Many people would agree that it’s difficult to motivate themselves, especially as they get older and grow more independent.

Intrinsic, or internal motivation can be undermined by extrinsic motivators because the power of incentives is often more powerful than the power of desires. Other external motivators often include money, trophies, pressure, and social bonds.

The Social Motivation Theory, created by Yoesoep Edhie Rachmad, states that motivation is positively impacted by external factors such as social support, peer pressure, and affirmation. A good community will work for them because motivation is derived from connection.

Results and rewards

Aisling Blake was ranked 21st in the world at the peak of her squash career.

She began to play when she was 8 years old, following suit of her three older brothers. Her family was very involved in sports, especially racket sports, and she played countless sports both recreationally and competitively. At 16, she quit playing the majority of her sports competitively in order to focus on squash, which had always been her favorite.

Before it was about winning, it was the community that developed her love for the sport.

“We played tournaments on the weekend. My whole family would come with me. We’d all go together; the community, the camaraderie, and the friends I made were huge and important back then. It wasn’t really about winning, but more about being around my friends for the weekend,” Blake said.

As she soared through the rankings, Blake found herself winning match after match. Sports improved her mental health, allowing her to relieve stress and build healthy habits through consistent practice and exercise.

After one particular match as a teenager, Blake experienced the first huge culmination of all the energy she had dedicated to the sport, a massive tournament called the British Junior Open.

“When I was about 16 or 17, I think I got to the semi-finals. And that was a big, big, big deal for me because I wouldn’t have expected to get to that point. It was an immense source of pride and also validation that the work I was putting in paid off,” Blake said.

According to Blake, If someone is only failing in an area, such as a sport, they won’t believe their effort is meaningful. Chasing after brief moments of success can be more than enough to motivate someone to try. However, if the discouragement of failure outweighs the pull of success, the only thing pushing someone to continue is passion. Unfortunately, passion doesn’t tend to be a powerful motivator when an athlete is faced with repetitive failure.

Blake found that the only time she ever hated her sport was when she wasn’t very good at it. When her effort didn’t equal results, she felt unmotivated and was unable to find value in expending effort.

“I found it difficult to correspond that work I was putting into the sport with the results I was getting. I felt let down by the sport,” Blake said.

Blake never quit. Through both teaching and her own experiences, she was able to realize how results impact motivation in sports. According to Science Direct, competition results and winning matches are examples of extrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic motivation is motivation that exists through rewards, results, and desirable outcomes. This type of motivation isn’t inherent, it is learned. Athletes can easily become caught up in results, especially if passion isn’t their primary reason for playing.

“If one starts winning, they get used to winning, and it’s almost easier to win the next one because when people have a breakthrough moment, they will do really well in the next tournament because they’re riding on that. On the flip side, if one loses quite a bit, it might tend to send them into the spiral of losing,” Blake said.

In contrast, there is also a natural type of motivation, simply doing things because one wants to. According to the Harvard Business Review, intrinsic motivation is what allows one to do something because they want to.

“You’re competing with yourself. So if you’re marginally better today than you were yesterday, that’s a win. You will compete against opponents, of course, but it’s really if you’re a better player than you were a year ago, then that’s what marks your improvement,” Blake said.

Theories of trying

Dorcas Jansen, PhD in counseling psychology and a certification in sports psychology, never liked her sport.

Growing up in Texas, Jansen felt bound to being an athlete. She began running track seriously in middle school because her parents believed it was her key to getting into college. And it was.

She continued to run track for five years after her freshman year in college, ending her sports career when she graduated. When she was recruited to run track in college, she realized that there was more she could achieve through sports, whether she enjoyed competing or not.

Sports made her feel like she was only valuable as far as she could perform.

“I remember being told by my coach that how I perform impacts the amount that he can feed his family. That was a lot to hear as a probably 19-year-old who didn’t realize how important it was. I felt like I was responsible for other people, for other people’s success, for other people’s failure, and that was a lot of pressure to hold at such a young age,” Jansen said.

Sports put a lot of pressure on athletes, especially those who compete at progressively higher levels. It’s very common for athletes to attach their self-worth to their athletic performance. This is a form of motivation in itself. According to Principles of Learning by Christian Weibell, the self-worth theory of achievement motivation by Martin Covington explains how people learn to feel that they are solely what they are able to achieve.

Covington’s theory emphasizes the two factors of ability and achievement in self-worth-based motivation. People base their self-worth on their own perceived abilities, usually derived from their accomplishments.

Whether this type of perception is positive or negative, the urge to improve or maintain one’s perception is a key motivator in sports.

“I think it’s really unfortunate that we so narrowly look at sports as the wins and losses, as opposed to the lessons learned along the way, the meaning made along the way. Because I think that’s where sports has such a beautiful, meaningful role in helping individuals value themselves,” Jansen said.

According to Science Direct, there is a second principle originally developed by Jacquelynne Eccles called the expectancy-value theory. It explains that a human dictates their actions based on two variables: expectation for success and task value.

If one expects to succeed, they are more likely to try. These expectations for success are also shaped by self-worth and the perceived sense of self that exists through one’s lived experiences.

The second factor in motivation is task value or how much the outcome matters. If success has the same impact on one’s life as failure, then there isn’t a strong motive to put full effort into their actions. The general trend is that as both variables go up, motivation increases and as both variables go down, motivation also suffers.

Jansen never ended up finding a passion for her sport, but while studying in college she found something better. When she began the master’s program in counseling psychology, her views began to change. She was excited to go to class, was interested in the content, and was driven by intrinsic motivations. She was doing this because she wanted to.

“I felt very valued for who I was, as opposed to what I could do. It was a transformative experience to feel like I was valuable as a human being,” Jansen said.

According to Simply Psychology, Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs provides a structure for the advancement of human behaviors.

The bottom of the pyramid is the necessities such as food, shelter, and safety. As these needs are met, the brain introduces consciousness. Order, control, love, and belonging are the next steps up the pyramid, with self-actualization at the top.

In its simplest form, self-actualization is how someone fulfills their own purpose.

The desire to reach their potential can be the greatest motivating factor of all. Despite the pyramid structure, from person to person self-actualization can outweigh previous needs.

In sports, this can go both ways. The need to improve and become the best athlete one is capable of becoming is a motivation that drives many people.

The interaction investment

Sensei Linda Tomasello began training in martial arts on June 10, 1988 and never stopped.

Tomasello played every sport as a kid. Her major investment was softball for 20 years before a shoulder injury restricted her movement.

As a college student, a few women were attacked in the parking lot near her school, so Tomasello joined a dojo.

She began teaching as an assistant just one year later, already knowing that she was in this for the rest of her life.

Tomasello feels her experience in martial arts has made her more confident. She would never engage in a fight if it was avoidable, but she knows that if she needed to she could protect herself.

“I have had to intervene in a few situations. They were nothing major. Having the confidence of knowing martial arts helped me learn the situations and made me realize the importance of knowing how to protect yourself and protect others,” Tomasello said.

Tomasello’s motivation for teaching is making her students better than her. The moments of proof that the care and effort she puts into teaching each student have an impact, are more than enough to drive her passion for both karate and teaching.

“I had a student a long time ago, who was older than me at the time, who got hit by a car. She was one of my black belts, and because she had trained, when she got hit, she did a shoulder roll over the front of the car,” Tomasello said. “She ended up with some bumps and bruises, but she didn’t get injured, and it was knowing that I taught her how to fall properly that made me realize there are so many other applications for this stuff besides self-defense.”

According to the Social Creatures, humans are inherently social beings. People base themselves on community and, in general, are able to succeed the most in the presence of others they care about. Tomasello acknowledges this in herself.

“I like doing things as a group. I like the camaraderie that comes with it. I like supporting other people, and martial arts gave me a way to not be a part of a team but still be able to support other people and their goals,” Tomasello said.

Because of her awareness that community is one of the most important aspects of motivation, she makes sure that her community is comfortable around her. Interaction is the basis of community, which is the most powerful motivator. To build a community, one must interact to be a part of it.

“I’ve made this a community. I make sure to have food and water for my instructors. I make sure that if somebody has to tell me something important that happened in their life and they want it private, they can tell me,” Tomasello said. “So community is very important because community builds trust, and if you have trust in something, you are more likely to use that community as a safe space. So it’s very important.”

Community outlasts competition

Jim Kelly has spent decades coaching sports. He knows how to motivate people, especially students, both in and out of sports.

Kelly believes in a comfort zone, somewhere one can exist with moderate effort and minimal struggle. The comfort zone is essentially a balanced scale, one won’t grow but will be able to maintain their abilities. In order to improve, one must step off the balance and push through. Kelly utilizes extrinsic or external motivation because it is more effective than intrinsic or self-motivation for athletes.

“There’s the concept of the great white shark. If you think you’re trying your hardest, you’re not, because if I put a great white shark behind you in the pool, you’d try a lot harder. It’s the same thing in life, you can try harder. You really can,” Kelly said “You’ve got to find out what’s going to make you push yourself to that point of discomfort.”

There is more to motivation than wanting to do something. Kelly is aware of this and attempts to reinforce intrinsic motivation with the extrinsic power of a team.

“It’s really difficult to motivate yourself, to stay in shape, to be fit. I think team sports are the greater motivator, because there’s safety in numbers, so to speak. The safety I’m talking about here is an emotional safety of, ‘I’m gonna go for it today, and if I was by myself, I wouldn’t do it, but because I have these teammates who I also know are going through it with me, I can at least try,’” Kelly said.

Community is the most powerful motivator in sports. People can stick through sports that they hate because they have friends who they’re practicing for. The mindset that allows one person to do the work for both themselves and the people around them is the most motivating mindset to enjoy a sport.

“If you can get into your lane and you realize that everybody else in your lane is going to work as hard as they can possibly work, then you are more likely to work as hard as you can possibly work,” Kelly said. “Hopefully, they’re not just doing it for themselves. They’re doing it for the team, for the program. If you can work out and train and get out of your comfort zone, not for yourself, but for your team, you’re going to have a phenomenal experience.”

Kelly argues that community is more important than results.

As a coach, Kelly still cares about winning. He wants to lead his athletes to victory, but he knows they won’t remember the scores. They’ll look back and they’ll see the bonds they made and the people they became close to during the time they spent playing a sport.

Marrisa Chow is a 19-year-old coxswain for Stanford’s Division 1 lightweight rowing team. Chow began rowing when she was 14 after her mom convinced her to try it out. Initially, she wasn’t a sporty kid, but she was willing to give rowing a chance just to see where it could take her.

Chow switched to coxing just three months after beginning her career. It was a steep learning curve to switch from rowing to coxing. The coxswain sets the mood of each training; they are the motivator, setting the rhythm, calling out commands, and observing from the backend of the boat.

She struggled to enjoy the sport, feeling a lack of encouragement and validation from her coaches, especially compared to the hours of work she was putting into the sport. She was getting in the water every day, spending hours practicing, and allowing it to take up a large space in her life.

As she continued through she began to build close friendships with other members of her team, as well as being rewarded with success and improvement for the effort she was pouring into her role.

“In my sophomore year, I really started to enjoy it, because I was making strides. I feel like, once I got the basics down, it’s nice to be able to experiment with my own style and what new things I can try out and be creative,” Chow said.

Every day after practice, Chow looked forward to standing in the parking lot with her friends. At some point she had begun to associate her friends with her love for rowing. At the end of the highly demanding training session, catching up with her friends was her reward.

Her fondness for the community and her motivation for the sport became closely intertwined.

“It’s this shared experience that unites all these people of different backgrounds and different personalities. Maybe they share the same values, and they value hard work and competition. But some people are quieter, some people would never be friends unless it were for the sport. So I think it’s a really unique experience being a part of a team where something is bigger than you,” Chow said.