Motivation and Goals, part duex

I am spending an increasing amount of time thinking and discussing motivation. As you may recall, I blogged about it a while back in regards to pulling out of a triathlon. Recently, I have refined and narrowed the discussion in regards to how I analyze motivation.

The question is simple--Are you intrinsically or extrinsically motivated? Do you motivate yourself by personal development and improvement or do you measure your success by awards, medals and external stimuli?

The easy answer is that we are all intrinsically motivated. Our motivation comes from within. Sounds simple enough. But is that really the case? Look around and tell me what you see.

Two weekends ago, at the Ironman World Championships, defending champ Chris McCormack began having mechanical issues half way through the bike. Given the time he would lose fixing the problem, he made the decision to bow out of the race. He was there to win. Nothing less. He was externally motivated by the carrot that is World Championship (that isn't to say he isn't internally motivated). And for the record, I agree with his decision to pull out...though I think it is bad sportsmanship.

Two years ago, pro Rutger Beke blew up on the marathon and was reduced to walking. Beke, is one of the top pros in the world, consistently finishing top 5 from 03-06. Talk about consistency. Beke was done. He was toast. But he chose to stay in the race and walk the remainder of the 26.2 miles. He let go of the external motivation; instead digging deep inside and internally finding the motivation to still finish the race among the age groupers, in 898th place. Beke returned to Kona this year and plowed through the field to a second place finish.

Again, none of this goes to say that the pros aren't intrinsically motivated. That certainly isn't the case as they put in more effort at ungodly intensities. Instead, it is just two glaring examples of how motivation has played out in recent events. But more often, this is seen on the local level among age groupers, particularly in beginners.

How do you determine if someone is extrinsically motivated? I think the first sign is to look at their goals. The second is to understand how not meeting one or some of their goals affects them. Finally, how they carry themselves in regards to their goal.

In my opinion, I think a number of athletes use this sport to validate themselves. For instance, their goal is to do an Ironman. However, they have no business doing a race of that distance. Their bodies simply aren't ready or they don't come from an athletic background. I can admire the goal. I was there. I had no business signing up for my first IM. The Ironman itself came to define who I was. I see this a lot.

As a result of this, the external stimulus (Ironman) fuels the internal motivation. I have blogged a number of times about training out of fear. That is what happens. When the external is motivating the internal...that is a problem. Your motivations in life should always come from within. One should fuel themselves in a way that the external motivation is really the goal to reach.

Take the athlete who in his/her first year in a new age group suddenly finds themselves not as competitive. The previous year, the may have been consistently top 5; now they aren't even top 10. Their goal is to finish in the top 5 of every race. This is how they define success. This type of athlete can commonly be found saying things like "if i was still in x age group, I would have been in the top 3." One has to wonder where the motivation rests.

What I find particularly interesting about the example above is that the athlete may have bettered their previous time. So, in essence, the athlete has a better race yet appears unsatisfied or disappointed in the results.

Or take the athlete that is strictly time oriented in their approach to the sport. Setting a realistic time goal is great and I would never argue the differ. But things like time, speed and rankings are quantifiable. That is why we like them. They allow us to compare. That however is not always good. What about an athlete that gave 100% in a race and came up 3 seconds short of their goal? What about an athlete in a half ironman only averaging 18.5 mph when they averaged 19.5 in their last half.

A lot goes into a race (blog forthcoming). You can't always do apples to apples comparisons...their are too many variables....even when you do the same race from year to year. Instead, what should be important is how much effort you gave, how you felt during and how you felt after. If I race a 10k in 42 minutes, feel like crap and vomit everywhere after the race is it worth it when I can race a 43 minute 10k and feel great? One has to wonder. But I do get to hang my hat on a 42 minute 10k.

And how one uses these external stimuli is always interesting. Do I go our touting the I am the Olympic Distance champion? What does that get me? Bragging rights? Do I get a large obnoxious Ironman tattoo on my calf only to put on an extra 20 pounds after the season? How one uses accolades or successfully meeting goals says a lot about the person. But as I mentioned in the first point, much of it is self-validation. They need these things to validate themselves in front of others. They feel like they can hold their own in conversation or put their finishers medals up against someone else. These are the people that wear Ironman gear everywhere they go and bring it up anytime they can. (Ironman athletes are easier to pick on to make this point)

Again, I have been giving this a lot of thought over the past few months. I think my motivation has changed in this sport. I am much more concerned with having a great race. Sure, my goal is to improve upon my previous time. I understand what it takes to get there. But I have let go of many of the tangibles. I don't need medals or accolades to validate me in this sport. It is a hobby, something I do for fun. Just like I want to be promoted in my job...I want to better myself in the sport.


This played out most recently for me at Ameliaman. Getting passed in the chute by an age grouper was devasting. For me, it was the difference between hardware and being just another name on the results page. I still kick myself about the incident. I still want that hardware. But at the end fo the day...that doesn't matter to me. What matters is that I pulled off a great race. It was a killer PR for me. I had the best bike of my career and pulled off a killer run. That is what matters to me. I bettered myself. That easily overcame the motivation to take home a medal that says 3rd place.

None of this is to say that I am not externally motivated. I certainly am motivated by time and rankings. However, I use those as goals. Not the reason to train harder.