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How to Gain the Right Type of Motivation
Episode 41.
"I am just not motivated."
"I just need more willpower."
Have you ever said or thought something like this?
Well, it's actually not supported by science.
"I'm terrified I'm wasting my life."
I wrote this in a journal in the middle of the diet-binge cycle. And frankly, I kind of was.
I’m here to tell you it’s never too late to gain control of your eating, respect your body, and live a life that’s TRULY consistent with your values. But you need to take the first step.
One of the very first steps in developing truly autonomous and body respecting motivation is to clarify what actually matters to you. Not your mom, not your sister, not your best friend, YOU.
The more you reflect on this, the more you can connect your values to your behaviors in a sustainable and empowering way.
Grab the free guide at DrHondorp.com/goals and get started today. I promise you, it’s never too late to stop dieting and start truly living. You will not regret it.
It Ain't About Amount, It's About Type
In episode 39, we talked all about the 3 KEY psychological needs that facilitate long-term behavior change. As a refresher, they are:
AutonomyCompetenceRelatedness
Today, we are building on this information to talk about different types of motivation.
The different types listed above (ranging from external to internal) are:
External: You do the behavior for the reward or to avoid a punishment. Should or shame based motivation would fall here. Also exercising for the calorie burn or to lose weight would also fall into this category. Introjected: This one is still shame-based, usually. The behavior is often motivated by guilt and shoulds and the person is often putting a lot of internal pressure of themselves to do it, which makes it hard to keep up over the long-term. If nothing else it's because stress and pressure is exhausting. Identified/Integrated: These types of motivation are based in the person you want to be, like you exercise because it's personally important and/or consistent with how you want to show up in the world. You may or may not love it all the time, but often doing a certain exercise is part of who you are, part of your identity. Intrinsic: You do the behavior because something about it is inherently enjoyable.
Examples of Internal Motivators for Exercise
I wrote a detailed post on this in the past, that you can check out here. The idea with this list is to give you ideas about some of internal motivations for some. Remember that there are no right or wrong answers here, but the list below is just for ideas of what some internal motivators might be for you.
As a reminder, here are some of the ideas:
Make Exercise a Social Occasion
Improve Mobility and Reduce Pain
Manage Stress or Boost Your Mood
Increase Focus & Concentration
Improve Creativity & Problem-Solving
5 Tips to Move Towards Internal Motivation For Exercise
Be on the lookout for ways to make exercise more enjoyable or fun! Time to move away from the shoulds! As children, at some point we intuitively loved to move our bodies. Many of us have lost touch with that and we need to work to get back in touch with our body and what movement it actually likes. I made a free 10 minute audio to help you with this goal. Grab it for free here! Make a realistic plan for the timing and routine that will work best for YOU. Have you heard those articles about the fact that you should workout in the morning? Yeah, me too, and they stress me out. Working out in the morning is great because you get it done and you are less likely to have things come up that get in your way, however, this isn’t right for everyone. Right now, working out in the morning sounds terrible to me. I want to sleep in, so I let myself. In the evening if a walk sounds better than a strength/cardio workout in my basement, I let that “count.” Being flexible in this way leads to better mood benefits from exercise and ...
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By Dr. Shawn Hondorp, PhD, ABPP
4.9
5454 ratings
Episode 41.
"I am just not motivated."
"I just need more willpower."
Have you ever said or thought something like this?
Well, it's actually not supported by science.
"I'm terrified I'm wasting my life."
I wrote this in a journal in the middle of the diet-binge cycle. And frankly, I kind of was.
I’m here to tell you it’s never too late to gain control of your eating, respect your body, and live a life that’s TRULY consistent with your values. But you need to take the first step.
One of the very first steps in developing truly autonomous and body respecting motivation is to clarify what actually matters to you. Not your mom, not your sister, not your best friend, YOU.
The more you reflect on this, the more you can connect your values to your behaviors in a sustainable and empowering way.
Grab the free guide at DrHondorp.com/goals and get started today. I promise you, it’s never too late to stop dieting and start truly living. You will not regret it.
It Ain't About Amount, It's About Type
In episode 39, we talked all about the 3 KEY psychological needs that facilitate long-term behavior change. As a refresher, they are:
AutonomyCompetenceRelatedness
Today, we are building on this information to talk about different types of motivation.
The different types listed above (ranging from external to internal) are:
External: You do the behavior for the reward or to avoid a punishment. Should or shame based motivation would fall here. Also exercising for the calorie burn or to lose weight would also fall into this category. Introjected: This one is still shame-based, usually. The behavior is often motivated by guilt and shoulds and the person is often putting a lot of internal pressure of themselves to do it, which makes it hard to keep up over the long-term. If nothing else it's because stress and pressure is exhausting. Identified/Integrated: These types of motivation are based in the person you want to be, like you exercise because it's personally important and/or consistent with how you want to show up in the world. You may or may not love it all the time, but often doing a certain exercise is part of who you are, part of your identity. Intrinsic: You do the behavior because something about it is inherently enjoyable.
Examples of Internal Motivators for Exercise
I wrote a detailed post on this in the past, that you can check out here. The idea with this list is to give you ideas about some of internal motivations for some. Remember that there are no right or wrong answers here, but the list below is just for ideas of what some internal motivators might be for you.
As a reminder, here are some of the ideas:
Make Exercise a Social Occasion
Improve Mobility and Reduce Pain
Manage Stress or Boost Your Mood
Increase Focus & Concentration
Improve Creativity & Problem-Solving
5 Tips to Move Towards Internal Motivation For Exercise
Be on the lookout for ways to make exercise more enjoyable or fun! Time to move away from the shoulds! As children, at some point we intuitively loved to move our bodies. Many of us have lost touch with that and we need to work to get back in touch with our body and what movement it actually likes. I made a free 10 minute audio to help you with this goal. Grab it for free here! Make a realistic plan for the timing and routine that will work best for YOU. Have you heard those articles about the fact that you should workout in the morning? Yeah, me too, and they stress me out. Working out in the morning is great because you get it done and you are less likely to have things come up that get in your way, however, this isn’t right for everyone. Right now, working out in the morning sounds terrible to me. I want to sleep in, so I let myself. In the evening if a walk sounds better than a strength/cardio workout in my basement, I let that “count.” Being flexible in this way leads to better mood benefits from exercise and ...