The Impact of Motivation on Achieving Goals
by Doug Stewart
Anyone who has done long high intensity intervals in training or competed in endurance events will have likely experienced varying motivation to reach a certain goal. This varying motivation is in part influenced by the perception of effort increasing as the interval/race gets ‘harder’. Anyone who has done long high intensity intervals in training or competed in endurance events will have likely experienced varying motivation to reach a certain goal. This varying motivation is in part influenced by the perception of effort increasing as the interval/race gets ‘harder’.
This fluctuation in motivation has been described as the desire-goal motivational conflict. Endurance performance frequently requires the athlete to ‘endure’ – managing both psychological and physical pain. Humans have, in general, evolved to try and reduce discomfort, and hence in endurance sports, we will reduce the effort to reduce the pain we are experiencing. A paper from January of this year investigated how the desire of the goal and the urge to reduce effort changes as intensity increases.
Thirty participants (16 women and 14 men) with an average age of 21 years completed a cycle test where resistance was increased on an indoor bike by 25w every four minutes. Participants continued until they reached exhaustion or had spent enough time in the severe intensity domain.
Subjective feedback (desire to reduce effort and performance goal value) was captured at the end of every four-minute stage, along with heart rate data and blood lactate levels.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the desire to reduce effort increased with the intensity, whilst the value of the performance goal reduced. This means that, whilst the athletes started off with a strong goal, the urge to complete it decreased as the intensity/workout got harder.
However, what is interesting is the rate at which the desire to reduce and the performance goal changed in relation to blood lactate levels.
The image below shows how, in the easiest effort domain, the goal value remained high whilst desire to reduce effort increased slightly. However, both changed once the participants passed the first lactate turn point (LT1) and entered the Heavy Intensity domain.
Source: Taylor et al., 2022
Moreover, once the participants passed the second lactate turn point (LT2) and entered the Severe Intensity Domain, these respective trends were accelerated further.
Whilst, as mentioned, this is unlikely to be a surprise, what this research shows is that there are certain ‘thresholds’ where these psychological feelings are increased. Therefore, if competing in longer endurance events, knowing this may be of value to help with pacing strategies for example. By having a lower rate of perceived exertion, it has been shown that endurance performance is improved, whilst goal setting has also been shown to be performance enhancing.
References:
Taylor, I.M., Whiteley, S. and Ferguson, R.A., 2022. Disturbance of desire‐goal motivational dynamics during different exercise intensity domains. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 32(4), pp.798-806.