What motivates you? Why do you choose to race or take on hard events? Often, the answer to that question falls into the two types of motivation: internal and external. Internal (or intrinsic) motivation is when a person undertakes an activity for its own sake without any sort of external reward. You do it because you want to do it. The activity, even when it is “hard work” is the reward. You enjoy some part of the process. When you figure out your “why” a big part of what you’re doing is finding your intrinsic motivation.
External (or extrinsic) motivation is when we do something because someone wants or expects us to do something OR there is a reward outside of ourselves—like a trophy, a podium, praise from parents/friends/coaches, or to be liked/popular/famous. We may not even enjoy the activity, but we want some type of reward that others will give to us if we do the activity—especially if we do it well.
After a quick Google search, you’d probably learn that “intrinsic motivation is good and extrinsic is bad”. The reality is that it isn’t that simple. We are human and things are much more gray than we’d like. Let’s dig into that.
External motivation gets a bad rap because if it is our sole or even main purpose for doing something it often leads to burnout. The reason is that external rewards are never enough. Never. As humans we ALWAYS will want praise, to be liked, to stand on a podium, etc. We are hard wired to enjoy the feelings and emotions those things bring. When those things happen the hormone dopamine is released in our bodies and is what makes us enjoy those feelings. But, our brain is a bottomless pit. It can never be filled. No amount of winning or praise is ever enough. We will always look for more. We always want the dopamine hit. This is known to psychologists as the “arrival fallacy”. We (incorrectly) think that when we “arrive/attain” something that we will be content. We usually are not and move on to chase the next goal.
Is that a bad thing? Not really, it’s how we evolved, it is what it is. It often becomes a negative when that is the only reason we are doing the activity. When that happens, after a while we get less and less “pleasure” from the same stimulus (winning, racing, praise, etc) and we experience burnout because we didn’t have any other reason to be there.
The other way it becomes negative is the surge of negative emotions we experience when we don’t get the reward. I’ve had athletes who were solely externally motivated who became depressed if they didn’t podium or weren’t told “good job” after they felt they earned it. If someone’s main reason for racing is praise and they don’t get it, that can also lead to burnout.
External motivation can be a good thing at times. For example, it can be what motivates you deep in a race to pass someone when you know you’re fighting to move up a spot. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be on a podium or even winning. External motivations can be really powerful. They just shouldn’t be the main or only reason people race because if they stop getting them they often quit.
The pressure that people describe feeling at races often starts with those external sources of motivation. We often feel that other people expect us to perform a certain way or to finish in a certain place. That is driven from the outside. You are feeling either what you think other people expect from you or sometimes, sadly, what some people actually do expect from you. Those are the external pressures that can lead to burnout. This pressure you feel is real because you’re experiencing it.
We need to learn how to deal with this external pressure. Here are a few tips to help you manage external pressure and achieve success on race day:
- Decide if the pressure is real or if it is something that we think others are putting onto us (in this case it only exists in our mind).
- Accept the pressure if we need to (sometimes it’s real) or dismiss it if not (usually the case).
- Focus on our internal motivation.
- Focus on the things we can control.
