Motivation and Self Determination Theory
As a strength coach, I have dealt with the concept of motivation quite a bit. My clients talk about how they need to find the motivation, coaches talk about how they want to be able to provide or inspire motivation, as a manager, I look at how to motivate my staff to continue to push to be better coaches, and as an individual how do I create the motivation to workout, give my best at work and be the best partner, friend, daughter etc. that I can be? There are many layers of motivation working at the same time.
What I have learned around motivation revolves a great deal around self-determination theory. This theory states that motivation is a feeling someone experiences and therefore is not something you can give or provide to someone else but you can create the environment in which someone feels motivated. In order to create an optimal environment in which someone feels motivated, you need to create opportunities for autonomy, relatedness, and competence.
By providing autonomy, the individual feels connected to their goals and what they are accomplishing. They are taking ownership of what they are doing instead of purely relying on someone else telling them what to do. This is sometimes a tough step for individuals to buy into as many people want to put their brain on a shelf and be told how, what, and when to take action. This may work for individuals who have endless amounts of money to spend on trainers and coaches forever, but does not work in long term situations because the person has not learned to be able to adapt to real life ups and downs.
Relatedness allows others to connect with individuals who are looking to accomplish similar goals. Having a community or having a buddy is always helpful in accomplishing goals. It helps people not feel so alone, gives opportunity to talk through struggles and even build excitement about goals for the future.
Competence gives people knowledge. By providing knowledge, it helps gives people power into making decisions for themselves. The more connected someone feels to their goals and their progress, the more likely they are to stay motivated and accomplish their goals.
From my understanding, these three elements of self-determination theory help to build intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is when someone does something for the pure joy of doing it. The drive to do something comes from within rather than from an external source. My goal as a strength coach is to hopefully guide people into being able to building an intrinsic motivation for movement. I understand that intrinsic motivation is the best way to remain motivated however, very few people start out with an intrinsic motivation for a lot of behavior changes.
Extrinsic motivation is another driver for change. Extrinsic motivation means that the motivation is coming from an external source. This can be in a negative or a positive way. In the fitness world, I see a lot of extrinsic motivation when it comes to desires for a certain body type or weight loss/gain goals. People are motivated by the external messages that have been pushed on them through society. Extrinsic motivation can also look like positive reinforcement. Lots of gyms and trainers use challenges, rewards or competitions to provide people with motivation. Many clients feel much more motivated when they have a goal to train for like a marathon or a powerlifting meet. Extrinsic motivation can be excellent for getting someone involved in habit changes, however it can results in habit changes being short lived.
Something I am interested to discuss here is that for many, intrinsic motivation may never be reached. They may never really enjoy exercise but they do appreciate that it will help them move better, and feel better both mentally and physically. Extrinsic may be as far as they get. As a helper in this situation, is it always our goal to try and help someone move into a more intrinsic motivation space or can we accept that extrinsic motivation will be best for some individuals?
