Top coaches know that being psychologically motivated is important in helping you be the best in sport.
Instead of leaving motivation to chance, sports psychologists use a range of techniques to help sports stars perform at their best.
Not everyone has the same kind of motivation and experts believes there are at least two main kinds.
Ego orientation: Playing sport because you want to be the winner
Task orientation: Playing sport because you enjoy being the best by improving your own personal best performances
You can have both kinds of motivation - but it's best to be high in both ego and task orientation or low in ego and high in task orientation.
People with these types of motivation work hard at sport and do not give up when things are not working out.
People who are high in ego orientation and low in task orientation do not always succeed and may give up when they are no longer winning.
Which type do you think you are - and what should you do about it?
"I can't seem to motivate myself. I know I can improve my fitness and my ability in sport but I can't seem to get there. What can I do?"
Does this sound like you?
If so, you need to start getting motivated and start using goal setting.
By setting goals you can:
Improve the quality of your training
Increase your motivation to achieve
Increase your pride and satisfaction in your performance
Goal setting is a hugely powerful technique that can bring you strong rewards and get your motivation levels up.
At its simplest level the process of setting goals and targets allows you to choose where you want to go in life.
By knowing what you want to achieve, you know what you need to concentrate on and improve and what's a distraction.
When goal setting it is important to:
Keep a realistic goal
Keep notes of your goals
Don't feel guilty of failure
Find someone to get sporting with!
By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals.
You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind and increase your levels of motivation.
When you've achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done it.
Observe the progress you have made towards other goals too!
If the goal was a significant one, or one that you had worked towards for some time, take the opportunity to reward yourself appropriately, maybe buy that pair of trainers you've been saving up for!
Feedback for failure
Where you have failed to reach a goal, ensure that you learn a lesson from it.
It could be that:
You didn't try hard enough
Your technique was faulty and needs to be adjusted
The goal you set was unrealistic
Use this information to adjust the goal appropriately or set different goals to acquire new skills or build stamina.
Feeding back like this turns everything into a positive learning experience - even failing to meet a goal is a step forward towards perfect technique!
Remember that the fact of trying something, even if it does not work, often opens doors that would otherwise have remained closed.
Where you've achieved a goal feed back to yourself and into your next goals:
If the goal was easily achieved, make your next goals harder
If the goal took too long to achieve, make the next goals a little easier
If you learned something that would lead you to change goals still outstanding, change them!
If while achieving the goal you noticed a deficit in your skills, set goals to fix this.
Remember too that goals change as you mature - adjust them regularly to reflect this growth in your personality.
If goals do not hold any attraction any longer, then let them go - goal setting is your servant, not your master.
It should bring you real pleasure, satisfaction and achievement.