Goal Setting for Success

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Staying Motivated for Success

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  Do you struggle to stay motivated?   Do you find that you hit one minor bump in your goals and struggle to carry on?   Here we look at some psychological theories of motivation - and how they may apply to you.  There are four important theories of motivation. These are: Achievement Goal Orientation - Are we focused on mastery or the outcome? Attribution Theory - Are the factors that determine our successes and failures what motivates us? Self-Determination Theory - Are Intrinsic or Extrinsic factors our motivators? Need Achievement Theory - Are we focusing on achieving success or on avoiding 'failure'.    The Achievement Goal Orientation suggests that we are either motivated to become better ourselves (mastery) or by beating others (outcome). It argues that by focusing on improving ourselves we have better control of success and are therefore more motivated. By focusing on beating others we can easily give up, and make excuses, rather than control our suc...
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Exercise or Physical Activity?

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  What really is the difference between Physical Activity and Exercise?   And how can we use Exercise and Physical Activity to improve our health and help us reach our goals? First of all - Definitions!  Physical Activity  - Any movement created by the contraction of skeletal muscles. (This could be gardening, car cleaning or walking to work).   Exercise  - Planned activity with the intent of improving an element of our health and fitness or performance. (This could be going for a run, going to the gym, or attending an exercise class).   So, what does this mean?   in effect, any movement we make can be classed as Physical Activity, whether that is walking the dog or walking to the fridge. Walking to specifically improve our cardiovascular health is exercise.      So, how do we use exercise and Physical Activity to improve our health? Physical Activity can be done anywhere and at any time. Higher levels of Physical Activity have...
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Sticking With It - How to Overcome Barriers to Exercise

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The hardest part of any new behaviour is adherence (the fancy word for sticking with it). And, the Transtheoretical Model suggests that the first 6 months are the most likely stage in which dropping out occurs.  However, once you get past the first six months, and you are much more likely to maintain your new behaviours!   But how do we get to six months?   Firstly, we need to identify some of the barriers we may face to exercise. Common barriers include:  Lack of Time Work Commitments Stress Injury  And, of course, anything else that may stop you from exercising regularly.    Psychologists have suggested that preparing to come across the barriers, can help to reduce the impact they have on you. So, how do we prepare?    Simply anticipate something that may limit your exercise and make a plan for if this happens. Here's some examples for the above barriers: Lack of Time - Identify anything that wastes your time (I find I am often victim to Fa...
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