The Ultimate Guide To Sports Motivation

Sports motivation - It's not just about how much action you take. It's also about doing the right thing at the right time. Here's the universal experience:

There are times when you feel unstoppable, your motivation in sport at an all time high, powering you through to new physical, mental and emotional highs. You're in a flow state. Magically excelling in your every action.... 

And then there are those other times. The one’s when, no matter how hard you try, you just don’t seem able to perform at your best. Why don't you always leap out of bed to go training and give one hundred percent? And when you've got the ability, why do you make silly mistakes when the pressure is on? 

We all know that frustration. So how can you unlock the magic of your talent, unleash your potential and be the best you can be?

The signature patterns for success - sports motivation

In my work with top performers, I keep seeing the same recurring patterns that are the signature for success in sport. I’m going to share this one crucial sports motivation pattern with you, for one and only one reason…

For me personally, I'd been struggling to reach the next level for years. I was so motivated and had worked so hard on improving my skills, I just couldn't understand why I hadn't progressed. The moment I learnt there was more to sports motivation than intensity (i.e. how strong the feeling of motivation is), it was kind of like switching the lights on - and I didn't even know I'd been in the dark!

I see so many talented sports people asking for help to get out of the same cycle: Promising glimpses of your potential, overshadowed by feeling held back and missed opportunities to shine when it matters most. If this is you, don't worry, you're in good company - I've been here too! Along with just about everyone else.

The reality is you can't be expected to know what you don't know. If like almost everyone else, you've been missing a piece of the performance puzzle, when you get this, you’ll see why progress hasn't been easy and what to do next.

Let me introduce you to my Star Performer Grid and then we'll apply it for sports motivation:

PerformWell Star Performer Grid - Sports Motivation

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The Nine Positions of Motivation

  • On the right of the grid: The confidence, enjoyment and satisfaction of high effectiveness. Success flows easily here.
  • On the left of the grid: The stress, frustration and fears that go with low effectiveness. That's a tough place to hang out.
  • At the top: High motivation intensity. With that comes high activity rates. It can be intense!
  • Across the bottom: Low motivation intensity, causing low engagement and low work rate. 

The important thing to realise is that doing a lot of the right things at the right time gives strong results. More ineffective action is rarely effective.

The sweet spot is top right - the Star Performer. Highly effective AND high motivation intensity enables the Star Performer to perform with the confidence, enthusiasm and single-minded focus that goes with knowing you are on track and have got what it takes. We can all bring to mind examples of Star Performers.... Maybe you are one?

A more detailed description of each of the positions in the Grid is available here.


Even though the Star Performer Grid is a veritable goldmine for achieving high performance, I initially created the grid to highlight one really important principle:

  • Effectiveness is about being motivated to do the right things at the right time.

Sure we need skills, but most people have an abundance of skills they rarely use at the right time, because of the way their motivation is wired, as illustrated in the example below: 

Effectiveness comes from motivation direction

Imagine a golfer approaching an important shot in a tournament. In practice he's played this shot well many times. Right now it could be the make or break of his round. More than that, there's a good size audience, which includes his golf coach, parents, partner, friends and peers. 

This makes it double important to play the shot well, so he doesn't embarrass himself or let anyone down. While his motivation to play well has increased, the motivation pattern makes the golfer self-conscious and drives his attention to what other people are thinking. The golfer suffers anxiety and nerves before the shot, causing him to tense up and lose concentration.

He's highly motivated to putt the ball, but the motivation pattern in itself prevents him from playing to the best of his ability i.e. it's not effective. He needs to find a better way.

Note that in the above example, the golfers skills haven’t changed. He knows what to do and how to do it, yet his feelings motivate him in such a way that leads to action that just isn't effective (tensing up and paying attention to the audience), hence just doesn’t perform well.

When it comes to competitive sport, it’s the rate of progress in relation to your peers that counts. Will you overtake your peers? Or will they leave you behind? 

This is the next challenge to crack: Knowing how to take control of your feelings and emotions is a game changer.

If our emotions don't motivate us to use skills at the right time, those skills are redundant. Then what are we left with? Work harder... which is a great strategy for burnout as I almost found out first hand. I'll tell you more about that embarrassing story later!

When we unlock the key to taking control of our emotions, everything changes. We pay attention to what's important and engage the right skills at the right time, taking our effectiveness to the next level. That means achieving more with less effort.

The Star Performer Grid shows you THE EASY WAY of doing the right things at the right time to get ahead of the pack.



3 Important Lessons from the Star Performer Grid

  • Effectiveness requires your emotions to motivate the right skills at the right time.
  • High motivation intensity is a good thing when it drives lots of effective action. Lots of ineffective action is unlikely to help you achieve your goals.
  • To outperform your peers and catch up with your role models, learn how to get to the top right of the Star Performer Grid. Don't get left behind!

Right. Time to for more progress - Let's go!....


Paul Burden

Sports Success and Performance Coach

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The Ultimate Guide to Sports Motivation

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