3 Tricks For Getting More External Motivation

-

Using a oartner or friend to help you get motivated.
Triathlon Start in the Pacific Ocean

Variety, friends, and rivals

I have been asked, ”How do you exercise with no motivation?" Internal motivation is a trait that you have a certain amount of inside of you at any given time. I, for example, have always had a lot. But the amount that anyone has at a given time may not be sufficient to get your mojo working. That is why I recommend external factors that you can employ to help you.

Recommended External Motivators

  • Variety
  • Friends
  • Rivals
Once you get out there and do something because of these factors, it may become habitual, or the external motivation may become internal. It doesn’t really matter why. It only matters that you are. Accept that you may need help from outside for motivation and be happy that it is possible. If it is converted to internal motivation, great! Use it. In any event, use external motivation whenever it is available. Here are the three external motivators of which I am aware: variety, friends, and rivals.

Variety 

If you are doing the same thing over and over again, it can get boring. This saps motivation. Use variety to help you stay interested. Also, research shows that your muscles will respond better to a variety of stresses.

Friends

There is no more powerful motivator than having told another person that you are going to do something. It helps if you respect and/or admire that person. They might also give you useful advice about workouts, injuries, studying, etc. Making your schedule well-known will keep you on it. My personal favorite way is to make an appointment with a friend to do something together. Are you going to miss that appointment?

Rivals

Nobody likes to fall behind, and when you aren’t motivated to do your best, think about your rivals working hard. Maybe it will help you get to the gym, or go out in the rain, or on a Holiday, etc. The very thought that another person is leaving you behind might be a strong motivator.

Use any of these three external motivating factors to get your own mojo working.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
  Mojo Heroes And Antiheroes There are both heroes and antiheroes among people with high mojo. There is no law that says a person with high mojo has to be a nice person. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. Let’s define anti-hero. Webster says an anti-hero is “a protagonist or notable figure who is conspicuously lacking in heroic qualities”. Examples of heroic qualities are strength, ability, achievement, courage, and nobility. The number of anti-heroes compared to heroes is greater in fiction than in real life. It is just more fun to write about or play the more complex characters typified by anti-heroes. It exploits the talents of the actors better. It also seems as if there are more anti-heroes today than in prior years. But all of the people I am about to mention had high mojo, whether hero or anti-hero. In an earlier post , I described the top 10 American people with high mojo. They were George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Ronald Reagan, Benjamin F
Read more

10 Highest Mojo Colleges

-
Image
10 Highest Mojo Colleges Many sources make lists. Wikipedia is a source that does a good job of describing how a list is built. But I don't rely on it. Instead, I used endowment , acceptance rate , the US News rank , and my own judgement as my sources in making my list. sually, lists rank colleges for suitability for an individual or for best overall rank. However, mine ranks the colleges with the highest mojo, not the best academics, sports, campuses, etc. I included US News’ overall rank because a high placement on such a list is one indication (not the only one) of mojo. Another one that I use is endowment. If alumni have money ad want to give it to their alma mater, that indicates that the alma mater has mojo. Another indicator that I use is acceptance rate. If a lot more people apply to a college than are accepted, that is a further indication of mojo. Also note that the military academies are in a different group for purposes of evaluation, but I include a co
Read more

How Mojo Works

-
Image
Figure 1. The components of mojo. What makes up mojo? Merriam Webster says: Mojo is :” a magic spell, hex, or charm, broadly : magical power // works his mojo on the tennis court //The team has lost its mojo.“ I’m not sure about the magic part of it, but mojo is something that a person or group has to varying degrees. You know it when you see it, even if you can’t define it. Another example of such a thing was cited by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart who famously said in his 1964 Order , he could not use words to describe pornography but " I know it when I see it ." When something is not well understood, it is indistinguishable from magic . Maybe this is why people are often said to have their “mojo workin’” even if magic is irrelevant. Parts of Mojo motivation expertise experience support luck faith willingness to act. This blog will focus on motivation because it is such a big part of mojo and is often a poorly under
Read more