As women athletes, we tend to go through fluctuations of motivation levels. With intense training and often intense pressure, it's not uncommon to experience highs and lows in our drive and determination levels. Before we can examine how to build motivation, it's important to look at why we may be feeling unmotivated in the first place. We sat down with VIS Expert and Sports Psychologist, Ashley Zapata, PsyD, and sport nutritionist, Cortney Berling, to come up with five of the most common reasons women athletes feel unmotivated.
1. Fear
Fear is a subtle but influential factor in why we may lose or lack motivation. Fear is the internal process of taking ourselves away from things that make us uncomfortable or scared. Zapata explains that fear can stem from external pressure or self-imposed expectations. Failure should be reframed as a stepping stone for growth, emphasizing the learning process rather than solely outcomes. Understanding our personal habits and goals can help us identify if fear is what's pushing us away from accomplishing these goals.
2. Setting the Wrong Goals
Setting the wrong goals is an extremely common misstep that causes a lot of women athletes to put themselves down for not accomplishing what they set out to do. If we set goals that are too far out of reach, or won’t be achieved for years, we can miss out on the fulfillment that comes from achieving more short term or relevant goals. This can result in demotivation and disruption of our potential for growth in sport. Zapata recommends setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals) to ensure realistic yet challenging expectations.
3. Mental Health
Mental health and productivity go hand and hand when it comes to low motivation. Poor mental health including depression, anxiety, burnout, and stress can significantly decrease our motivation to do anything, let alone train. Zapata emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive environment for athletes to speak up about our mental health, and how mindfulness and cognitive restructuring with a mental health professional are important to regaining our motivation. By prioritizing spending time outside and taking necessary breaks, we can better our mental health and find our motivation for sport again.
“Identifying the why to a woman athlete's questions surrounding motivation is important because it allows for targeted solutions, enhanced self-awareness, and ultimately improved performance and well-being.”
4. Lack of Personal Care
We have to take care of ourselves after a workout, both mentally and physically, to keep our performance up. As Zapata mentions, personal care can involve both necessary recovery periods to avoid injury, get proper sleep, and fuel our bodies right. For example, many women athletes become so caught up with training, school, and eating right, that getting proper sleep does not become a priority. This can quickly catch up to us, as these everyday habits become overlooked. Undermining personal care can greatly affect motivation and performance for all women athletes.
5. Not Fueling Properly
Energy comes from food, and not eating the right food can make us feel slow, tired, and have no desire to perform. Berling mentions that proper fueling not only helps athletes with physical performance, but mental performance too. Having enough mental and physical energy to train will increase motivation. Berling also explains that athletes should focus on these four components of nutrition for a clear mind: carbs, protein, fat, and color.
Athletes use carbs for energy, protein for muscle building and recovery, fat for providing necessary calories, and color to give necessary antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Overall, an underfueled athlete likely will experience “foggy brain and incomplete thoughts,'' according to Berling. Fueling properly can be an overlooked factor in the reason we may be feeling unmotivated.
Before utilizing tips on how to build motivation, we should consider what might be causing our lack of motivation in the first place. These five potential causes are a great starting point for each of us to consider in our personal challenges in building motivation. These tips will help us reflect on our experiences and rediscover the desire to train and keep us performing at our best.
