R=realistic
Your goals should be realistic for your present level of health and fitness. Therefore, it
is important that you get a full health check-up before you begin an exercise programme
so that your fitness level and exercise aspirations can be assessed. Otherwise, your fitness
goals may be unrealistic.
T=timetabled
In order to motivate yourself to exercise regularly, you must build some daily physical
activity into your timetable. Harmed exercise is the key to better fitness levels (see also
Chapter 8).
So far in this chapter, we have explored the nature and types of motivation, various
theoretical approaches to the study of this construct and a strategy (goal-setting) that
attempts to increase motivation in athletes. The final section will address a rather
puzzling question in this field. What motivates people to participate in dangerous sports?
This question is perplexing because involvement in risky sports is counter-intuitive. After
all, dangerous sports elicit fear—and fear is supposed to dissuade people from danger,
not attract them to it (Piët, 1987). So, why do people engage in sporting behaviour that
does not seem to make any psychological sense?
What motivates people to take part in risky sports?On 12 October 2002, a young woman named Audrey Mestre was drowned as she
attempted to set a target depth of 558 feet in the ancient but highly dangerous sport of “no
limits free diving” in which participants plunge as deeply as possible into the ocean
without the aid of breathing apparatus (Duggan, 2002). What motivated her to push her
body to the limit of its physiological endurance? More generally, why do people risk their
lives by taking part in such dangerous (or “extreme”) sports as mountain-climbing,
ballooning, hang-gliding, parachute-jumping, white-water kayaking, sky-diving or
motorcycle racing? At least three psychological theories have been proposed to answer
this question.
First, some theorists believe that dangerous activities offer people an escape from a
world that the writer Al Alvarez describes as increasingly “constricted by comfort” (cited
in Delingpole, 2001, p. 5). According to this theory, many people feel excessively
cosseted by the materialistic comforts of our contemporary society and hence seek
dangerous experiences in an effort to fill a gap in their lives. As western city life “is now
tame and increasingly controlled” (Vidal, 2001, p. 2), some people look for danger in
outdoor experiences. Therefore, risk-taking behaviour may represent a conscious
backlash against the bland and sterile security of everyday life. Although this theory is
speculative, it seems plausible that alienated people may experience a heightened state of
awareness when they are faced with the prospect of injury or death. Indeed, Schrader and
Wann (1999) suggested that one way to achieve the illusion of control over one’s
mortality is by “cheating death” (p. 427) through involvement in high-risk activities.
A second theory of risk-taking behaviour is the proposition that it stems from a
personality trait called “sensation seeking”. According to Zuckerman (1979), this trait
Sport and exercise psychology: A critical introduction 60