Unmotivated Athletes Don’t Need Motivation, They Need Self-Awareness
It’s logical to conclude that unmotivated athletes need motivation. However, even though this may be logical, it’s still the wrong conclusion.
The fact is motivation is temporary. So, even if you can temporarily stimulate an athlete with a pep-talk, threat of punishment or anticipation of a reward, it won’t change the fact that they are unmotivated.
Furthermore, one would think an unmotivated athlete would quit their sport. But they don’t quit because even though they don’t enjoy doing the work it takes to be an athlete, they do enjoy the accolades of being an athlete. Therefore, needing motivation is the problem not the solution.
To solve this problem I teach clients how to flip this around by changing from an outcome mindset to a process mindset. An athlete’s motivation must not come from the accolades of being an athlete. Instead, mental skills training teaches athletes to find what brings them joy in the process of working towards those accolades.
This is done by answering the question:
“How can an unmotivated athlete enjoy the process of working towards the outcomes they want so they look forward to doing the work?”
Teaching Athletes Self-Awareness of their Strengths and Personality Type
The best way to do this is to help athletes understand their strengths and personality type. For strengths, I use the Clifton Strengths Finder assessment and the report that comes with it to help athletes understand how they can leverage their strengths in their training and practice process.
For personality type, I help athletes understand which one of the 5 big personality traits they best fit.
- Openness: People who are dominant in the openness personality trait are curious, have imagination, and show ingenuity.
- Conscientiousness: People who are dominant in the conscientiousness personality trait have strong organization and planning skills.
- Extroversion: People who are dominant in the extroversion personality trait are outgoing, energetic, and talkative.
- Agreeableness: People who are dominant in the agreeableness personality trait are highly cooperative with others, considerate, generous, forgiving and trusting.
- Neuroticism: People who are dominant in the neuroticism personality trait are emotional and have a tendency of being moody.
There are several different assessments for personality, and I can’t say one is better than another. With my clients I use a version of the Newcastle personality assessor.
Once athletes are self-aware about their strengths and personality they are on their way to self-motivation. Self-motivation is when one enjoys the process of working towards the outcomes they want as much or more as the actual outcome. This is what unmotivated athletes need.
If an athlete or team you know needs help with this process of changing their mindset on motivation, let’s talk about how my coaching program can help. Contact me here.