Tip to Improve Motivation in Sports

There are typically two types of motivation people talk about: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

• Intrinsic motivation means you are driven by the act of doing something. It gives you satisfaction.
• Extrinsic motivation means you are driven by results—things that you will achieve, rewards, outcomes, things like that.

Within sports, I use intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to help athletes understand what really drives them. I typically find that either the act of playing their sport brings them joy, or there is something they are working toward that gives them motivation.

In this article, I want to break down these two different motivation types and help you understand how to use both of them to be a more motivated athlete.

An Athlete Struggling with Motivation

This morning, I was on a coaching call with an athlete who is struggling with motivation. He and I are working a lot on getting him to be more consistent with his training on his own.

When he goes to practice with his team or his trainers, he’s great. He works really hard. He does what he needs to do. So, he doesn’t struggle in that respect.

He struggles with the extra work he wants to do during the week.

One of the reasons he struggles is because when he thinks about going and training on his own, it seems like there is a much higher barrier to entry compared to other activities he can do during the day.

He loves to play drums—he has a drum set at home. He can just go play drums. He can play video games. He can watch TV. He can do something more fun and easier to do in the moment.

So, we’ve been talking a lot about finding more joy and satisfaction in his training, because his core motivation type is intrinsic motivation.

He is really driven to do something based on the amount of joy or satisfaction he gets out of whatever he’s doing.

When he goes and trains with his team, he enjoys being with his teammates. He enjoys spending time with his friends. He just enjoys that atmosphere.

But when he trains on his own, he doesn’t enjoy it quite as much.

Balancing Joy with Long-Term Goals

At the same time, he has goals that he knows will only be reached if he works harder than a lot of other people. That requires him to put in extra work during the week.

That’s why we’re talking so much about building a consistent training plan outside of what he does with his team.

So, for him, he’s mainly driven by the satisfaction of doing something. We’ve talked about how to find more joy in practicing alone. But he’s also pushing himself to train more because he has these long-term goals.

One of his big goals is to be one of the top skiers by the time he’s about 18. Right now, he’s 15. That’s three or four years away.

When a goal is that far into the future, it can be tough for it to give us a sense of urgency.

Why Urgency Matters

I gave him an example from my own life. Right now, I’m training for a marathon. I’ve never been much of a runner—I was a baseball player, and you don’t have to run very far in baseball. But I wanted to give a marathon a try.

I told him that if I said I wanted to run a marathon a year and a half from now, and I didn’t feel like training today—maybe it was raining or there were other things I wanted to do—it would be a lot easier to make excuses and not run.

I’d think, Well, I have plenty of time to get in shape.

But if my marathon is five weeks away, I’m not going to skip a day. I know I need to train to have a chance at finishing, let alone doing well.

That’s the difference urgency makes.

Shrinking Goals Down

For my athlete, his outcome goals are so far into the future that they don’t give him that urgency. So, we talked about shrinking them down to focus on his next competition.

His next competition is in December, around Christmas time. That’s only a few months away.

We set a goal for him to come in first place at that competition. That goal now requires him to train hard every single day.

How to Apply This Yourself

What I want to do now is break this down into actionable points that you can take away.

1. Find Joy in Training

Ask yourself: How can I find more enjoyment in training?

For my athlete, that meant bringing joy into practice by focusing on the tricks and skills he enjoys most.

For you, it could mean:

• Challenging yourself with small goals.

• Setting little games during training.

• Listening to music.

• Training with a friend or parent.

Don’t wait for joy to come from training—decide to bring it into training.

2. Use Urgency to Fuel Effort

The next step is to leverage short-term goals to give yourself urgency.

I had my athlete write a paragraph that outlined:

• His ultimate goals in a few years.

• What he needs to do to get there.

• What he must focus on right now.

For him, that meant focusing on placing first or in the top three in local competitions.

He now reads this paragraph every morning to remind himself of his goals and to create urgency.

You can do the same. Write down your long-term goals, the steps required, and your short-term targets. Then read it daily.

Bringing It All Together

When it comes to motivation, you don’t have to be either intrinsically or extrinsically motivated. You can use both.

• Bring more joy and enjoyment into your training.

• Focus on what you’re trying to achieve in the short term to create urgency.

That combination will help you train consistently and keep working hard in the moment—while also staying aligned with your long-term goals.

I hope you enjoyed this article. And if you’re interested in the one-on-one coaching I offer, click here to schedule a free introductory call to learn more.

Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of success in all that you do.