Using rewards to enhance your performance as an athlete is a effective motivator that can even be transferred to scholastic goals too! The best thing you can do when applying this focus is to reward yourself with something that directly or even indirectly compliments your athletic goals.
The Difference Between Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation in Sports
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in sports are pretty paralleled when compared to life outside of being an athlete.
When you do things intrinsically it’s a reward that typically isn’t tangible.
It’s something that will be more fulfilling, in nature.
At least many say that, although it’s ‘to each their own’.
Extrinsic motivations will be more for the medals themselves, trophies, or anything that you’re going to be able to hold up and show off in any way.
It’s a lot more validating when you are motivated by extrinsic rewards with sports.
There’s actually a related article you can check out titled ‘why are there so few top athletes?’ that I recommend you check out if you would like to learn a little bit more about that.
If you find out what type of person you are, it makes rewarding yourself and ultimately being motivated consistently a lot more enjoyable and worthwhile.
I typically find that Introverts have that intrinsic motivation as more extroverts do look for the shinier objects that they’re able to show off.
So possibly even considering a personality test, if you’re not too sure with where you stand along those lines.
And from there, Challenge yourself to create some goals that would complement whatever personality you end up finding yourself to be.
There are a couple tests you could try out from the Hexaco ones or even Myers Briggs.
Going with those would be a great 1st step and You’re going to be on a path of understanding better with what type of things motivates you as a person.
Choosing Rewards That Reinforce Athletic Goals
Choosing rewards that reinforce athletic goals is one of the better ways to go about enhancing your performance as an athlete.
It works out this way best because you will continue to add on and build The things that are bringing you to the point that you’re at currently as an athlete.
If the goal is to progress and reach new heights, You’re going to want to break up the pathway that takes you to whatever your final goal may be.
These rewards function as subplots that’ll bring you to the conclusion, whether that’s the championship or anything else that would be the last call for you as an athlete.
These rewards show themselves in the way of different things, such as more equipment, an upgrade in celebration methods, stuff like that.
Habits Form Through Your Reward System
Habits form through your reward system because focusing on your habits as an athlete makes The expectations of your performance that much more predictable.
The way you perform and your results are the culmination of the habits that you put in.
This shows up in the practices that you go to, your warm ups. The response you get.
Or take from coaches that have something to say about your performance and Your response to the results that you get in competition that tests you.
When you reward yourself, what that does is reinforce positive connotations with whatever it is that you did to achieve whatever rank or gift that you give yourself for the work and effort that you put in towards your craft.
To truly understand this, you have to be able to appreciate the value of building habits.
Building habits beats Forced consistency every time Because they’re things you end up doing instinctually.
And sometimes it can be that split of a second that makes the difference in whether you end up doing well in your event or competition as an athlete.
Even if you have something set up in place where you can earn rewards before the actual competition, Your reward system is what’s going to motivate you to reach each step.
This ends up being your legend (and landmark) that takes you to each spot before you get to the final place, as mentioned before.
It’s similar to, if you’ve ever seen an episode of Dora the Explorer.
That same schematic where when Dora understands that she has to get to a final place, she breaks things down into other areas that she will reach before getting close at least to whatever the location is.
The only thing it’s missing is the reward system, but that is where you, who ends up taking their process seriously in a fun way, get more of a benefit out of the “building habit”.
Transferring Athletic Discipline to Academic Success
Transferring athletic discipline to academic success becomes the results of building upon best practices to achieve the things that you want.
This actually ties in with the gamifying concept (as mentioned earlier) where When you find creative ways to make your process fun, getting better at your craft becomes inevitable.
Deciding to take what you learn through becoming a better athlete and applying it to your professional career will become a major asset in your life.
This is something that Many people (If not everybody) who’s ever done a sport before will say that they would love to have grasped this concept, If they don’t have it already.
Depending on the sport you’re in, you could get different lessons that end up directly influencing your career later on in life.
For some, it might be: selfless teamwork.
And that could be a part of a Track team you were with, for example.
Maybe you’re having to step in for others with things that aren’t usually your responsibilities.
This flexibility is something that becomes transferable into the working world.
Many will tell you that have professional careers: If you keep this concept as a priority, through the rest of your athletic career, transferring over into the corporate world or whatever job you do after your athletic career is over, will become much easier than someone else that’s stunned because they sure where life begins for them after sports.
Timing and Structuring Rewards for Maximum Impact
Timing and structuring rewards for the maximum impact is a way to elevate this overall concept of rewarding yourself for a better performance.
It’s one thing to Do it, and then it’s another thing to be intentional with it. The intention follows when you have strategic checkpoints for when you Check to see if you qualify for rewards.
An example would be deciding to reward yourself during a down period. It might be something where you do weekly competition, but you understand that there’s a gap week in between a certain month. And with that, you understand that most athletes’ motivation ends up dying down or performance might slip a little bit because of that break.
However, you, if you were to have this system set in place, keep things fresh and it’s as if you don’t leave or you have just as much hunger for, uh, top level performance. Setting up your schedule to where you reward yourself during that period. It’s as if you don’t miss out on anything or you even get a benefit.
That most of your, Petition doesn’t have. Even the type of rewards can make a difference. You’re going to do things that are well, but some things are going to matter more than others.
And if you are able to also gauge how tremendous a jump is for you, that is a level of self-awareness, and in this case, even athletic awareness that, also becomes an asset. You are rewarding yourself fairly. It’s, in a way, the reverse of, If the penalty fits the crime, But in this case, it’s, was the value well enough to justify this reward.
That’s going to be a question that would be asked from the outside looking in at what you’re doing. And if you are able to gauge an audit correctly, what is a proper level of reward for what it is that you did. You’re going to feel that much more. appreciative of what it is that you earned.
Things won’t feel out of place. There won’t be an inflation, so to speak, for something really small. that was nothing to someone else that would be competing at a higher level and be expected to be better than you at what you’re doing. Just to keep that in mind is a next level way of tweaking this already high Technique.
To practice.
RealTalkAJ 
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