At this time of year as a coach I'm busy planning, periodising and poring over people's race plans to put together a 'master' plan for the season ahead. Increasingly I've noticed some confusion in the conversations that go along with this process, over two key elements - motivation and goals.

I've heard and read many instances where athletes and coaches use principles from their working lives for goal setting and then try to use this to define their motivation in their life as a triathlete. When people generalise that motivation being 'goal' or 'process' orientated, they are utilising an extrinsic model best suited to setting goals in a corporate world where essentially the objective is making money and keeping employees focused on that task to pay their wages! As an athlete, motivation needs to be sourced from intrinsic  factors, for longevity and autonomy. This is essentially realising and d...Read on..>