At her first Olympics in Rio 2016, she was so nervous she didn't want to go to the 200m freestyle final.
"In my head I'm thinking 'Oh, can the bus just break down or can the lights in the pool break - something happen that the whole thing gets cancelled'," she said.
But it was the thought that she might never return to the Olympics that pushed her to rise to the occasion, winning bronze.
"I just dove in the pool, do what I've done a million times and ... see what happens, and so I think from that moment on I've been able to do that in all my races at the Olympics," she said.
Born and raised in Wollongong, McKeon comes from a family of swimmers. Her favourite teammate is her brother David, who competed at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. Her father, Ron, and uncle, Rob, also swam at the Olympics, and her mother, Susie, swam at the Commonwealth Games.
She laughed along with the audience at a viral video of her family cheering her on and jumping with joy while they watched her win gold in Tokyo from their Wollongong living room.
"It's so special," she said.
"I reckon I've watched my race once and I've watched that many, many, many more times," she said, revealing that her family - relegated to home because of COVID - didn't answer her calls after the race because they were so busy celebrating.
"I went through the call list: David, Dad, Mum, Kaitlin - no one's answering me."
Last month, Wollongong named a newly built beach-front promenade after her, which she described as a "huge honour".
She also confirmed that Paris would be her last Olympics - "I don't have another four years in me," she said.
But she wasn't sure what the future held for her.
"I think a lot of athletes also struggle with answering that question because it can make us look like we don't have anything else," she said.
"I'm looking forward to seeing what that is and trying a few different things and seeing what it is that I enjoy or that fulfils me."
One piece of advice she would give young aspiring athletes is to have goals outside of their sport. She's glad she got her degree in public health and health promotion, which took her eight years to finish.
"I was always still working towards ticking something off, having something else that I'm working towards," she said.
"I think that's really important for athletes to do because it can't just be swimming. Mentally, it does get really draining if that's all you've got."
