Rob Eakin Triathlete

Motivation – Part 2

Back to talk a little more about motivation. (Motivation - Part 1)

So if I'm being honest with myself, I'm mostly an extrinsically motivated (wanting the prize) athlete. It was something that I wasn't willing to admit at first. And it took me a while to figure out why.

We're told over and over that to be good people we need to be intrinsically motivated. We need to do things because they make us feel good, is the right things to do, or simply for the good of someone else. If you need an extrinsic reward you aren't of strong character. And until I read the piece from Larry Zimich, I always felt a little guilty about knowing I wasn't always intrinsically motivated.

Now fair enough, in day to day life, being intrinsically motivated is important and valuable. It makes you a much better and more bearable person to deal with. But being intrinsically motivated only takes you so far. If any of us are completely honest with ourselves, most of our best efforts, our best work, our best accomplishments have come when we were extrinsically motivated.

When it comes to training, I know that many of my best workouts came when I was trying to keep up with someone else to prove myself or beat someone else to prove I was faster. And I get up for 5:30 am swims not because it makes me feel good but because it will make me faster than those who don't.

So as Larry says...

For intrinsics, the prize was never the ultimate aim anyway; it was there as the icing on the cake.  If it's won, it's won, if not at least they tried their best.  Trying your best isn't in a pro's vocabulary.  To reach your full potential it can't be in yours.

Being amateur doesn't mean we have to be amateurish in our approach.  Motivation is powerful because it directly influences our actions and reactions.  Choose to adopt and more importantly, maintain, a professional, motivational, extrinsic work ethic and half your job is done. Never take your eye off the prize.

So I've come to terms with being extrinsically motivated. I think it brings out the best of me (in athletic terms) and have starting searching and taking advantage of every bit of external motivation I can find.

But being extrinsically motivated can have its downfalls. That's why Part 3 will be about what I call, "be internally extrinsic and externally intrinsic" (or "be Steve Nash not Terrell Owens").