Get Psyched!Find Out What Motivates You

and Take Your Health to New Heights

Diane Raymond

Blue Sky Gym

DiRaymond.com/wp

Intrinsic Motivation

What’s the difference?

External Motivation: Wanting to lose weight before a wedding, or beach vacation. Internal (Instrinsic) Motivation comes from within, and is driven partly by belief in yourself to succeed, and that your goals and actions will reinforce your reason for changing. One example might be to lose weight to avoid heart disease, which runs in the family.

Find your Fire• Intrinsic Motivation = Success When you know what motivates you, it is easier to set

goals, gather support, find information in relation to the change you are trying to make, and stay focused.

7 Factors that encourage motivation

• Challenge

• Curiosity

• Control

• Imagination

• Competition

• Cooperation

• Recognition

If this is you…focus on a longer term goal, rather than one with more immediate gratification, such as a half-marathon or a 3-day walking event for charity.

Curiosity

Is your attention sparked when you hear a co-worker is taking a new fitness class, or has a fabulous new recipe for low-sugar brownies?

Satisfy your curiosity with something new, such as yoga, PiYo, Barre, Zumba, IndoRow, SurfSet, outdoor bootcamp, geocaching, etc.

Control

If you have a tendency to need to control what happens to you, then you will be motivated by activities, events or situations that allow to you to be in control.

• Try charting your progress with an App like Meal Snap, Runkeeper, or a FitBit

Imagination

If you are stimulated by imagining situations or events that haven’t actually happened yet, then using mental images that reinforce what you learn or want to become will motivate you.

Try visualizing the outcome you want. Create an image in your head of yourself succeeding. How do you look? Feel?

Competition

If you often compare your performance favorably to others, you are driven by competition.

Visit Konkura.com and sign up for one of their many challenges!

Cooperation

• The enjoyment of helping others succeed at their goals is a hallmark of being motivated by cooperation.

• Look for activities that involve teamwork.

Recognition

• If you are motivated by receiving credit for your efforts, then seek activities that reward participants for hard work or accomplishing a goal.

Tips & Tricks to stay on track

• Set meaningful goals• Try something new to stimulate your

curiousity• If you are control-driven, focus on results• Use visualization • For competitive types, enter a 5K race or sign

up for a challenge

More Tips & Tricks…

• For cooperation-based motivation, joining a team is beneficial, or simply joining a group fitness class

• Recognition-based motivation is harder to reward, so pick activities that have a duel purpose, such as training for a charitable event, like Team in Training or Relay for Life

Final thoughts• You WILL have to get out of your comfort zone to

succeed. It WILL be OK. You WILL be able to do it. You WILL look back on this as the “fun” part.

• Don’t let bumps in the road lead to all or nothing thinking. ALL activity counts!

• Keep trying new things. Keep challenging yourself. Variety is the spice of life.

• Remember that the journey should be fun. Find fun, and you’ll find success!

• Don’t give up! Not ever.

Diane RaymondOwner, Blue Sky Gym

(614) 296-9529DRaymond@BlueSkyGym.com

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Reproduction strictly prohibitedUpdated February 10, 2012