We’re only just starting to understand how big a role motivation plays in … well… everything.Why Is Motivation So Important?
The simple answer is that motivation underpins everything else. Think about it. When you are motivated, everything is easier. And when your motivation drops suddenly, these same tasks seem much harder.
It also plays a huge role in longevity. The higher the motivation, the longer (in years) you’ll want to continue in your sport/performance area.
Athletes or performers may struggle with motivation at some point in their careers for several reasons. Barriers can be physical, biological, social, environmental, and/or psychological. Psychological barriers include a lack of motivation, which is fostered by meeting three basic psychological needs (Deci & Ryan, 2000).
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- Competence
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- Autonomy
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- Relatedness
For motivation to flourish, a performer first needs to be able to do the task to the level they are happy with. Then they need the freedom to choose to do the task. In other words, they are not being forced into it. Finally, feeling connected to others helps a lot. This is the social element of sport, and it can be so powerful. Winning and losing with your mates, basically.
Meeting these three major needs significantly reduces the likelihood of burnout, keeping performers in their performance domain longer.
The Role of Performance Psychology in Motivation
We also know that the type of motivation a performer has is another extremely important factor to consider. One of the first questions we ask our clients during their initial Kick Start Session is, “Why do you do what you do?” Understanding the reasons why an individual engages in something is vital. Not just for the psychologist, but for the client as well. Why not stop reading for 5 minutes and just list 5 reasons why you do what you do?
Time To Think
The most crucial bit of information we want to extract from this answer is whether their motivation is intrinsic, extrinsic, or a mix of both.
Intrinsic Motivation
An intrinsically motivated athlete or performer does what they do for their own satisfaction. If you listed any of the below, then this suggests you are internally or intrinsically motivated.
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- Achievement
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- Purpose
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- Challenge
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- Personal Reward
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- Belonging
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- Enjoyment
Intrinsically motivated performers participate in the performance domain because they enjoy learning and improving their skills and have made a self-determined choice to participate.
What makes intrinsic motivation so useful is the fact that it’s completely dependent on the individual. That is, the performer’s motivation isn’t based on anything or anyone else. Therefore, it doesn’t rely on factors the individual has little influence over. The performance psychology literature claims that intrinsic motivation has the greatest positive impact on performance quality and is the more stable, long-term of the two.
Not Just In Sport …
In alternative performance settings, such as workplaces, intrinsic motivation is also associated with greater worker satisfaction and commitment, self-reported performance, company profitability, and lower emotional exhaustion and burnout.
If you want to stick around in your area of performance long term, I suggest boosting your intrinsic motivation. One obvious way to approach this is to work with a qualified sport or performance psychologist. Click here to browse our current team and get in touch if you’d like to learn more about working with one of us.
Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsically motivated performers put in the work more for some external reason or benefit. A highly extrinsically motivated individual may feel obligated to do what they do because of external pressure (parents, coaches, peers) or for financial or social gain.
The issue with extrinsic motivation is that it relies on factors we don’t have much influence over. For example;
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- What if one day Mum and Dad decide they’re not interested in your athletic career anymore? What if something else becomes more important to them than your athletic pursuits? Would you still want to continue?
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- What if I told you that you would never go on to earn lots of money, never land any sponsorships, and that no one outside your local sporting community would ever learn your name? Would that affect your motivation?
For performers who are extrinsically motivated, it’s a good day when all the external factors we base our motivation on are present. The issue is that when they’re gone, you can expect a real dip in your motivation. How many of the reasons that you listed above are external rewards? If at least one, ask yourself how your motivation would be impacted if it were taken away.
Too Extrinsically Motivated?
A nice analogy for the pitfalls of being too extrinsically motivated is building a house on weak foundations. Think of the internal reasons why you do your sport as being the foundations. Essentially, what everything else is built on.
They are less glamorous and often invisible. But they are absolutely crucial to keep the house on top safe and secure. In this analogy, the house itself, with its fancy solar panels and double-glazed windows, represents the external motivators. It basically works like this:
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- Only internal motivators – fine
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- Both internal and external motivators – great/ideal
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- Just external motivators – potentially problematic
Visualisation for Motivation
Visualisation or Mental Rehearsal serves many purposes, with technical practice and motivation as the two main uses.
Visualisation for motivation is particularly important during times of prolonged intense training with limited competition (did someone say pandemic?). Visualising intentions (the actions or processes we wish to perform) from a first-person perspective can positively affect motivation. Basically, process-based mental rehearsal from the mind’s eye will provide the best motivational outcomes.
Understanding Your Motivation Fluctuations
Motivation tends to fluctuate (and sometimes for no obvious reason). This is particularly likely during a period of intense training or preparation. We often remind our clients that they are not robots and that doing the same thing over and over is unlikely to be consistently satisfying or enjoyable.
Understanding what influences your motivation matters. Knowing why you’re not that keen to go to training is far better than just having that feeling. Tracking motivation levels in response to known hormonal changes, training load and intensity, upcoming competitions, and stressors outside your performance domain is an important part of managing your mental well-being as an athlete or performer. This helps us acknowledge that we may need to use self-compassion practices during particularly challenging times.
Try tracking your motivation in a diary or similar format to link certain events and better understand your motivators.
