The Science of Motivation, And How High-performance Athletes Access It
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Coaches and athletes love high-tech gear and fancy training equipment because, understandably, if they train with the best of the best, their athletic abilities will exceed that of their opponents.
But, when you strip all of that away, athletes will discover that the mental game ends up being the cement that is keeping everything together. While many of us are eagerly awaiting the day our gyms and training facilities re-open, we can start dedicating time to training our minds the way we should have pre-pandemic. Today, I want to focus on a critical area of mental skills training, which is motivation. I’m going to discuss what motivation is, and how we can re-acquire that passion the same way high-performance athletes stay motivated, especially amid uncertain times.
What is Motivation?
Being motivated is defined as “having an incentive or a strong desire to do well or succeed in some pursuit.” According to research, motivation is reliant on both of the athlete’s inherent psychological dispositions, and environmental conditions of their given sport. At some point, different levels of motivation can and will be experienced by an athlete as a result of the particular sport conditions. I want to discuss three actionable steps you can take to enhance motivation by manipulating your psychological approach and surrounding environment.
Set a Long-term Outcome Goal, With a Rigid Date
When you have a goal that you are working towards, setting a long-term outcome goal with a rigid date will help enhance the quality of your process goal execution. According to sport psychology research, when individuals set challenging and precise goals they are more likely to enhance performance outcomes compared to easy, vague goals.
One reason for this is when you set a long-term outcome goal, you are immediately creating expectations for yourself. When I suggest this to athletes, their initial response is that it doesn’t make sense to set rigid dates for outcome goals in these uncertain times. I’m quick to remind them that life has always been uncertain. We’re just more aware of how uncertain it is, and that there was never a guarantee that you were going to accomplish goals you had previously set pre-pandemic.
When you begin the process of setting outcome goals, start by identifying what the actual end of your outcome goal is (e.g. crossing the finish line of a marathon, successfully completing your third lift at an Olympic-style weightlifting competition, celebrating with your teammates the second you’ve won the state championship). Now work your way backwards and identify what the preceding performance goals are that you need to accomplish before the endgame (e.g. improve 5k run time, be able to squat 85% of your 1 rep max at least five times, etc.). Third, identify the process goals needed to accomplish the performance goals (e.g. focus on keeping arms loose during runs, maintain neutral spine position during back squats). Finally, assess what resources or actionable steps you can start today (e.g. stay present using deep breathing, looking up competitive events that are still on the calendar).
Set a Schedule
I could cite countless research studies on the scientific benefits of setting a schedule in terms of periodization and systematic strength training. But I want to offer more of a ‘mental health’ reason why you should start getting back on a regimented exercise schedule. During sport performance situations, athletes will often experience heightened levels of stress. There are many different reasons for this but one contributing factor is that on some level there is an increased awareness about the uncertainty of the outcome.
When we become more aware of the unpredictability of unfolding events (e.g. the current pandemic) we can become more anxious, experience difficulty with focus and in many cases lose motivation. Recognizing this shared experience, professionals in sport psychology try to help athletes make their environment as predictable as possible because it gives the athlete more agency over their life, increases self-confidence, and motivates them to face challenges head on. So if nothing else, create more predictability in your life by having a regimented workout plan to keep you in a confident & motivated mindset.
When designing a schedule, you need to evaluate how you can put yourself in the best position to consistently stick to your schedule. Start by identifying all the members of your social support system and see if they are willing to help you in terms of maintaining schedule compliance. You can try things like having them do the workouts with you, or have them remind you about what your outcome goals are. Finally, identify common ‘roadblocks’ that have made it difficult for you to complete workouts and ways to address those ‘roadblocks’. Some common issues could be training at times that interfere with work, poor sleep the night before training, or over-extending yourself by taking care of other people’s needs rather than your own.
Train the Way You Compete
When athletes come into my office they are usually looking to develop a ‘psychological edge’ over their competition. To help them with this, one of the strategies that I use is simulation training. Simulation training is when you try to recreate environmental challenges of sport competition into a practice setting in order to reduce reaction to unnecessary distractions. By doing this, you’re cultivating a mindset of unbreakable focus and full commitment to completion of your goals.
Let’s consider the current training environment you are in, and how simulation training can help you. Odds are you are one of many individuals who has lost access to their gym and possibly has no gym equipment at all. Despite all of these disadvantages you can still manipulate your environment to match and possibly even exceed the intensity of the gym. One way of doing this is by choosing a location that is not inside your home to train. At the very least if leaving your home is not an option, then you need to find a spot in your house that is not typically associated with rest and/or relaxation (e.g. the living room where you binge watch Netflix). Competitive environments are intense settings that are meant to challenge us, so why should your training environment be any different? Making this adjustment is immediately going to set the tone for how you train and the type of mindset you bring into the training session.
As coaches and athletes, you’re always trying to figure out how you can get better at your craft right now. The great thing about these three strategies is that you can use them as soon as you’re done reading this. My challenge for you is to employ these strategies today, and see if you notice a difference!
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