How To Get Motivated To Improve Your Health (Motivation 101)

Episode 3. "I am just not motivated." "I just need more willpower." Have you ever said something like this? But actually, science does not support that. It Ain't About Amount, It's About Type Our first episode of the podcast was all about the 3 KEY psychological needs that facilitate long-term behavior change: 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 should 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 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