“The moment money becomes your motivation, you are immediately NOT AS GOOD as someone who is stimulated by PASSION and INTERNAL WILL”
- Sebastian Vettel, four-time Formula One World Champion
Motivation is part of daily life. We are motivated to eat when we are hungry; motivated to sleep when we are tired and motivated to work so we can pay our bills!
Motivation influences us every day. It can, however, be complicated and it can also change over time.
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Many years ago I experienced this exact scenario when playing cricket. I had been a cricketer since the age of 8 and had always loved the game. I had participated in every school team available and had then continued playing the game into my early twenties. It was a passion.
One day, following a few months injury lay off, I found that I did not have the appetite to play. I had lost the hunger, the excitement and the passion to compete; to turn up to practice early. I started to consider other things I could do with my day, like spend it with my girlfriend perhaps?!
At first I couldn’t understand why I was feeling this way. This was a sport I had loved for years, one that I was passionate about and was reasonably good at. After a few weeks churning it all around in my head, I suddenly understood how this feeling had come about.
During my absence with injury, I had been receiving regular phone calls checking up and encouraging me to come back as soon as possible. Whilst this is totally understandable, what had happened in my head was I had started to believe that it was the club’s external influence that was now in control of me playing and that the decision wasn’t mine any more. I had lost all motivation to play.
Following my recovery from injury, it took a further two months before going back to playing again. I had to rediscover that it was still my choice to play before I was ready to return. I needed to remind myself of my love for the game and re-connect with my inner drive.
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Motivation is complex because there are many factors that can influence it. What motivates one person might be different to what motivates another. One person may play rugby because all their older siblings played; another person may play rugby because it’s who they are and their love of the sport.
One triathlete races because having a race to train for is incentive to get in their workouts. Another triathlete races because of their love of the culture, identification of being a triathlete and want of shaving minutes off their time.
Most of us have multiple motivational factors that compel us to participate in something.
Motivation affects every part of our performance. When we are feeling unmotivated it can affect everything. Here are a few examples:
- it can affect your desire to practice, making you less prepared
- it can be a strain on relationships, making it difficult to communicate effectively
- it can knock you off course, derailing your goals and your performance
- it can make you feel like you can’t handle any obstacles in your way
- it can stunt your creativity
- it can severely affect how you feel about yourself
- it can affect your enjoyment levels
Motivation drives our behaviour. It forces us to act because we either want something or we don’t want something. We want good grades so we can arrive at the college of our choice; so we are motivated to go to class. We want to win that next big pitch; so we are motivated to research, prepare and rehearse thoroughly for it. We want to perform well in competition; so we are motivated to practice and train well.
In a sporting context, athletes often become romanticised by the notion that having enough ‘love for the game’ can overcome anything. However, there are many factors that contribute to an athlete’s level of motivation and it is not quite as simple as that.
Motivation fluctuates, and that is normal, but being aware of when our motivational level is low is important.
There are two sources that underlie motivation and three factors that influence motivation. Let’s take a look at the sources first.
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Internal versus External
Internal motivation is the desire that comes from inside us.
Internal motivation is our inner drive. This is where our love and passion comes from. This is what causes our eyes to light up and our body to sharpen when asked about our love of our job; our family; our sport or our hobby.
When we have internal motivation we participate because we enjoy the activity. We participate because we like the process of learning about our activity and improving our skills and abilities. We enjoy the way it feels to overcome challenges and we even learn to embrace the things we don’t like about our activity because it’s all part of the journey.
When our inner drive is strong, we can still become frustrated by mistakes or a ‘bad day,’ but those disappointments don’t last long and they fuel us to work harder instead of derailing us and taking away our belief in ourselves.
External motivation is when we are influenced to participate by things outside of us. When we are externally motivated we are often driven because of positive feedback we received or negative consequences we want to avoid.
We may participate for external rewards such as receiving compliments or recognition; winning championships and trophies; making friends; receiving scholarships or salaries etc.
We may also participate to avoid a negative consequence such as being dropped from the team if we don’t go to practice; being pulled up by our company if we don’t stay in the office beyond 6pm; doing our rehab exercises so not to re-injure ourselves etc.
External motivation is what originates outside of us. External motivators are all the other reasons you want to do something other than for the pure joy of participating.
Playing a sport because it is something we love doing is internal motivation; playing a sport because it can keep us fit is external motivation; starting up our own business because we love the concept of being our own boss and challenging ourselves to succeed is internal motivation; starting up our own business because our three best friends have done it is external motivation; practising our hobby because we wish to improve is internal motivation; practising our hobby because we should be ‘seen to be doing one’ is external motivation.
Now you may be thinking, “Well I have some of both.” This is perfectly normal and the vast majority of us do.
The relationship between our internal and external motivation can be tricky. There are times when external motivators can be beneficial to our internal motivation and times when those same external motivators can end up negatively impacting our internal motivation.
External motivators aren’t ‘bad’; it’s when they compromise our internal motivation that we can run into trouble.
For an athlete who loves participating in their sport but doesn’t like going to weight training, external motivation can be a great tool for getting there. The athlete may not be internally motivated to lift weights but they will be externally motivated to do so, due to the positive impact it will have on their performance and continued participation.
External motivation starts to cause trouble when:
A. We are only externally motivated
B. We perceive our external motivators to be controlling
If we only participate because of the recognition we get, what happens if that recognition isn’t forthcoming?
In music and in sport there are certain roles that tend to receive more spotlight than others. If we are bass guitarist in a band or a defender in a football team, we may not get as much attention as the lead singer or striker.
If the only reason we play music or football is for the glory and accolades and we’re not getting them, guess what happens to our motivation? If, however, we play bass guitar or play defence because we enjoy it and want to improve, then guess what happens to our motivation when we aren’t getting any love?
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So if Internal and External are the two main sources of motivation, the three main factors that influence it are:
- feeling we are skilled or unskilled at something
- feeling in control or out of control of our decision making
- feeling we belong or don’t belong
These three factors can either facilitate or wreak havoc with our motivation.
Do I Feel Capable?
Our feelings about our capability will strongly influence our level of motivation. If we believe that we are good at or can be good at something, then that belief will positively affect our motivation.
Our motivation is firmly tied to our beliefs, therefore our beliefs influence which direction we choose to go.
Often, when people assume that someone has a lack of motivation, what they actually lack is confidence. We all want to be good at something so if we try a new activity and manage to improve, our brain sends the signal ‘Hey I’m good at this, I worked at it and I got better.’
Seeing ourselves improve means we will be far more motivated to continue.
Do I Feel In Control?
When we perceive that involvement in something is not through choice, it also affects our motivation.
We need to know that we are free to do as we choose. Take away that control and we compromise our internal motivation.
Nothing stresses us out more than the feeling of being powerless. It is important, however, to assess whether we truly are powerless or if it’s just our perception of having no control.
Once the power is in your own hands your motivation will be stronger.
Do I Feel Connected?
The final factor is a social one. Feeling like you belong or that you are part of something is important. On a basic level, as humans we have an innate desire to be connected to others.
We want to have a value and a reason to be.
There are different elements that influence whether or not we feel connected - receiving positive and evaluative feedback; having friends around; being surrounded by others who are motivated; having a support system in place.
All of these can help facilitate our own internal motivation. If we don’t feel connected, we won’t be as motivated to play a part.
A Game Changer Says…
If we have passion for what we do but feel there are other motivational influences controlling us, it can be detrimental to our overall motivation.
Feeling controlled by external motivators can make us feel angry and resentful, frustrated and concerned, taking all the motivation out of us.
However, those same external motivators can also be complimentary to our motivation so long as we have a strong internal drive and belief in our ability and/or what we want to do!
The key questions to ask ourselves whenever we want to know if we have any internal motivation for something are ‘Am I having fun?’ ‘Do I enjoy what I’m doing?’
The purpose of this blog is to explain exactly what motivation is and the complexities of it. It is there to be referred to and utilised going forward for any department of life.
For businesses, think of how and who you may employ or why you do or don't perform certain actions; for athletes think of which sport(s) gives you that ultimate thrill and drive to be better; for individuals think of what makes you tick or makes you happy.
There are so many areas in life where careful consideration around motivation can help us with our choices.
Remember, whatever the situation or task at hand, if we can say to ourselves “Yes I feel capable. Yes, I feel in control. Yes, I feel connected” then it will positively impact our internal motivation and ultimately our success.
When our internal motivation is strong, our external motivators will be more likely to compliment our motivation. When our internal motivation is high, we are less likely to be derailed by various thoughts, challenges or setbacks.
At times it can be difficult for us to ascertain precisely why our motivation is low, however, there are various exercises and tools available to help with this.