Some people are intrinsically motivated, others are extrinsically motivated. This basically means that intrinsically motivated people are motivated internally by something that drives them. Others are motivated by external factors created like games or competitions. Environmental and psychological changes can affect our behaviour, but maybe there are some ways to harness this. Habit Formation Ultimately, we want to form good habits. After turning up to any given activity for a certain amount of time, this will become a habit, habit formation is very important in gaining results, we can think of this as consistency, whether it be nutrition or exercise. Let action drive motivation to form good habits.
Triggers A trigger can make it easier to participate, trigger meaning a certain time of the day or activity may be used to motivate or signal the brain into activity. Choose a certain time or event, use that to create a trigger to allow yourself one hour a day to better yourself.
The Gym Clothes Effect Use the gym clothes or gym bag effect- Have your gym clothes laid out prior to a certain time and ready to train. Someone who places their clothes out the night before increases their chances of training by 300%. Give this one a go if you are not already, seems to work really well.
The Hawthorne Effect The Hawthorne effect is a type of reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behaviour in response to their awareness of being observed. In the late 1950’s research was conducted to see if workers would become more productive in higher or lower levels of light. The workers' productivity seemed to improve when changes were made and slumped when the study ended. It was suggested that the productivity gain occurred as a result of the motivational effect on the workers of the interest being shown in them. It turns out it wasn’t the lighting that improved production, it was the researcher observing the workers.
The observer Effect- most people work harder when being observed, maybe you need someone to keep you accountable?
Remove the Barriers Maybe you always have 2 steps you need to complete to get to the gym and sometimes by the end of the first, you are exhausted, if this is the case you may be much less likely to continue. For example, maybe you get fuel every day before driving to the gym or you pack your gym bag every day before leaving. By removing the barriers to exercise steps are taken away to make it easier for us to complete the desired activity.
These are strategies to assist in preparing us to train, is there some way you can use these to change your behaviour. In summary, let action drive motivation, use triggers to ensure activity, place your clothes out in the loungeroom and set the best time to train early in the day, know that having a coach can be a powerful way of being a better version of yourself. Lastly remove the barriers to exercise to make the process easier.
