Aspirational motivation

In a recent news column we looked at the power of being given a compliment as a way to improving your performance. If your performance improves that is a motivating factor in itself, but motivation is a fickle and shy beast that lurks furtively in dark caves of your psyche and needs to be coaxed out into the light of consciousness again and again. So the more ways that you have to boost your motivation, the better.

When it comes to exercising this is particularly the case, as in a busy life exercise requires time and energy. If a bit of free time arises you need to muster your motivation to focus your energy and make productive use of that time. Now a new study has pointed to a practical and potent way to boost your motivation: find an exercise partner who is better than you.

In the study researchers had university-age women exercise on a stationary bike for six sessions over a four-week time frame. The women were asked to ride the bike for as long as they could, which on average was 10 minutes. After that first four weeks the women came back for another round of sessions but this time they were told that they would be working out with a partner in another room that they could see on monitor. The evil genius of the experiment though was that the partner was not really exercising at the same time but was being shown on an edited video. The subjects were told that in the first round of exercises their “partner” had ridden the bike 40 per cent longer than they had done. So the participants in the study thought their exercise partner was a bit better than they were.

As a result the subjects rode an average nine minutes longer (90 per cent).

To see if the benefit could go even further, the researchers had the subjects come back again for further sessions, but this time were told that they would be working their partner to achieve a team score. The team score would be the time of the person who quit first. By the end of the “team” sessions, the subjects were exercising 200 per cent longer than when they had exercised alone and 160 per cent longer than when they just believed they had a partner.

The researchers say that if a partner is either at the same level as the subject or way better than the subject, then the effect disappears. When your exercise partner is just a little better than you are though, motivation and consequent performance goes through the roof.

This is just another example of how human beings are innately social creatures. From providing compliments to providing motivation, other people have much to offer you and likewise you have plenty to give others. It is yet another reason and reminder to devote energy to building caring relationships with your community; yes, for what those bonds do for you, but even more because of what they will do for them.