10 days ago, more than 53,000 people completed the London Marathon, running 26.2 miles (42 km) around the city’s streets and setting a new record for the highest number of completions in the process. Millions more showed their support and appreciation, lining the roads with home-made banners, music and, of course, handfuls of jelly babies for runners needing a quick sugar hit.
Having run the year before, I went as a spectator to cheer on a friend of mine who was running his very first marathon. My friend is a keen sportsman, but not a keen runner, and injury, illness and work/life commitments blighted his training schedule just as they would have done for almost everyone else taking part.
A few days before the marathon, my friend admitted that he was starting to feel some tension around the goal he had set himself: to complete the 26.2 miles in under 4 hours. This is an objective thousands of runners set themselves every year. It is a goal that I have set myself too in the past and one I am still yet to realise - but that is a story for another day.
As race day approached, my friend’s competitive nature was taking over after his girlfriend completed the Paris marathon in 4 hours 6 minutes just two weeks before. Could he beat her time? Could he sneak round in sub-4 hours? Should he try to knowing that it would hurt more and knowing that it might sabotage his chances of completing the marathon altogether?
When we met for coffee the week before the race, he shared some of these thoughts with me. In reply, I asked him to remind me of the reasons he signed up for the marathon in the first place. Was it to go round sub-4? No, he had always thought that sub-4 was too far out of reach. Was it to beat his girlfriend’s time? No, they hadn’t even met at that stage. The reasons he signed up like so many of us do were these: to raise money for charity, to boost awareness of the wonderful work that they do, to be challenged and pushed outside his comfort zone, to “enjoy” the experience of having trained for and run a marathon.
Somewhere over the last 6 months, he had lost sight of the reasons why he had signed up to the marathon in the first place. Reminding himself what they were, helped to put him back on track and realise that the time he had set himself to get round in was not important and that by fixating so much on a time which was judged to be “good” by whoever sets the barometer for these things, he was worsening his experience of the event. To weaken his worries about his finishing time still further, I reminded my friend that with this being his first marathon, whatever time he finished in would be a personal best.
Now, let’s start to unpack this situation from a psychological perspective.
From self-determination theory – one of the must studied theories in the whole of psychology and one with some of the strongest scientific evidence – we know that intrinsic motivation, where the knowledge, accomplishment and stimulation provided by engagement in a particular activity are sufficient reasons to participate in it, typically results in better performance and health outcomes over the long-term than extrinsic motivation, where we engage in an activity only out of a sense of duty or obligation, to avoid threat or punishment and/or to receive a reward. In other words, intrinsic motivation is of higher quality than extrinsic motivation.
What does this mean for my friend’s marathon attempt?
Well, when he signed up a year ago, he had strong intrinsic motivation. He wanted to be challenged and pushed outside his comfort zone whilst enjoying the experience of having trained for and run a marathon. However, as race day approached, his motivation was becoming more extrinsic in nature. He wanted to beat his girlfriend’s time. He wanted to go round in less than 4 hours.
One mental tool that is strongly linked with motivation is goal setting and this anecdote also has several implications for the way we should think about setting goals.
Looking at the scientific literature, we know that goal setting is one of the most common mental tools used by sports coaches and sport psychology practitioners like myself. According to goal setting theory, setting goals can enhance our motivation and performance via four distinct pathways:
By directing attention towards goal-relevant stimuli (and away from goal-irrelevant stimuli)
By stimulating greater effort expenditure
By increasing displays of persistence during goal pursuit
By encouraging the development of new learning strategies
In a sports context, goal setting can significantly improve both participation and performance when used appropriately. However, goal setting is more complicated and nuanced than often advised and setting the wrong type of goal can actually have significant negative effects on your sporting performance as well as your health and wellbeing.
So, what is the right type of goal to set?
Well, there is no clear and simple rule and goal setting could be the subject of a whole year’s worth of articles (not just this one).
However, we do know that self-referenced goals, by which I mean those where we focus on ourselves not anyone else, tend to facilitate better performance and health outcomes over the long-term than goals where we compare ourselves to others or perceived social norms. Within the goal setting literature, this is typically referred to as setting a mastery goal (or task goal) rather than a performance goal (or ego goal).
We also know that goals where we seek to improve typically result in better performance and health outcomes than goals where we seek to not be worse than a previous performance. This is known as adopting an approach goal rather than an avoidance goal. In other words, when setting goals we should aim to approach success and improvement rather than to avoid failure.
Together, these two findings suggest that we should set what are called mastery-approach goals, where we focus on developing competence, mastering new skills and improving personal performance. These goals are oriented toward self-improvement and growth rather than external validation, comparison or competition.
Returning to my friend’s marathon attempt, I would argue that a goal of completing the distance in less than 4 hours and beating his girlfriend are both examples of performance goals not mastery ones. By taking the time out of the equation and reminding himself why he signed up in the first place, my friend was able to set himself a new mastery goal underpinned by a strong foundation of intrinsic motivation: to do the best that he could do and have fun.
My friend completed the London Marathon in 4 hours 14 minutes raising over £1,600 for charity. He also completed the 26.2 miles with a smile on his face (mostly!) and an enjoyable experience spent with family, friends and loved ones that will stay with him forever. My question to you is this: would this still have been the case if my friend had aimed to go sub-4?
📢 Don’t miss out on my webinar for master’s students 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐩 - 𝐍𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐏𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭 running Monday 3rd June from 6-7pm.
❓During my master's degree, I struggled to make sense of the different training pathways. Like many of my classmates, I was filled with questions about life as a trainee practitioner, but I had no-one to ask.
𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵?
𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦?
𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴?
𝘞𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺?
💡 That's why I've prepared this session in which I'll share my own journey from student to trainee and summarise the key insights that I wish I'd known earlier. I'll also be providing you with the support and guidance that I wish I'd had access to before finishing my master's degree to help you take the best next steps for you in your training as a sport psychologist.
🎟 Tickets are just £10 and limited to 25 people to make sure that you take the most away from the session and have an opportunity to ask all your questions.
👉 You can register for the event here.
Thank you for reading. I hope you have found this post to be of interest and of value. If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or get in touch with me directly.
I’ve attached links to our Instagram and LinkedIn pages, where you can also learn more about the services we offer at Flourish & Thrive. If you would like to talk about working together to optimise your health and performance, we can arrange a free 15-minute Discovery Call for you to introduce yourself and explore how we might be able to apply the principles I’ve gained from my experience as a Trainee Sport Psychologist.
We are also contactable via email: enquiries@flourishandthrive.co.uk
Insightful and engaging article! The way it delves into the intricacies of motivation is quite captivating.