The Complexity Of Motivation

“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.

Achieving Excellence

“When most people practice a task or skill, they focus on the things they can do effortlessly.

Expert practice is different. It entails considerable, specific and sustained efforts to do something you can’t do well - or even at all.

Research across domains shows that it is only by working at what you can’t do that you turn into the expert you want to become.”

- S.W. Tyler

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It is believed that 10,000 hours (or when broken down into rational daily opportunity, 10 years plus) of purposeful practice will enable someone to become ‘excellent’ in their chosen field.

You may well be wondering, 'what exactly is purposeful practice?' And, 'how much have I done?'

Well the two P's hold the key to either success and potential greatness or mediocrity and standard performance.

The quality in any form of practice is the vital ingredient to any facet of expertise: the specialised learning used by top performers to attain *Mastery status and the deep absorption that is needed during each of those 10,000 hours to make them count.

The practice sessions of aspiring champions have a specific and never-changing purpose: progress.

Every second of every minute of every hour, the goal is to extend one’s mind and body, to push oneself beyond the limits of one’s considered capacities and to engage so deeply in the task at hand that one leaves the practice session a changed person.

Pushing the boundaries of practice methods is also a crucial component to achieving excellence. You’ll often hear it referred to as ‘training smarter.’ Sir Dave Brailsford, the GM of Team Sky, uses the term ‘marginal gains.’ Whatever the phrase or language, the need to always be looking for a competitive edge is vital.

One of the most striking things about modern research on expertise and excellence is how the body and mind can be radically altered with the right kind of practice.

“When the human body is put under exceptional strain, a range of dormant genes in the DNA are expressed and extraordinary physiological processes are activated,” says psychologist Anders Ericsson.

Long distance runners have larger hearts than average, not because they were born with them but as a consequence of training. Table Tennis players have more supple wrists, ballet dancers can rotate their feet through more degrees and so on. These are all traits and developed skills created through purposeful practice thus enabling excellence.

Whilst the adaptability of the human body is impressive, it is the plasticity of the human brain that has astonished researchers.

In an experiment led by Thomas Elbert of the University of Konstanz, it was found that the region of the brain responsible for controlling fingers in young musicians grew in direct proportion to the number of years training.

In a study of London taxi drivers who must pass a famously stringent set of examinations known as the Knowledge to gain a licence, it was discovered that the region of the brain governing spatial navigation was substantially larger than for non-taxi drivers and this region continued to grow with additional time on the job.

A key aspect of brain transformation is myelin, a substance that can dramatically increase the speed with which signals pass through the brain. A 2005 experiment that scanned the brains of concert pianists found a direct correlation between the number of hours practised and the quantity of myelin produced.

Purposeful practice also builds new neural connections, increases the size of specific sections of the brain and enables the expert to co-opt new areas of grey matter in the quest to improve.

*Mastery - The stage of learning beyond unconscious competence. At this stage, not only do you perform well, you perform with a magical touch. There is an aesthetic element to the performance so it isn’t just effective, there is a kind of beauty to it. In Sport, think Tiger Woods, Lionel Messi, Roger Federer, Usain Bolt and Michael Jordan. These athletes have a fantastic rapport between their conscious and unconscious minds.

A Game Changer says…

From all the research and case studies developed to date it is clear that the equation for top level achievement and excellence in any field or discipline is as follows:

10,000 hours (Quantity) + Purposeful Practice (Quality) = Excellence

To further amplify this belief and thought process, here are some facts, stats and quotes about and from a few names you may just recognise:

He started a programme of intensive training at the age of three. He began composing pieces for the violin and piano at the age of 5. He had clocked up 3,500 hours of purposeful practice before his sixth birthday! He produced many works before his tenth birthday. By his mid teens he had clocked up 10,000 hours of purposeful practice. He achieved masterpiece status for his Piano Concerto No.9 when just 21.

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

He was given a golf club for Xmas, five days before his first birthday. At 18 months he had his first golf outing. At the age of 2 he entered his first pitch & putt tournament - he could drive a ball 80 yards and pitch accurately from 40 yards! By the age of 2 years 8 months he was familiar with bunker play. By the age of 3 he had developed his pre shot routine. At 4 years old he had his first professional coach. He won his first national major tournament at 13. By his mid teens he had clocked up 10,000 hours of purposeful practice.

- Tiger Woods

Tennis training began in earnest when they were 4 years 6 months and 3 years old respectively. The courts were riddled with potholes. Training would consist of 550 balls at a time delivered from a shopping cart. They would often practice with baseball bats and serve at traffic cones until their arms ached. The two once had a training session that lasted 7 hours. Serena entered her first tournament at the age of 4 years 6 months. When the sisters were 12 and 11 they moved to a tennis academy in Florida. By then, both Venus and Serena had already clocked up thousands of purposeful hours of practice.

- Venus and Serena Williams

He would take a football to the local park in east London as a young child and kick it from precisely the same spot for hour upon hour. ‘His dedication was breathtaking,’ his father said. ‘It seemed like he lived on the local field.’ “My secret is practice,” Beckham concurs. “I have always believed that if you want to achieve anything special in life you have to work, work and then work some more.” By the age of 14 Beckham was scouted and signed by Manchester United.

- David Beckham

“My father says that if I hit 2,500 balls each day, I’ll hit 17,500 balls each week and at the end of one year I’ll have hit nearly 1 million balls. He believes in Math. Numbers, he says, don’t lie. A child who hits 1 million balls each year will be unbeatable.”

- Andre Agassi

“Nobody but nobody has ever become really proficient at golf without practice, without doing a lot of thinking and then hitting a lot of shots. It isn’t so much a lack of talent; it’s a lack of being able to repeat good shots consistently that frustrates most players. And the only answer to that is good practice.”

- Jack Nicklaus

In Summary

Talent can take you so far…

Talent plus Practice can take you further…

But it is Talent plus Purposeful Practice that will allow you to achieve Excellence.

Pressure

Pressure plays a massive part in people’s day to day lives. Very often it arises during a big moment - an important presentation, a first night performance or perhaps an incredibly tight match.

All these situations would naturally incur added pressure.

We’ve all experienced it; freezing during a key presentation or speech, missing the penalty or free throw that would have won your team the game or saying foolish things on a first date. No one is immune.

Some of the best examples of handling pressure occur in sport. Over time we have witnessed many instances of athletes coping and not coping, being successful and not successful.

There are two types of negative behaviour that can occur when under extreme pressure - Choking and Panicking. Contrary to popular belief, the two are very different albeit they exhibit similar outcomes.

In the book, ‘What the Dog Saw’, there is a chapter called ‘The Art of Failure’ in which the author Malcolm Gladwell does a brilliant job of describing the differences between Choking and Panicking. To do this he discusses behaviour, brain processes and psychological studies.

“Choking is about thinking too much. Panic is about thinking too little. Choking is about loss of instinct. Panic is reversion to instinct. They may look the same, but they are worlds apart”, says Gladwell.

First up let’s take a look at Choking.

When an athlete begins to focus on a future outcome and has negative thoughts, they become tight and do not play to their ability. At this stage, the primary physical area of the body that becomes affected is the neck and jaw (the latter holds more tension than any other muscle in our body). These muscles begin to tighten under pressure hence the name Choking.

When working with people who operate in high pressure scenarios, teaching them to be aware of the tightening of these muscles can allow them early recognition that they need to refocus. The thought of even the possibility of choking can ruin a person’s ability to enjoy their big moment. These thoughts can be very debilitating.

The answer is to understand the importance our self talk plays in shaping our behaviours. What we say to ourselves REALLY does matter.

For an athlete, using emotional control in stressful situations will help tremendously. It is a skill that can be learned and is part of understanding emotional intelligence.

Panic is slightly different.

It is the abandonment of everything an athlete has trained to do and relies on instinct. This is the limbic system (a part of the brain known in Dr Steve Peters book ‘The Chimp Paradox’ as the “Chimp”) at work. Here, an athlete seemingly just loses the plot (or control of their minds) and panic sets in. It can often become apparent that athletes simply break down and all their strategies and tactics go out of the window.

Sometimes, in short bursts due to their immense talent, they can play OK but invariably their focus is gone and they often react contrary to game plans and ultimately without success.

With regards both Choking and Panicking, the issue remains similar in that performance degrades completely. This is where experience plays a vital role and why coping behaviour is so important.

It is important to note that the often heard phrase ‘practice makes perfect’ is not exactly correct. It is in fact ‘perfect practice’ that indeed makes perfect. If one can implement this philosophy, then it is easier to understand what happens during those big pressure moments that we experience.

If when we panic the more ingrained perfect practice is, the more likely we can rely on that experience. The use of imagery rehearsal and the practice of stressful situations with positive results can help us to rely on a system that is highly practiced and trained thereby resulting in better performance. This can all be performed very unconsciously rather than the conscious act of choking.

A Game Changer Says…

Above, we’ve taken a look at the impact pressure can have on our performance via means of both Choking and Panicking.

So, how can we further prevent it? Here are our theories based around pressure and how best to handle it.

Taking Conscious Control

You become a stronger performer at anything by putting in hours of practice.

The point of practice is to outsource skills from your conscious mind to your subconscious mind so you can perform those skills automatically when they are called upon.

We take for granted many of the skills we outsource to our subconscious. Think of something you’re good at and then break it down into the individual skills involved. A good example could be say driving, which is automatic for most people.

Driving requires many skills. You need mechanical coordination to work the pedals and steering wheel, visual perception to stay in lane and avoid other traffic and symbol recognition to read road signs and instruments on your dashboard. Let’s not forget the processing power needed to make quick decisions on all that information!

Despite having to use these skills simultaneously whilst driving, we don’t pay any attention to them.

For any skill, the more your subconscious takes over, the better you’ll be (providing you've practiced the skill properly). All the best performers outsource their many skills to their subconscious, that’s why they perform so effortlessly - because it is.

So why then can these so called top performers choke?

It’s because they start to take conscious control of the skills they have already outsourced to their subconscious.

In key, high pressure situations, they want to perform so well that they try and ‘take control’ of their actions consciously thereby sabotaging their performance and ultimately their chance of success.

AGC Fix: Trust yourself and the time you’ve put into practice. You will always be better off letting your subconscious take control so long as you haven’t been practicing bad habits.

Revisiting The Past Or Projecting The Future

Think back to your best performances. What was going through your mind? You probably can’t remember thinking about anything. You were just in the moment, doing not thinking!

Throughout our lives we collect experiences and file them away for future use. Before high pressure situations, our brain searches for similar experiences. It will review the results from similar situations in the past and then project those into the future. That is why those who have choked in the past tend to choke again and again.

As bizarre as it may seem, we can even take on other people’s experiences. If your mind is filled with examples of people being nervous and freezing up during a speech, what do you think may happen when you give your first speech?

When we reflect back to past experiences for information and to predict our future, we often don’t take into account all the further training, practice and learning we have done since then. It is IMPORTANT to recognise that your past experience can be obsolete.

AGC Fix: Mentally rehearse successful outcomes. All memories are reconstructions and your brain can’t tell which really happened and which are made up. Collecting positive experiences will create a positive future. This will bring confidence as oppose to anxiety and self-doubt.

Another strategy is to stay in the present. Focus on the now and pay attention to the input from your senses. For example if you are playing tennis, notice the feel of the racket in your hand, the sounds on the court, the smell of the ball and the face of your opponent. When your mind is occupied in the now, it won’t slip into the past or the future.

Attracting Negative Results

The most common phrase people tell themselves when having to perform in a high pressure situation is:

“Don’t mess up”

Whether they are thinking this or saying it out loud, it usually leads to one result:

Messing up.

When you tell yourself not to do something, you cannot help but imagine doing it. Some people take it one step further and imagine how performing poorly in this one moment may affect their lives. When your whole life is on the line it’s pretty hard to stay relaxed and perform to your best!

AGC Fix: Focus on what you want to happen. If you are going on a big date for example, tell yourself to be charming rather than “don’t be quiet”.

Summary

Deep down we all want to win and do well. This is natural and normal. Many of us have been brought up to believe that by increasing the stakes we will try harder and thereby perform better. 

We would encourage you to do exactly the opposite - don’t worry about the results.

Do what you’ve practiced doing and let it happen. The key here is that if you’ve trained hard enough and employed perfect practice well enough then you’ll succeed.

Focus on what you can do and not what you should have done. Results are in the past and cannot be changed in the present. Results are to be learned from swiftly not reflected upon constantly.

For those of you who want a basic reminder to carry around with you, here is a four step, 20 second version of how to deal with high pressure situations without choking:

Trust your skills and all of the time you spent practicing

Mentally rehearse vividly (using all your senses) the outcome you want before your performance

Focus on all of your senses to stay in the present during any performance

Let go of the results and decide what you’ll do next