Motivation

Motivation! A word that gets thrown about a lot, ‘I’ve lost my motivation’ or ‘I need to get motivated’ how about ‘I feel really motivated at the moment’……. what is this motivation and where does it come from? There are two parts to motivation that we need to understand: part one, intrinsic motivation (I consider this the more important one and I’ll explain why). Intrinsic motivation is anything and everything that gets you going from within yourself, your goals relate to yourself and reasons are for personal reasons. Motivation to stay healthy because you’d like a longer more fulfilling life or to lose weight because you want to fit in those close again and look like the version of yourself you desire to be. I like personal bests, no better feeling than being able to lift a personal best deadlift or to run a lap of the block quicker than I’ve ever done. Personal bests are applicable to anyone & everyone and provide a goal specific to you and target improvement. I’ve worked with everyone from elite athletes to the physically ‘disabled’ (disability is a term I use very loosely as I believe there is always scope to challenge ability and to adapt and overcome) so we could take a new 3RM squat personal best and equally compare that to a new maximum effort of continuous bodyweight squats to someone who requires a wheelchair for instance. The reward in both examples are potentially equal, the thrill, excitement and achievement are both motivational for the individual and present future challenge for further improvement that’s personal to themselves and also perceived as realistic as they have just overcome the previous increment of their journey.