Summary

• Motivation is a key part of Pillar #7 (Mindset) of the BE Fit Coach 7 Core Pillars of Running
• We can motivated both towards, and away from things
• Motivation to get out running is the primary focus of this episode but we also touch on motivation (to continue) whilst out running
• Away from Motivation can be flipped 180 degrees into towards motivation
• Build your motivation by getting really clear on what you do want
• An away from motivation usually gets weaker the further you get away from the thing that created the motivation in the first place

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Full Transcript

[The following is the full transcript of this episode of the BE Fit Coach "Let's Talk Running" show.  Please note that this episode, like all LTR episodes, is usually unscripted and unedited and features Barrie talking about a subject that we believe runners will find useful and interesting.]

Hey runners,

Today I want to talk to you about motivation.

So, motivation for us here at BE Fit Coach is so important that it is one of our 7 Core Pillars of Running. Pillar #7, our Mindset pillar, is where we typically work with clients on the motivation side of things.

Motivation is something that I am seeing coming up quite a bit recently with clients and other runners, and it’s probably in 2 parts really. So the motivation around just getting up and getting things done, so getting the motivation to get out the door and go running. Then the other part is the motivation whilst you’re out running and that feeling of wanting to give up, and “why am I doing this?”, and just not being able to push through. Both of which as you can see are very mindset-based issues.

So, in today’s session, I am going to talk mostly about the motivation to get up and get going. I will touch on the motivation while you’re out but I’ll cover that in more detail in a future video.

So motivation, what is it?

Motivation typically, as humans, we are either motivated toward something we want to happen. So towards the good. Or, we’re motivated away from something we don’t want. So motivated away from the bad things. The majority of us will do more to avoid the bad things happening than we will to make the good things happen.

So what do I mean by that?

Let’s say, as a motivation towards something happening, let’s say you set yourself a goal of wanting to achieve a new PB on your 5k race time and that’s something you work towards happening. So it’s a good thing, it's something you want to happen and you’re going to work towards it happening. And you’ve probably set goals like that for yourself in the past, so you'll probably already have a feeling of how motivated you were when you were trying to achieve that thing for yourself.

Then let’s look at the motivation away from, so away from the bad things happening. Let’s say for example on a visit to your GP, your doctor, to get a general check-up, your doctor tells you - hey, your blood markers or your scan results, or whatever evidence they have, suggests that you have got this condition developing. That if you don’t do something about it very soon, you’re likely to be on medication for it for the rest of your life because you’ll pass the point where it’s reversible damage. So that could be for example developing Type II Diabetes, it could be some sort of cardiovascular disease, anything really, anything where for example a lifestyle choice would allow it to build up and then once you’ve reached a certain point it’s irreversible damage and you’re left dealing with the condition.

So, can you imagine in that case your motivation to do something to stop that bad thing happening would probably be quite high? So take those 2 scenarios and think about how likely are you to be motivated towards stopping that bad thing happening, compared to motivated towards something good that you wanted to happen. That’s typically how we as humans operate.

One of the things we can do is to take the motivation away from the bad thing, so in this case not wanting to develop this condition, and flip that on its head. So rather than going down that path of ending up with this condition, what would I like to see instead? How would I like my life to look?

Now for some that could be, “I want to be able to run around with my kids or my grandkids without having to sit down every 2 mins”. For others, it could be, “I want to take my children or my partner for a beautiful walk up to the top of a mountain and have a picnic up there. So I’m going to be carrying this pack of food and drink, etc; and walking up a mountain”. And be able to do that and enjoy the experience. For others it might be wanting to “set a new 5k/10k PB time”. It might be “I want to run an ultramarathon”. Whatever it is, that’s what you want your life to look like, so that’s your motivation towards the good thing happening because what you’re doing is at the same time trying to avoid the bad thing happening.

So it’s not just about avoiding the bad, we can those bad things into what we want instead. How can we make like the way we want it if we don’t want that to be our future. “What do we want it to look like”, and then that becomes your motivation towards a good thing.

And there’s that transitional time, immediately when the bad thing is announced to us, we can develop a lot of motivation to stop that from happening. But of course, the further away we get from that bad thing happening, so as we start to improve our health, you know the doctor might be saying “okay things are going in the right direction, you’re not at the same level of risk you were before”. Typically what that can mean for us is that we start to slack off a little bit and think “well okay, I’m doing okay now and I’m not in the same risk” and then other things happen, distractions, etc… and we lose focus.

Now, it might be that we stay where we are and that’s okay, or it might be that we start drifting back to the bad again, and then we’ve got to do something again.

What I typically recommend is to use that very powerful away from motivator to start with but then as you start along that journey, start looking at okay “Okay, now I’m doing this, what do I want to happen instead?”, and that might be “...this is how I want my life to look”, and then start to build that motivation towards the good thing from there.

That’s basically what I wanted to cover today with motivation, but when you think about being at home waiting to go out for a run, or getting ready and think “do I want to go out today?”. Bring back that motivation, think about these goals that you’ve got. Why are you doing this? Whether it’s avoiding that bad thing or working towards that good thing. What is it that going to get your energy up to get you out the door?

Apply that same logic really when you’re out on a run and you’re starting to feel “this is tiring” or “this is painful”, or “why am I doing this?”. It’s bringing back those motivating factors for yourself and remembering why you are actually doing it, and replaying that in your head, visualising that future you without this illness or this benefit of the new life that you are creating for yourself. Really make that a powerful image and really play on that, so as you’re struggling with the motivation during a run, you can build that motivation and rebuild it based on what you already know to be true about yourself.

So, as I said I’ll talk more about some of the problems around motivation when we’re out on a run in a future video, but for now, start thinking about “What am I trying to achieve?”, “What is it I’m working towards?”, “What do I want my life to look like?”. And then, use that to really build and really make it a powerful image for yourself, so that you can get yourself out the door and start chasing those goals that you want to achieve.

I hope that helps? Any questions, please drop me a comment below. If you want to share your own stories around motivation, whether that’s the things you’ve been trying to avoid or the things that you want to happen, I’d love to hear from you. Please put them in the comments below and I’ll hopefully be able to engage as much as possible with you guys and really get to see those stories. I promise you, whether I get to reply or not, I absolutely love reading all of the comments that you leave.

Hope that helps, keep running and I’ll speak to you again soon.

Bye for now.

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