Article: Staying True to Your Motivation
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Chris Sharma is known for stating that what helps him stay motivated is to remain true to his motivation. If he doesn’t feel motivated to get on a particular project, he doesn’t. But how do we distinguish this from simple fear and avoidance?
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We tend to be motivated if we feel we will get something from the experience. What is it that we get from a climbing experience? Well, two things: the end result (redpoint/on-sight) and the process (enjoying the climbing and learning from it).
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What causes Chris’ motivation to rise and fall? Is it high when he feels he will send his project and low when he feels he won’t? I don’t think so. How many times did he get on First Round, First Minute over the two year period that he was working on it? “Too many times,” he is quoted as saying. If he was just motivated by the end result, and still continued to get on the project, always falling off the last move, then he really wouldn’t be demonstrating that he is being true to his motivation. Something is driving his motivation rather than simply getting the send.
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You can be true to your motivation even if you are end result motivated. However, with end motivation you won’t get on climbs where you have a low chance of redpointing. You can also be true to your motivation by being process motivated. With a process motivation you get on climbs that teach you something, ones where you enjoy the actual climbing, even if they are very difficult for you.
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To be true to your motivation, you need to clarify what goals you have and set them up in the appropriate hierarchy. With end goals secondary and process goals primary, you’ll be able to stay true to your motivation while you work toward accomplishing those difficult end result goals.
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Practice Tip: Embrace Stress to Maintain Motivation
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In the last lesson you listed 10- 5- and 1-year goals. These are end goals. You also listed process goals (the second bullet point). An important part of process goals is to enjoy the stress that occurs while climbing. Notice that your process goals have an element of stress associated with them. Now, get excited about that stress. That’s where the learning occurs and the enjoyment. And, if you embrace that stress instead of avoiding it, you’ll be motivated by the learning process and better able to recognize if you are being true to your motivatiStaying True to Your Motivation
Staying True to Your Motivation
-
Chris Sharma is known for stating that what helps him stay motivated is to remain true to his motivation. If he doesn’t feel motivated to get on a particular project, he doesn’t. But how do we distinguish this from simple fear and avoidance?
-
We tend to be motivated if we feel we will get something from the experience. What is it that we get from a climbing experience? Well, two things: the end result (redpoint/on-sight) and the process (enjoying the climbing and learning from it).
-
What causes Chris’ motivation to rise and fall? Is it high when he feels he will send his project and low when he feels he won’t? I don’t think so. How many times did he get on First Round, First Minute over the two year period that he was working on it? “Too many times,” he is quoted as saying. If he was just motivated by the end result, and still continued to get on the project, always falling off the last move, then he really wouldn’t be demonstrating that he is being true to his motivation. Something is driving his motivation rather than simply getting the send.
-
You can be true to your motivation even if you are end result motivated. However, with end motivation you won’t get on climbs where you have a low chance of redpointing. You can also be true to your motivation by being process motivated. With a process motivation you get on climbs that teach you something, ones where you enjoy the actual climbing, even if they are very difficult for you.
-
To be true to your motivation, you need to clarify what goals you have and set them up in the appropriate hierarchy. With end goals secondary and process goals primary, you’ll be able to stay true to your motivation while you work toward accomplishing those difficult end result goals.
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Staying True to Your Motivation
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