Motivation is heavily related to dopamine, which I have written about in the past. In this writing, I want to focus on the direction from which motivation comes, and how perspective can influence it.
Motivation comes from two directions, external and internal.
Often, a client gets frustrated when they feel they lack the drive to exercise as much as they think they need to which can result in negative feelings. This can lead to a sense of failure and discontinuation of their program. When I see comments like this, I often respond in the direction that the goal is never to be perfect, but rather to be consistent, and doing something is better than doing nothing. However, when scrolling through social media daily, an individual can be bombarded with others posting about how much time they spend exercising and that they should do the same to achieve the results they seek. When this type of stimulus is taken in, whether consciously or unconsciously, it can leave the individual feeling like a failure when life gets in the way, such as a sick kid, a meeting that ran long, or a random week with an extra sporting event for your kid, yes, I am speaking to those who have kids as those who do not have kids, have more time to focus on their physique and fitness goals.
Since retiring from competitive bodybuilding over four years ago, I can speak to the working parent, including stay-at-home moms, who also face the challenge of feeling overwhelmed by their children’s schedules. Even though I own a gym, I often spend 8 hours or more sitting in my office, going through client emails, focusing on nutrition and exercise programming, and working on my own research and writing, which often leaves me feeling the time crunch to exercise as well. Although the gym is 10 feet away, I frequently only lift weights for 30 minutes, four times a week, and try to get 25-30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise three to five times a week while multitasking by reading a book or research article, rather than the 2-4 undistracted hours spent most days of the week as a competitive bodybuilder where just one missed weight training session or missed cardio session left me in a state of turmoil.
Deci and Ryan (2000), the originators of the Self-Determination Theory, from which the concepts of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation originate, also show that another phase, referred to as obsessive passion, stems from poorly regulated extrinsic motivation.
What is obsessive passion?
Obsessive passion occurs when individuals struggle to internalize their values and motivation for resistance training, whereas harmonious passion is characterized by individuals who can effectively internalize their motivation and values (Joensberg et al., 2025). In other words, obsessive passion is when an individual feels guilty about not being able to make it to the gym and internalizes feelings of failure because they believe their physique cannot meet the external standards they place upon themselves based on perceived societal or social media pressures to obtain a specific physique, or for many bodybuilders, the feeling of not placing well on stage. Harmonious passion is understanding the benefits of going to the gym in relation to their physique and health goals, but does not feel a negative internalized emotion when unable to complete their workout that day, knowing that other priorities took precedent.
When obsessive passion is influenced by poorly regulated extrinsic motivation, this is related to allocentric versus egocentric behaviors. Allocentric perspectives occur when an individual views their body from the third person, such as when considering the influence of external factors. In contrast, egocentric perspectives are those in which the individual views their body from a first-person perspective (Riva & Gaudio, 2018). Social media’s overemphasis on an individual’s outward appearance could increase body image dissatisfaction, and platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, etc., promote an idealized body image and physical fitness standards (Giordana et al., 2025) in which social comparisons from these platforms show a moderate correlation between fitness content on social media and obsessive passion where the higher exposure to videos about strength, nutrition, and motivation linearly increases the likelihood of obsessive passion in resistance training (Joensberg et al., 2025).
In the context of many clients who have voiced frustration over the years with not having enough time to get into the gym, the focus must shift from I am failing because I cannot get to the gym to complete my workout therefore, I will never achieve my physique goals to, it is okay that I did not make it to the gym today because of “x-y-z” but I still got my meals in and drank my water today, therefore, one workout missed today, will not limit my ability to achieve my physique goals overtime or for bodybuilders, get on stage and do well.
When a new client starts, dopamine is always high, as often this individual is extrinsically motivated by most likely allocentric perspectives, such as wanting to look a certain way because of someone they saw, which may be someone on social media they know or do not know, or they saw someone in person who lost weight, making themselves feel negative about their body, or even a doctor who said you need to lose weight for a health reason. Extrinsic motivation factors are tied to allocentric perspectives because they are often related to the external influences that motivate us. This is okay, because usually, these external influences are what get us moving and get our dopamine increasing to start focusing on a goal. When working with new clients, I want to take advantage of this initial motivation. Still, as dopamine declines over the first few months, we must shift our focus to the intrinsic factors that drive our egocentric perspective (reasons inside ourselves), helping us determine our internal “why” for seeking a goal, which is what helps maintain motivation over time.
Consistency is the ability to be intrinsically motivated through an egocentric perspective that allows for harmonious flow within our physique and fitness goals, which will enable us to seek our goal attainment over time.
References
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The” what” and” why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological inquiry, 11(4), 227-268. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01
Joensberg, E., Fagermyr, H., Haugen, T., & Sandgren, S. S. (2025). The associations between passion for resistance training and muscle dysmorphia. Performance Enhancement & Health, 13(3), 100343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.peh.2025.100343
Riva, G., & Gaudio, S. (2018). Locked to a wrong body: Eating disorders as the outcome of a primary disturbance in multisensory body integration. Consciousness and cognition, 59, 57-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2017.08.006
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