Intrinsic Motivation:
Lately I have been doing far too much research on sports psychology, in particular the different types of motivation individuals show. How people interact with the environment around them has a huge impact on the levels of motivation they have, this is particularly applicable to sports coaching. For example, the amount and type of feedback relayed to an athlete directly effects there response to a drill or game in training. This is a powerful tool to use, and can be tailored to suit the level of the team being coached. Similarly, athletes also have a lot of control over their own motivation types and sources, even if they don't know it (or have the motivation to, hehe). Gaining more control over the way I source my personal motivation is an area I am interested in, and keen to develop.
How I can use this to my advantage:
Personally, much of my motivation is sourced from extrinsic outcome, or performance based goals, both in sport and study. For example, I put a huge amount of importance on my grades, a typical outcome goal. This makes me feel less in control, as I can put in a lot of effort, time and planning into an assignment, however the outcome will always be decided by an external source, which is in this case the marker. This also applies to measuring my self-worth in sport through personal performance, such as the amount of goals I scored, how many touches, turnovers etc. This even transfers to my social life, where I will measure self-worth through peers response to my general conversation, and humor/jokes.
Solution
The first step to changing behavioral habits is identifying the problem. The next step is applying it to practice. In this case I have created awareness of my extrinsically-sourced motivation, and how I can move away from this. From now on I need to practice focusing on task related objectives, such as how I am feeling, or what I can do to toward solving a problem. A solution for my sporting context is to instead focus how much effort I am putting in at a point in time, effective communication with teammates and how well I am managing an injury. All of these things have the effect of directing focus toward what I have more control over. increasing self-awareness in the process. The catch to this is I need to practice this in an environment I am uncomfortable with, and will naturally revert to my old habits. I have learned that by just playing in these environments more often will bring no change, unless I have a clear purpose and will to actively change these behaviors. The same can be said vice-versa, by practicing these habits in environments which don't sufficiently challenge me. Although there is probably benefit in adding progression, you have to start somewhere after all.
For my social life I could try and disengage myself from caring about peer responses. I need to care less about others opinions of me (which I already do, outside of a social environment). Clearly, this shows the context of a social event is the inherent problem at the center of this. The same can be said of a sporting environment. This means no positive change in behavior or habit can be made, unless this theory is coupled with practice in these particular environments.
Lately I have been doing far too much research on sports psychology, in particular the different types of motivation individuals show. How people interact with the environment around them has a huge impact on the levels of motivation they have, this is particularly applicable to sports coaching. For example, the amount and type of feedback relayed to an athlete directly effects there response to a drill or game in training. This is a powerful tool to use, and can be tailored to suit the level of the team being coached. Similarly, athletes also have a lot of control over their own motivation types and sources, even if they don't know it (or have the motivation to, hehe). Gaining more control over the way I source my personal motivation is an area I am interested in, and keen to develop.
How I can use this to my advantage:
Personally, much of my motivation is sourced from extrinsic outcome, or performance based goals, both in sport and study. For example, I put a huge amount of importance on my grades, a typical outcome goal. This makes me feel less in control, as I can put in a lot of effort, time and planning into an assignment, however the outcome will always be decided by an external source, which is in this case the marker. This also applies to measuring my self-worth in sport through personal performance, such as the amount of goals I scored, how many touches, turnovers etc. This even transfers to my social life, where I will measure self-worth through peers response to my general conversation, and humor/jokes.
Solution
The first step to changing behavioral habits is identifying the problem. The next step is applying it to practice. In this case I have created awareness of my extrinsically-sourced motivation, and how I can move away from this. From now on I need to practice focusing on task related objectives, such as how I am feeling, or what I can do to toward solving a problem. A solution for my sporting context is to instead focus how much effort I am putting in at a point in time, effective communication with teammates and how well I am managing an injury. All of these things have the effect of directing focus toward what I have more control over. increasing self-awareness in the process. The catch to this is I need to practice this in an environment I am uncomfortable with, and will naturally revert to my old habits. I have learned that by just playing in these environments more often will bring no change, unless I have a clear purpose and will to actively change these behaviors. The same can be said vice-versa, by practicing these habits in environments which don't sufficiently challenge me. Although there is probably benefit in adding progression, you have to start somewhere after all.
For my social life I could try and disengage myself from caring about peer responses. I need to care less about others opinions of me (which I already do, outside of a social environment). Clearly, this shows the context of a social event is the inherent problem at the center of this. The same can be said of a sporting environment. This means no positive change in behavior or habit can be made, unless this theory is coupled with practice in these particular environments.
Comments
Post a Comment