Motivation: Incentivized or Personal.....

Motivation historically has been believed it could be increased through incentivized methods. In other words if you do X you will receive Y prize. As kids we might be taught this through simple rewards for chores or grades achieved in school. Even as toddlers we learned to receive reward for things such as peeing in the potty or eating our vegetables . We are taught from a young age that if we do X, we get Y reward. When we are older and we mature into our jobs we work hard for a increase in pay or promotion. In sports we do certain workouts or commit to certain levels of discomfort on the basis we will achieve things like a world championship qualification, a paycheck, or a podium. 

In more recent studies they have found that true motivation with a deeper level of commitment actually comes from a person deciding that what they are doing is important to them.  Essentially it is argued that people are motivated when they determine what to work on and how it might change their lives for the better. 

I talk a lot about these exact things: How what we do becomes more about our lifestyle, how our choices give us the life we want. What we do daily sets us up for life gifts or takes away from what we want. Our routine and small daily decisions add up over time. These very things are why I stress staying connected and accountable to help you continue to lead the life you want. 

I wrote a little about my own journey in my article " Being in the right room".  For me, sport has always been about what it allows me to be as a person, racing is just an icing on the cake. Racing for me has evolved taking different shapes at different periods in my life. But I know when I got too far away from my fundamentals I saw myself headed in a direction that had a negative impact on my long term goals and that it was detrimental to the life I want for myself.

Throughout this pandemic year I’ve seen some athletes  struggling with feeling like if they aren't training for a prize/ race they feel they are aimlessly wandering.They even start letting go of the person they set out to be when they added sport to their life in the first place. I assume we all took up our given sport for things like fun, self improvement, self discovery, challenge, community, things like this. It then maybe evolved into something more. Oftentimes older athletes or retired professional athletes go through a transition period of letting go of their younger self. I’ve found It to be helpful to set periods of time where you are your "racing self" versus your "lifestyle choice self". The racer self is only a very small window of time during special periods. It's easy to get caught up in thinking we need to be that version of yourself every time you step out the door.

I have found when athletes go through these transitions, lulls, plateaus and even pandemic fatigue, their knee jerk reaction is to stop everything. They stop structured programming, eating well, good daily routines and habits. But after a period of time they realize it was a mistake and they realize it actually leads to an increase in struggle. I've seen that several times when professional athletes retire, it takes them a while to transition to personal progress over race results. 

In my experience I see people really flourish when they continue to have a routine where they are held accountable, target goals important to them and are provided with structure.

I also tend to encourage athletes to not make really big decisions when struggling with things like injury, illness, or major life struggle. Sometimes the influence these things can have aren't a true clear picture to where you currently are or where you are headed.

Find your motivation from digging into what is most important to you. I like to do an exercise where I fast forward the clock 10 years and pretend I’m looking back on myself. What choices did I make to be where I am and what do I want that to look like. 

Cheers,

M