Praxis
The podcast where practice makes purpose…
Praxis
The Pillars of Practice - Motivation (mini-episode)
Motivation forms one of the essential pillars of practice, supporting our commitment through challenges while revealing the crucial balance between internal and external drivers. In this mini-episode, I discuss how:
• Intrinsic motivation comes from within (joy in the process, self-improvement, personal satisfaction)
• Extrinsic motivation comes from external sources (recognition, money, validation from others)
• My running journey evolved from park runs to marathons, challenging my belief I wasn't "sporty"
• Finding your authentic "why" provides resilience when challenges arise
• External validation can kickstart a practice but internal motivation sustains it
Listen, subscribe, and share your thoughts about your own motivational balance in your practices.
Welcome to Praxis, the podcast where practice makes purpose. I'm Mikey and I'll be interviewing people about the practices that reveal and create purpose in their lives. Welcome to a mini episode of Praxis, and in this episode, I want to talk about one of the pillars of practice, as I want to call them, which are beliefs, structures, mindsets, things that support our practice, wherever that might be. Before I begin, I just want to say thank you to those people who have given me lots of lovely feedback on my recent episode with Sam. I loved interviewing him. I learned a lot about his yoga practice, and thank you for those who have given me helpful feedback, especially regarding sound. I'm hoping to get a bit better at editing, as I'm doing this all on my own, although I did have some help from my neighbour, johnny, at the weekend. So shout out to him. Thank you very much, but hopefully the sound quality will be a little less crunchy, shall we say, going forward. Yes, so I would like to introduce what I call the pillars of practice. Now, I think there are lots of different things that can support us in our practice, that can help us go through challenging times, that can motivate us, that can help us show progress, improve over time in the long run. And the first five pillars, because I'm sure there are a lot more than what I've come up with, but the first five pillars, because I'm sure there are a lot more than what I've come up with, but the first five pillars that I would like to talk about over the next few mini-episodes are motivation, which will be the focus of today's mini-episode, space, both physical and mental space, both physical and mental, compassion, discipline and community. And over the next five, six, seven weeks or so, I would like to have a mini episode devoted to each one of those pillars of practice. And I'm going to start off today with motivation.
Speaker 1:Now, there are two types of motivation intrinsic and extrinsic. So extrinsic motivation is when you seek validation from the outside, so that could be accolades, awards, recognition from your peers, it could be money, so financial motivation. Whereas intrinsic comes from the inside, so it's motivated by the joy of doing something. It could be to prove something to yourself. It could be the love of doing something. It could be to prove something to yourself, it could be the love of the process. Um, you know, if you are a painter, you might be intrinsically motivated to produce beautiful art for the sake of producing art rather than for the desire to put on a gallery show or to sell your work. Now, I believe that both are actually necessary and I think, if we're honest with ourselves, we are all motivated by external rewards and from something more internal.
Speaker 1:Now I would like to talk a little bit about my running journey, and it's interesting that I didn't actually think of running as one of my main practices. You know, I've associated my main practices meditation and my spiritual stuff. Friends actually said oh, I'm surprised you don't think of running as a practice, when actually it is. You know, it's something I dedicate some time to. I've seen progress over time. I run sometimes when I don't really want to, because I know that there's benefits to my running.
Speaker 1:Over time, and I think I became a bit of an accidental runner about five years ago. So, during during the 2019-2020 pandemic, when it was at its height and we were in lockdown, I got into some really bad habits regarding eating, exercise, and I think that, to be honest, I think that was pretty common for a lot of people. We couldn't go to the gym there's not a lot to do so food was one of my pleasures at the time and I got into some really bad habits. I wasn't treating my body very well and you know I was fortunate enough to be able to have an online PT shout out to Tom and I slowly, over time, developed a healthier awareness of nutrition, exercise and all that good stuff. I joined a touch rugby team based in South West London and through that I eventually started going on park runs with a couple of the rugby people and I'd never really run before, but I saw a couple of them running before rugby practice on a Saturday and my friend, stefan, kind of invited me to go along with him.
Speaker 1:Long story short I don't want this to be too self-indulgent, but long story short, I became a bit of a runner. I enjoyed doing park runs. Eventually that graduated into me doing 10Ks and Stefan asked if I wanted to do a marathon. And if you would have asked me five, six years ago if I'd ever be a marathon runner, I would have honestly laughed, because I've grown up thinking that I was rubbish at sport, that I would never be good at anything sporty Probably messages from when I was a teenager, as a little gay boy in Liverpool, when the only sport we did at school was football and I was absolutely awful at that, but yeah. So I internalised these messages of not being good enough at sport and I think one of the motivations I had was to prove to myself that I could do something, to challenge myself to something. That was a huge goal.
Speaker 1:A marathon is not easy, no matter your level of fitness. I think even seasoned marathon runners know that it is quite an ordeal, and I've done three marathons so far. I'm currently training for my fourth and I want to talk about how I actually have different motivations for each of my marathons that I've done and kind of the impact that it had on me, on my training, on the results. It had on me on my training, on the results and how I felt during and after each, each run. So my first marathon was in Amsterdam and that was in October 23, and my motivation was actually just to do it, to prove to myself that I could do it. And okay, it's nice to get a medal, it's nice to get a good time, quote, unquote. But actually I just wanted to do it and my only goal was just finish without stopping. I didn't want to walk any of the way.
Speaker 1:I wanted to say that I'd run my first marathon, running all the way, um, and 10 minutes before the start I I lost my headphones, so I had no music or audiobooks or podcasts to listen to, and I finished it in just under five hours, which you know for my age wasn't an amazing time, but I was really proud that I'd done it. I was so happy to cross that finish line and I and I thought you know what I'm going to do another one so signed up for Paris in April 24 and my motivation then was to beat my previous time. So, again, I'd say that was an internal motivation, even though it's measurable. It didn't really bother me what anyone else thought. I just wanted to finish and show that I've made progress in the in the six months or whatever, since my last marathon. I really pushed myself in Paris, um, and I managed to knock off, uh, about half an hour, which I think is pretty decent. To be honest, I was really proud of it, um, and I cried at the end because I'd given it my all, and I was just relieved. I had so much pride.
Speaker 1:And then my most recent marathon was in Ljubljana in October of 24. And for some reason my motivation was more external, more extrinsic, and in my head. I was like do you know what I've done? A couple of marathons now I should be able to get sub four hours, and I don't really know where that came from. I think I've been reading a lot of marathon blogs, I've subscribed to some running influencers on Instagram and for some reason this, this four hour mark, just became a bit of a benchmark for me. And about three quarters through the marathon, you know, I was looking at my watch for my pace, my distance, my speed, all that sort of stuff and I realized, actually, do you know what I'm actually? Do you know what I'm going to do? This? I'm going to get in just under four hours.
Speaker 1:The last two, three kilometers were rough and I had to basically talk to myself throughout the whole three kilometers at the end just keep going, just keep going, just keep going. And it was pure willpower that got me through the very last bit of that marathon. And I checked my watch and I clocked in about 3.55, 3.56, something like that. I crossed the finish line and I actually felt empty. I felt numb, I had no runners high, I had no tears, I had no joy. It was so bizarre how weirdly empty I felt. And when I checked the time online on the website, it said I'd done it in four hours 11 minutes and I was absolutely gutted and the friends who I'd run with they cheered me on. They're all faster than me, so they finished before me, so they cheered me on at the end and they were there at the finish line. You know, really happy for me that I'd finished it.
Speaker 1:And when I found out that I hadn't done it in in the four hours, I got so angry, I got so upset and actually it kind of ruined it for me and I'm sure it ruined it a little bit for them as well, because there was my negative reaction, there was my moodiness, completely disproportionate to to what should have been a really happy occasion. I'd just done a bloody marathon in a pretty decent time as well. You know, four hours give or take, it's still really good, I think. And you know, when we later checked again, it did transpire that I was right, I did get it in 3.56, but to be honest, the kind of the shine had gone and it didn't really matter as much anymore and I think because I've relied on an external validation as my benchmark, my motivation, when I did achieve it, it felt kind of empty and a bit meaningless, whereas in my other marathons I'd had something more internal to drive me.
Speaker 1:And I'm training for my fourth marathon now. I'm going to be running in Montpellier in April and I'm genuinely motivated to just be a little bit better than I was last time and, to be honest, if I don't get a better time, that's also fine. I'm sure I'd be a bit disappointed because, you know, runners spend a lot of time thinking about pace, thinking about speed and all this other stuff. But actually, as long as I've given it my best, I think that's enough. Um, you know, I do have when I, when I started running, I did have some other external motivating factors as well. You know, I want to lose a bit of weight, I want to look a bit more attractive to other people, and that is still true, I think, but I think that is also fine as well.
Speaker 1:I don't think you should have purely intrinsic or purely external motivation. I think you need to strike the right balance. So there was a study done um back in 2014 I believe, and it looked at us service people who'd signed up for the armed forces, and it measured about 14 000 people over two decades, and it looked at the intrinsic and external motivations for joining the army. You know, some of the external motivations might have been pleasing family it's a stable job, generally well paid, career progression whereas some internal motivations might have been a sense of national pride, a sense of doing something for the country, a sense of honour. And it found out that the people who motivated more by internal motivation they're more likely to stay the course, whereas those motivated purely by the external, by wages, by family approval, they suffered burnout a lot quicker.
Speaker 1:Um, so what am I blathering on about? I think you need to find and this is such an American expression, I do apologize find your why or your why's plural. I think identifying what truly drives you and it could be more than one thing, and this will evolve over time, probably as you progress in in your certain practice. I think identifying the why and sticking to that as a bit of an anchor, as a bit of a core that you kind of work around, I think that's going to provide more fruit in the future. And as part of identifying your why or your whys, I think we need to be honest with ourselves and look at how much of our drives are about proving something to ourselves or to other people. You know how much of our motivation comes from the external validation of our peers or people we look up to.
Speaker 1:And if I'm brutally honest with myself, I think I still have something to prove when it comes to running. You know, when I'm running I still sometimes think, oh, I'm not as good as the person running ahead of me. Or you know my running buddies that I run with on a Saturday morning. They're all better runners than me, they're all faster, they all do a better distance distance running and I still think to myself you know, if I just get this time, then I'll be a good runner. But I'm learning to ignore that voice a little bit more. It's still there and I think I will always crave some external validation, but as long as I hold true to the core of why I decide to run honoring my body, developing a healthier relationship with my body, with exercise, with diet.
Speaker 1:Having the ability to run distances is a gift. You know, not everybody gets to run. For lots of different reasons I am able to run, and when I'm going to run like I did this evening, I did an 8k after work and when I can feel my feet hitting the ground, when I feel my lungs working hard, when I feel the sweat, the blood pumping, I do genuinely feel more connected to my body than I have been most of my life, I think, and I'm genuinely grateful for that gift. And I'm genuinely grateful for that gift. You know, even the recording of this podcast has brought up issues of the internal versus the external motivation. So I've been looking every day at the count of downloads, you know, trying to see if I hit this magic number. You know, trying to see if I hit this magic number. And obviously, you know, very, very new podcast um, not not loads of downloads yet, but I found myself checking quite often how many downloads I had. I was like, actually, is this my motivation? I don't think it is. So I'm trying to stop myself from doing that, at least on a daily basis.
Speaker 1:So, balancing the internal and the external, as a kind of a closing to this somewhat rambling but I hope you'll indulge me sort of episode, I think if you're relying on external validation, if you're relying on medals or money or fame or accolades, well, what happens when you've achieved that goal?
Speaker 1:What happens when the applause stops?
Speaker 1:What happens when you've got that gold medal? Then what next, when you've got that gold medal, then what next? And I think a lot of people who rely on the external do grieve a little bit once they've reached that goal, because they've reached the pinnacle and they've got nothing of more depth to fall back on. I'm not saying that's true of all people, but if you're only relying on the external and you don't have any sense of internal motivation, then your connection to that passion, your connection to that practice will fade over time. So, closing thoughts, motivation is not static. It will change over time, it will evolve over time.
Speaker 1:And to create sustained progress and to stick with a practice, to develop resilience and grit over time, having strong internal motivations that you have identified and that you return to time after time will bear fruit.
Speaker 1:The external motivations can be a kickstart, they can be the call to adventure if I hark back to the hero's journey they can be the initial spark that sets you on the path. But if you're relying on the external and don't have a core grounded internal motivation for your practice, I think you're setting yourself up for failure in the long run. As a bit of a challenge, I would like you to think about your own practice and try to identify an area of your life where external motivation is the dominant factor could be your work. It could be in your personal life. It could be a creative project that you have. Try to identify the externals and the internals and can you shift the balance to more internal motivation, and what would that transition look like? Thank you for listening to this mini episode. Please subscribe, share, keep practicing whatever you are practicing and I will see you next time.