Motivation: Internal vs. External

Posted November 23, 2007 at 06:00 PM by Shannon Clark

Section: Her Fitness, Athletics, Her Health, Her Motivation

When it comes to staying the course on your healthy lifestyle plan, motivation is extremely important. Unless you have some reason to get yourself to the gym and keep the cakes and cookies out of the pantry, you likely aren’t going to succeed.

Finding what motivates you is an important factor in seeing success, however it’s also important to realize that all motivation is not created equally.

External

The first type of motivation is external motivation. This is motivation that is heavily influenced by other people. For example, it could be wanting to look good for a high school reunion or maybe trying to win a bet with a co-worker on who can lose the most weight. 

External motivation is also something that you likely respond to and find success from, but then passes. It is something that you are essentially ‘getting ready for’, so in a sense as you are working to a build-up of some external reward.

Internal

The next type of motivation is internal motivation, and is considerably different. This type of motivation is one that comes from inside of you and is usually prompted by a more long term goal. For example, if you have recently been to the doctor and your blood pressure was higher than you were hoping, internal motivation would be at work if you were to now start working out in hopes you could bring it down.

Likewise, if you are trying to reach a goal weight, but are doing it so you can feel better and have a higher level of self-confidence, this is an internal motivation situation.

Internal motivation is much less likely just to ‘pass’ along the way and something that you will be more geared towards working at for the long haul.

When it comes to what type of motivation is theoretically ‘better’, the answer is usually internal motivation. Whenever you are doing something because it’s important to you, you are much more likely to stick with it. That said, there are some individuals who do well with external motivation, because as soon as there is a competitive aspect to it, they tend to ‘kick themselves in the butt’ so to speak.

The best solution for you is to try and find both internal and external motivational reasons for staying healthy. Get that initial push - and then have other reasons to make a long term commitment to your health and wellness.