E43: How Do You Stay Motivated In Difficult Situations - Words Matter

How do you stay motivated in difficult situations - Words Matter

Transcript

43 - How do you stay motivated in a difficult situation? - WORDS MATTER!

You still aren't making that move right. You need to move to the ball with your feet, not just your upper body. How many times have I told you?......Coach is right, why can't I do it? I've been working on this move for weeks. I'm never going to get it in time for our competition. Why am I even bothering? All this work…..where is the progress?

In Episode 2, we defined motivation “Why we do what we do” and talked a little bit about internal versus external motivation.  A quick summary of the Focus Four from that episode: 

1. Why we do what we do, also known as Motivation, is one of the only contributors to sport performance that we, as individuals, have control over.
2. External motivation is based on rewards and outside influence and can become difficult when we start to expect the reward and it does not happen. Outside motivation is not a part of Who We Are and requires another person or some type of reward for the motivation to continue
3. Internal motivation comes from within us and is based on things that we like, our values, and how we define ourselves. This type tends to be more successful in the sports environment.
4. It is important for players, coaches and administrators to understand and recognize an athlete’s motivation type and interact accordingly to optimize performance for that athlete.

That all makes sense, right? BUT what about when you are in a difficult situation? Your motivation starts to decrease. What do you do to stop this from happening? There are many theories that attempt to explain why people do what they do:  Self-Determination Theory, Achievement Goal Theory, Need Achievement Theory, Attribution Theory and Competence Motivation Theory to name the headliners.  Instead of breaking each one of these down, let’s look at  a few key ideas that will help us in difficult situations.

First, it is important to figure out what motivates you. Are you motivated to achieve success or are you motivated to avoid failure? Are you focused on winning or are you worried about losing? 

Motivation is tied to the goals that we set for ourselves.  For more information on goals and goal setting, check out Episode 1, as well as the goal setting series.  One tool that we can use to stay motivated in difficult situations is to focus on approach goals and minimize avoidance goals.  Approach goals are goals that focus on achieving competence.  For example, practicing your sport to get better at it. Conversely, avoidance goals are goals that focus on AVOIDING INCOMPETENCE.  For example, practicing because you do not want to lose.  How do you focus on Approach goals?  One thing you can do is change the words that you say to yourself.  Instead of thinking about practice as something that will stop you from losing, think about it as something that will help you to get better at your sport.  Practice doing this in your everyday training sessions and it will give you the tools to do the same when difficult competitive settings arise.

Now, let’s take a look at goals in a different way.  There are Task goals and Ego goals.  Task goals are goals that focus on individual improvement.  The college team that I am currently coaching is in it’s first season after not having a program for a few years.  The focus of our season is “Better than yesterday”.  The goal for each player is to be better than they were yesterday….Not better than the other team…not even better than other players on their own team.   By having the athletes compare their performance to their own personal previous performance, they have individual control over their progress and they see real change as they progress.

Ego goals focus on comparing yourself to others and on beating other people, being better than your teammates, etc. Here’s the thing…you cannot control how other people play.  This makes you feel like you are not in control and not good at what you are doing. When this happens, athletes will look for a reason as to “why” this is true.  Sometimes they will stop trying and blame it on that or the words they will use will be to make excuses as to why they did not win.  This leads to a decrease in motivation.

Research has shown that task goals lead to a stronger work ethic (meaning you will try harder for longer and do everything you can to get better).  Athletes with task goals have also been shown to have more persistence in the face of failure (that is they will continue to work hard in difficult situations).  Task goals focus on your individual performance which is one thing you have control over.  The feeling of control over the situation will help you to stay motivated for longer.

Today we talked about staying motivated in a difficult setting and how much words matter. To review, the Focus Four for this episode: 

1. Figure out what motivates you and focus on your own actions
2. Focus on Approach Goals and Minimize avoidance goals
3. Set-up Task Goals and downplay Ego goals
4. WORDS MATTER - be better than you were yesterday

Now that you have the motivation: words matter snippet,  what can you do to think about your goals in a motivating way? How can you be better than you were yesterday?  If you are interested in improving your overall motivation or for additional tools to help move your motivation along the continuum toward a more successful style, contact me at RattoConsulting.com or email Laura@RattoConsulting.com.

"Don't ever diminish the power of words. Words move hearts and hearts move limbs." -Hamza Yusuf