Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #168 BITESIZE | Understand Your Motivation and Transform Your Life | Ross Edgley

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Starting point is 00:00:51 10. And these packs are perfect for keeping in your backpack, office, or car. If you want to take advantage of this limited time offer, all you have to do is go to drinkag1.com forward slash live more. Welcome to Feel Better Live More. Bite size your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 73 of the podcast with the swimmer and adventurer Ross Edgley. Ross is the first ever swimmer to circumnavigate the whole of Great Britain without ever setting foot on land. This is just one of his extraordinary accomplishments.

Starting point is 00:01:38 And in this clip, Ross explains what he's learned about mindset and the power of intrinsic motivation. In this era of social media, are we in danger of doing things for extrinsic motivation rather than intrinsic motivation? I think you're absolutely right. So in terms of intrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation is when you are motivated for internal reasons. So the process is its own reward. When people say, why are you, it could be anything. Why are you knitting? Why do you like going walking in like the countryside? You go, because it just feels nice. That is intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is why do you want to go and do that triathlon? And they say,

Starting point is 00:02:23 because there's prize money. Why do you want to go and run up that mountain? Oh, because I want to take a selfie at the top. I want it for my Instagram profile. Nothing wrong with that, but these are extrinsic motivating factors. And I think consciously understanding which one motivates you is often the first key. I think, you know, subconsciously people aren't actually, you know, they're not aware of it, you know, so they are just, they're just training, they're plowing on. It's just like, well, hang on, like what's the motivating factor here? Reason being, and there was again, a study done with the US military and they found that those, it was a huge study and they found that those who were intrinsically motivated,

Starting point is 00:02:59 there was a direct correlation between that and them higher achieving within the ranks of the US military compared to those for external reasons who were maybe saying, oh, it's good money, you know, or I look good in a uniform. You know, there was those people who intrinsically motivated were saying, because I just want to do so. I want to serve my country. I want to, you know, my great, great granddad was in the military. It was those sorts of reasons. You know, I hope someone listens to this and goes, you know what, let me just examine the things that I do in my life. How many of them would I be happy doing if I didn't post about them on social media? Would I still do it?

Starting point is 00:03:32 I love what you said there, actually, because certainly on the swim, people said to me, you know, swimming for 157 days, 12 hours a day, you know, how did you keep yourself motivated? And I think a lot of people just wanted that one line where I'd say, I did it for family and friends, you know, or something like that. But the reality is you had to switch to have almost like a split personality in that sometimes I'd be extrinsically motivated. Coming into the Kyla Lockhouse, it was amazing. We just set the record for the world's longest stage swim. The media were there. They said some very nice things about me. I would be

Starting point is 00:04:05 lying to you right now if I didn't say that didn't motivate me extrinsically. Of course it did. However, in those moments across the Moray Firth, where you are 60 miles from land, you cannot see the hand in front of your face. It's that dark. You're getting like just hit in the face by jellyfish. Extrinsic motivation probably isn't enough. Knowing what pushes your buttons and what intrinsically motivates you is very powerful. And I think knowing how to ask yourself, push your own buttons. You know, what's motivating me today? I think even body composition, body fat, you know, training purely for aesthetics. So in this kind of social media driven, you know, world that we now live in, there's a lot of people

Starting point is 00:04:43 who will, you know, train just for that selfie on the beach live in there's a lot of people who will um you know train just for that selfie on the beach and there's nothing wrong with that but you've got to acknowledge that's purely extrinsic so once that pitch has been taken what's left are you still motivated if you have things that are intrinsically motivating you for me for instance i like to keep my body fat quite low just because um i'm quite a chunky runner and i don't want to be putting four to five times my own body weight through each foot with every successive jump and run so i try and keep lean for that reason but the reason i also do that as well is because i want to enjoy running i like the intrinsic feeling of running and i

Starting point is 00:05:21 wouldn't enjoy that as much if i was holding a lot of weight so my body composition is a byproduct of being intrinsically motivated to enjoy running you know but also I won't lie it was quite nice again to be so honest and open to be asked to do the cover of men's health that was extrinsic but I had both yeah you had both and again I love the way you put that Ross it's not about saying you know we're all saints and we don't like putting up a good shot on Instagram, right? We're not. We're humans. We've all got an ego to some degree, right? I don't think we're here to say, don't do that. That's fine. But just figure out what it is. Yeah. the pressure, when you're on that boat, when you're swimming, were there some days where you thought, I'm not going in there. I just can't do it. I just want to stay here. I want to sleep. I just can't get in the water. We're more powerful than our own mind allows us to believe. My mind

Starting point is 00:06:16 was playing all sorts of tricks on me saying, stay in bed, have a rest day today, Ross. So how did you motivate yourself? I think one of the things that always worked for me was the fact that I said I am not stepping foot on land until I have finished this. When you have made that like absolutely infallible law and you said there that's how this finishes it finishes with me being pulled out of the water against my own will or I walk onto Margate Beach successful then any question you ask yourself that when your mind starts playing tricks and goes maybe you should have a rest day today maybe your tongue's falling apart maybe you should miss this tide uh maybe it's a little bit ropey outside we're swimming in 40 knots of wind is that safe the answers always swim every question that was thrown up was completely irrelevant when you

Starting point is 00:07:02 think about it in cold hard logic and i think that's sometimes the same that again when you wake up in the morning on a sunday and you said oh i said i was going to go in for a run today but i think oh my you know my knees are feeling a little oh yeah knees are bad oh maybe i should rest day i should have another rest day again this idea of that i was fortunate enough to learn from the raw marines that they said ross um you know when you are in a 30 mile yomp with like 50 kg on your backpack um you know your cognitive clarity is is that of a five-year-old when you are sleep deprived tired had a hard week at work and all of a sudden someone's saying to you remember that session you said you're going

Starting point is 00:07:41 to do on sunday know that it's fine that you are functioning with the cognitive clarity of a five-year-old. And this was one thing that always stuck me with the Royal Marines. As a sports scientist, they said, Ross, you're a sports scientist. So you are used to performing at your best when you feel at your best. We're Royal Marines. We're used to performing at our best when we feel at our worst. What about someone who's listening to this, is relatively inactive they want to get healthier they want some inspiration to get going where can they start and how can they apply this in their life yeah i think i love that question for two reasons number one is because i think too often um we are heavily marketed uh you know the gym or certain sports or you know they'll say oh this is the best way to lose weight. And it's just like, no, no, no, no. You have to

Starting point is 00:08:28 start looking at behavioral science, you know, only just now we're understanding adherence. So International Journal of Obesity 2008, they did a huge meta study. So a study of thousands of studies, and they wanted to know what the best diet was for fat loss. Everyone was sitting there going, well, this is amazing. They were, you know, on the edge of their seats thinking, oh my God, is it keto? Is it Atkins? Is it South Beach? What is it? And they said, after analyzing all of these studies, we have found, and everyone's on the tent hooks on the edge of their seats, that we have found that weight loss was highest in those most adherent. And they went, what? And they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah. The diet doesn't matter. Sticking to it does. And they were like, oh, so there was this idea that,

Starting point is 00:09:05 okay, so in terms of when you are completely sedentary and you're just setting out, whether it's a diet plan or a workout plan, look at adherence. Are you actually going to enjoy this? Are you going to be motivated for intrinsic reasons? Pick something that you intrinsically like. What are you going to be able to adhere to? I think for some people, they're like, I used to play tennis as a kid. I've not done it in ages. Cool, then go down your local tennis club. I used to swim, but I've not done it in ages. Cool, then dust off those goggles and get in. Hey, guys, it doesn't matter where you are. It doesn't matter where you start. Just start somewhere. I would love it if in a few weeks, months, a year, it doesn't matter if people message us and say, do you know what, guys?

Starting point is 00:09:39 I did it intrinsically motivated. And it just for cathartic reasons for this idea of sporting spirituality that people will go, I did it. I ran, swam, cycled, rode. Doesn't matter what it is. That will be amazing. Hope you enjoyed that bite-sized clip. Please do spread the love by sharing this episode with your friends and family. And if you want more, why not go back and listen to the full conversation with my guest. And if you enjoyed this episode, I think you will really enjoy my new bite-sized Friday email. It's called the Friday Five. And each week I share things that I do not share on social media. It contains five short doses of positivity,

Starting point is 00:10:27 articles or books that I'm reading, quotes that I'm thinking about, exciting research I've come across, and so much more. I really think you're going to love it. The goal is for it to be a small yet powerful dose of feel good to get you ready for the weekend. You can sign up for it at drchastity.com forward slash Friday five. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Make sure you have pressed subscribe and I'll be back next week with my long form conversation on Wednesday and the latest episode of Bite Science next Friday.

Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #168 BITESIZE | Understand Your Motivation and Transform Your Life | Ross Edgley

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