Comments on: Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation http://ironmantriathlontips.com/2009/01/13/intrinsic-vs-extrinsic-motivation/ From Beginner to Elite - Strategies and Tips for Long Course Triathletes Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:30:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: oliver http://ironmantriathlontips.com/2009/01/13/intrinsic-vs-extrinsic-motivation/#comment-1359 oliver Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:15:26 +0000 http://ironmantriathlontips.com/?p=709#comment-1359 hello Brian! hello Brian!

]]> By: Brian http://ironmantriathlontips.com/2009/01/13/intrinsic-vs-extrinsic-motivation/#comment-342 Brian Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:51:41 +0000 http://ironmantriathlontips.com/?p=709#comment-342 Thanks Trevor and Heather for the great insite. Although I agree with most of what you said, and this could just be me and my internal motivators working and not as a general for everyone, I need that "failure" in order to push myself faster and harder. I"m currently in the process of training for my first full Ironman so obviously I do not have the skill or expertise that you have in reguards to Ironman training but I have been a competitive athlete my entire life so I feel I know a little about the desire to compete and what it takes for me to have the will to win. To site one of your examples: in your 2000m TT in the pool, personally, I would have felt like a failure. But in turn used that failure to the next week go out there with the intention of swimming the same time but without the laps in focus I know my competitors are training this hard and I need to train even harder to beat them. Again for me personally I need the "person to beat" in order for me intrinsicly motivate myself forward. Thanks Trevor and Heather for the great insite. Although I agree with most of what you said, and this could just be me and my internal motivators working and not as a general for everyone, I need that “failure” in order to push myself faster and harder. I”m currently in the process of training for my first full Ironman so obviously I do not have the skill or expertise that you have in reguards to Ironman training but I have been a competitive athlete my entire life so I feel I know a little about the desire to compete and what it takes for me to have the will to win. To site one of your examples: in your 2000m TT in the pool, personally, I would have felt like a failure. But in turn used that failure to the next week go out there with the intention of swimming the same time but without the laps in focus I know my competitors are training this hard and I need to train even harder to beat them. Again for me personally I need the “person to beat” in order for me intrinsicly motivate myself forward.

]]> By: IronmanTips http://ironmantriathlontips.com/2009/01/13/intrinsic-vs-extrinsic-motivation/#comment-248 IronmanTips Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:04:10 +0000 http://ironmantriathlontips.com/?p=709#comment-248 That is an interesting question Chris. The success of a person's triathlon career is generally defined extrinsically - number of race wins, world record times, Olympic medals... and we often frame our goals that way: "I want to be an Ironman World Champion". It is a lot more difficult to define an intrinsic goal for a whole career. Saying you want to do your best sounds like a cop out, but "your best" is a pretty complex thing. I think that it would be great to feel like you have done everything you can, physically, mentally, spiritually to enhance your performance... To be able to consistently get to a place in your races where you can push past your perceived (or maybe not even acknowledged) limits. To have a mental space conducive to freeing your powerful body to do amazing things. Maybe this sounds a little flakey, but so it goes with intrinsic motivators! On a more day to day note, I find that I can sometimes be too hard on myself and take the intrinsic thing to a not-so-good extreme. I just did a 2000m TT in the pool this weekend and although my time improved a fair bit over the last one I was really unhappy bcause I felt like I lost my mental focus 1/2 way (I wasn't able to tune out a distraction and get out of a circle of negative thoughts that I was having). Even though the test was just to gauge my own personal improvement I dwelled on the feeling of "I didn't do as good as I could have", rather than "damn, that was my fastest ever 2000TT in that pool, nice work!". I think that to be a real champion you have to be good at feeling good about yourself, focusing on positive feedback, and staying objective. Cheers, H That is an interesting question Chris. The success of a person’s triathlon career is generally defined extrinsically – number of race wins, world record times, Olympic medals… and we often frame our goals that way: “I want to be an Ironman World Champion”. It is a lot more difficult to define an intrinsic goal for a whole career. Saying you want to do your best sounds like a cop out, but “your best” is a pretty complex thing. I think that it would be great to feel like you have done everything you can, physically, mentally, spiritually to enhance your performance… To be able to consistently get to a place in your races where you can push past your perceived (or maybe not even acknowledged) limits. To have a mental space conducive to freeing your powerful body to do amazing things. Maybe this sounds a little flakey, but so it goes with intrinsic motivators!

On a more day to day note, I find that I can sometimes be too hard on myself and take the intrinsic thing to a not-so-good extreme. I just did a 2000m TT in the pool this weekend and although my time improved a fair bit over the last one I was really unhappy bcause I felt like I lost my mental focus 1/2 way (I wasn’t able to tune out a distraction and get out of a circle of negative thoughts that I was having). Even though the test was just to gauge my own personal improvement I dwelled on the feeling of “I didn’t do as good as I could have”, rather than “damn, that was my fastest ever 2000TT in that pool, nice work!”. I think that to be a real champion you have to be good at feeling good about yourself, focusing on positive feedback, and staying objective.

Cheers, H

]]> By: Chris (not very creative, eh?) http://ironmantriathlontips.com/2009/01/13/intrinsic-vs-extrinsic-motivation/#comment-243 Chris (not very creative, eh?) Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:44:47 +0000 http://ironmantriathlontips.com/?p=709#comment-243 Great post...I've been thinking about this a lot lately so your timing is perfect. Out of curiosity and if you don't mind sharing, what is your intrinsic goal for your tri career? Hope the training is going well! Great post…I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately so your timing is perfect. Out of curiosity and if you don’t mind sharing, what is your intrinsic goal for your tri career?

Hope the training is going well!

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