For someone to go from not exercising to running a 5km race, or from only eating takeout to cooking most of their meals at home. How does this happen? What motivates a person to make changes in their life?
There are two different types of motivation that can drive us to perform and make changes: Internal and External motivation.
External motivation
- Anything outside of ourselves
- Anything we are doing for someone or something outside of our inner world.
- Duties and deadlines
- Includes health care team, friends, family etc.
Some examples of external motivation include:
- Pressure from health care team or loved ones to make change.
- Competing for an award
- Doing something to receive compliments.
External motivation can work in the short term, but typically does not lead to long-lasting change.
Internal motivation
- Values, feelings and goals
- The things that are important to you and personally rewarding
- Anything internal that’s driving you.
Some examples of internal motivation include:
- Wanting to make changes so you can live a long and fulfilling life.
- Motivated to compete in a 5k race for personal growth.
- Wanting to better manage your chronic condition to improve quality of life.
Internal motivation tends to provide us with long-lasting behaviour change that we can maintain throughout our life. This is the type of motivation we want to have and work towards.
The science of behaviour change tells us that external motivation helps us get started with our goals, but internal motivation is what helps us maintain our long term goals.
When applying the theory of motivation to our own goals, there are some questions we can ask ourselves. These questions will allow us to explore where our motivation is coming from (internal or external).
Some questions we can ask ourselves include: What am I passionate about? What am I interested in trying? What do I enjoy doing in my free time? Why do I want to achieve my goal?
Once we identify our own internal motivators, we can use them as tools to help us achieve any goal!
Working with a Live Well/Bien Vivre Health Coach can provide you with the support and guidance in identifying your internal motivators and using them to create meaningful change.
Written by: Courtni Soucy
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