How To Dramatically Improve Your Motivation

Posted on March 7, 2017

Competition serves to be one of our best motivators that will inspire us to achieve our goals. It works so much better than friendly support which may at times reduce motivation instead and dissuade us from pursuing our goals.

The research involves college students being encouraged to attend classes at the University fitness centre. According to the research, when a competitive element was added, attendance rates at fitness classes were 90% higher. Contrary to popular belief that seems to credit social media as the ultimate motivation booster, the study shows that when social media is used inappropriately, adding social support can actually make people less inclined to adhere to healthy behaviours. Even so, it is critical to note that the addition of social media in a suitable manner can drastically increase people’s motivation levels.

Dr Centola speculated on why social support may not have worked:
“Supportive groups can backfire because they draw attention to members who are less active, which can create a downward spiral of participation. Competitive groups frame relationships in terms of goal-setting by the most active members. These relationships help to motivate exercise because they give people higher expectations for their own levels of performance.”

Therefore, competitive allows people to build on one another’s standard and raises the bar for everyone else, hence, increasing one’s motivation to achieve even greater excellence. Social support, on the other hand may cause one to be influenced by their counterparts to stop exercising, thus decreasing our motivation to pursue our goals!


Category(s):Mental Health in Asia

Source material from Psyblog