One of the biggest hangups in the fitness and wellness industry is motivation. Most of the time, people know what they “should” to do achieve their goals - eat more vegetables, move more, have more quiet reflective time - but the motivation to actually follow through may vary.
For me, the reward of running in the fall is experiencing all of the beauty that’s around me!
Traditional wellness programming uses incentive programs to instill motivation. For example, if you complete the smoking cessation program offered by your insurance company, you may receive a $100 Amazon Gift Card. Or, if you participate in x amount of group exercise classes at your company’s on-site fitness center, you receive a t-shirt.
These programs can be effective, for a time. The driver of these pursuits is external motivation: I am participating in this program to receive this external benefit. The benefit may be tangible (water bottles, tshirts, giveaways), financial (gift cards, discounts), or simply recognition and validation for your efforts (your doctor praises you, your photo is on the wall).
However, after a certain point, external motivation is no longer a driving factor in continuing health behaviors. At some point, the water bottles, financial benefits, and external validation seem hollow, and a return to previous behaviors takes place.
So how do some people manage to stay motivated? What brings someone from a short term success to a long term health behavior change implementation?
The key is to switch to internal motivation. If external motivation means you are doing a particular behavior to receive a particular reward (or avoid a particular consequence), internal motivation means that the behavior itself is the reward. Sometimes this means the behavior itself has become enjoyable (a new exerciser experiences “runner’s high” and finds joy in movement), or because the behavior gives you a connection to something you value (a runner sticks with a training program even when its not joyful because they value follow through).
A good wellness program, or coach, may first be a resource for external motivation (accountability, resources, positive reinforcement), but will eventually transition you towards more internal motivation. This is done by select questioning and affirming, so that the client can reflect on how good a new health behavior feels, or how this behavior ties in with their inherent value system.
If you find yourself struggling with motivation - find a coach! They can be paramount to your success and send you on the path of sustainable behavior change.