2.2.1 Motivation

MOTIVATION

It is an internal process that mobilizes us (or not) to do something. It is the ENGINE/GASOLINE to our actions/behaviors.

💪🏻We are guided or predisposed to do a task (or not to do it). It is very important to explain the START, CONTINUITY and/or ABANDONMENT to train.

MOTIVATION determines:

• • In what DIRECTION 🧭 you apply your effort, and towards what goal? Example, if you invest your effort in improving to play in a professional category, that will be the direction you choose. 
  • What INTENSITY 🔋 do you apply towards your effort? How much effort and time are you willing to invest on a day-to-day basis to achieve your goal? 
  • How LONG ⏰  are you willing to sacrifice yourself to continue with that level of effort and fight to achieve your goal?

Motivation is not a simple button that you press and work. There may be problems of low motivation, but also due to over-motivation. It doesn’t always have to be high. You prepare it, work on it and take care of it on a day-to-day basis. It varies depending on the time of the season and the circumstances.

There are different types of motivation, and each one works in a different way. Here we are going to focus on one way to classify the types of motivation, although there are others. We distinguish between:

Basic motivation

It is the most basic part of motivation. Determine your commitment to your training. It has to do with the interest and ambition for your sport, and with the positive consequences (money, contracts, victories, prestige, championships, personal satisfaction,…).

For example, how much do you like football in general, if every time you see a ball you get eager to play or how much you miss training when the preseason has not yet started.

We could compare it to a CAR ENGINE.

Source web image: http://www.ultracoloringpages.com/es/p/motor-p%C3%A1gina-de-colorear/d85b6f6003537a581ceb2e9737e3e515

Examples for Basic Motivation:

• It is not worth spending the amount of time and effort as I do in my sport (low basic motivation)
• I am willing to do any effort to be better and better everyday (high basic motivation)
• Right now, the most important thing in my life is to do well in my sport (high basic motivation)
• At this moment, the only important thing in my life is to do well in my sport (Excess basic motivation, danger! What is most important is fine, but being the only important thing carries future risks in the form of injuries, frustration…)

Everyday motivation

Interest you have in daily training and the immediate gratification that it produces. It has to do with the attractiveness of the environment, the daily tasks. Condition your day-to-day commitment. Here we are talking about how much you enjoy day-to-day in your relationship with your teammates / coach, if you have fun, learn or improve in training, if you are comfortable or not to train…

We could compare it to GASOLINE in a car.

Source Web image: https://creazilla.com/es/nodes/52774-surtidor-de-gasolina-clipart

Examples of everyday motivation:

• Sometimes I am not motivated to train (Little daily motivation).
• I am usually motivated to improve myself day by day (Good daily motivation).
• I set goals (objectives) that I must achieve and usually I achieve them.

EXAMPLE 1: Using the car metaphor, basic motivation would be the car’s engine. And daily motivation would be the car’s gasoline. Having a good engine is vital so the car can run. However, having a good engine is not enough because without gasoline the car will not run. We have to refill every time that it is needed; and take care of it on a day to day basis. As an athlete, you have to know and be able to distinguish both types of motivation and know how to work with them on a daily basis.

EXAMPLE 2: Another useful example to help understand motivation is to imagine it as a bicycle, when you stop pedaling on a bicycle, eventually the bicycle will come to a complete stop and you will fall. Maintaining a healthy motivation towards an objective is fundamental for you to reach that desired equilibrium and go forward.

To work on motivation (or the different types) there are several tools such as:

👀Long-term vision

🖊Goal setting

💪🏻Coherence between ambition and effort, in other words, work on the costs of pursuing that goal and the possible benefits you would get. You must be willing to pay the price (resignations, sacrifices and efforts) that your goals cost and take the risk (of paying the price/sacrificing and not achieving your purpose). Not everything depends on you.