MOTIVATION

“Goal setting provides the most effective means to enhance moti- vation, increase intensity, and strengthen commitment and offer direction in rehabilitation to maximise recovery.” Dr Edmund O’Connor (8).

WHAT IS MOTIVATION? Everyone is familiar with the concept of motivation. Motivation is the desire to do, to act, to expend energy toward the realisation of some action, goal or plan. Motivations can be thought of as ‘motives-in-action’. Therefore there are two parts to successful moti- vation: a clear motive, or reason, and plenty of action, or effort.

Exercise 1: Answer the following questions, and note your responses. ■ Why did you get up this morning? ■ Why do you go to work? ■ Why do you choose to spend your time the way that you do?

All of these decisions are the result of your reasons or your motives; reasons are motivation, and therefore strong motivation comes from having strong reasons. What is important to us is a reflection of our values, the things that we believe to be important to us.

Anthony Robbins, one of the world’s leading motivational speakers and personal development experts, contends that we are motivated and driven by reasons related to pain and pleasure, by the pain of moving away from some negative consequence perhaps, or towards the pleasure of achieving a goal, or a positive feeling.

It is important to recognise that people have different motivation strategies, and some may lean towards a more negative, pain driven approach, while others may be more positively, pleasure driven. Knowing your client can help you to personalise your approach. However, Robbins, Andreas and Faulkner (1) and Hodges (3) all suggest that a combination of pain and pleasure, is useful when developing strong leverage for creating motivation in clients.

THE VALUE OF REHABILITATION To create greater motivation for clients to do their rehabilitation it is important for you to find out from them why it is important to them. You can get real leverage by combining some ‘pain and plea- sure’, some negative and positive motivation. You can ask them: ■ What are the costs to you if you do not do your exercises/reha- biliatation programme? Or...how is being injured stopping you from doing that is important to you?

■ What are the benefits to you when you do complete your exer- cises? What will being fully fit again enable you to do that is important to you?

If the reasons are strong enough there will be motivation. Linking people’s behaviours to their values in a cause effect way helps to create motivation. For example ‘If you maintain the hard work you are doing with your exercises you will soon be back to full fitness, and be back on the pitch enjoying playing again won’t you?’

FROM GOAL SETTING TO GOAL ACHIEVEMENT Goals create motivation and as O’Connor (8) suggests, are key to an effective rehabilitation programme. Goal setting is not enough in itself. Goal setting is easy, and generally ineffective - just look at

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the number of people who set goals on New Years Eve, only to have broken them in a large number of cases by the end of January. Anyone can set a goal. Achieving a goal is somewhat different. Goal achievement is a process, a personal management strategy. Strong motivation comes from goals that are compelling, that must be achieved, rather than are hoped for, wished for, or should be achieved. Using the SMARTER goal principles below will enable you to create goals that are compelling, and that are also well formed, and therefore more likely to be achieved.

Compelling goals Goals are a vital source of motivation. Badly set goals are the cause of many ‘failures’. Ensure that your goals with patients meet the SMARTER principles and you will gain a greater chance of them achieving them. Specific and measurable - what specifically do you want? What will achieving it look, sound and feel like? Me focussed - is this goal under your control? Achievable - what resources do you have? What obstacles are there? Can you see yourself achieving the goal? Reasons - what are the costs if you do not achieve or what are the benefits when you do achieve your goal? Time related - when will you achieve this goal by? Ecological - will there be any negative effects of you achieving this goal? Reviewed - how will you keep track of your progress?

Importantly once a goal has been set, an action plan must be devel- oped, and it is highly recommended that some action, no matter how small, is taken from that plan within 24 hours to get momen- tum.

To further enhance motivation a combination of a long term, end goal, should be set together with regular short term goals, to main- tain interest, and momentum for example from appointment to appointment. Regular reviewing and evaluating allows for progress towards the end goal to be shared, which in itself is a very power- ful motivator.

Motivation strategy NLP suggests that behaviour is a consequence of mental processes, or strategies, and that those strategies have an identifiable struc- ture and content. Human cognitions can take the form of one of five sensory components - visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, olfactory and gustatory (that is we can see something in our mind; we can hear something or talk to ourselves; we can feel things internally; and we can experience smells and tastes mentally), and these specific mental representations of experience link together to establish behavioural strategies, which then direct our behaviours.

Exercise 2 Think of a time when you were really motivated ■ What were you thinking and how? ■ What were you saying to yourself? And how were you saying it?

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