If we want to improve at anything we need to work at it, usually over an extended period of time. What is key to maintaining our work rate and pursuit of our aims, goals or ambition, are maintaining high levels of motivation. Motivation is the activation or energiazation of our goal-oriented behaviour. What is interesting is that we are all slightly different in how and where we find our motivation. With a key focus being the individual differences of personality.
For example a person high in levels of consciencousness would be more likely to keep to a training regime, whereas as someone with high levels of narcassism might be more motivated to train if there is somewhere there to impress. Neurotics might be motivated to train to avoid worrying thoughts, and someone with alyxthimia might well be motivated to climb to feel some form of emotion. Others might train to please others like parents, friends or siblings.
In general, as humans we are often motivated by reward, so in climbing the reward could be seen to be feeling different or better about oneself than in ‘normal’ everyday life. Achieving success or winning acceptance from others. But in pleasing others we can please ourselves. Generally we part-take in a leisure activity because of how it makes us feel. If climbing made you feel bad would you carry on climbing?
A key to staying motivated might be to acknowledge just what motivates you, or why you climb. This will allow you to work on maintaining your motivation, by understanding where it comes from. As goal-orientated behaviour, motivation requires a goal, inparticular one that is maybe a long-term goal or dream for the year. This gives you a focus for all your climbing or training. A way to maintain momentum towards your goal is to have a series of smaller goals or stepping stones that lead to the bigger goal.
What these smaller steps do is keep help you maintain a positive behaviour, by allowing you to feel that you are constantly making progress towards your goal. The closer the goal feels the more your behaviour will change to pursuing it. There comes a point when the goal appears to be so far out of reach that you behaviour towards achieving may stop. However there are people who might respond to getting so far away from there goal that they face becoming there ‘feared self’ and motivation for not becoming the person or climber they fear can become a motivation.
Above all you need to have a realistic goal or dream, and one that you have a real desire or passion to achieve, and rational reasons as to why this is achievable. A way that you can mentally monitor progress and an understanding of what makes your reward centre tick.