Your Needs Matter

Jul 01, 2020

As a human, you have basic psychological needs.⁣

And if your needs aren’t met, you won’t be a happy camper ☹️⁣

^ things like behavior change, goal achievement, and overall well-being are more difficult to obtain.⁣

Over the next few days I’m gonna put my psychologist hat on & give you a rundown on SELF DETERMINATION THEORY (SDT)⁣

SDT has been part of psychological research forever (like 1980’s) and explains what our basic human brain 🧠 needs in order to make lifestyle changes, stay *motivated*, and be successful.⁣

These needs are broken down into 3 components:⁣

AUTONOMY, RELATEDNESS, COMPETENCE⁣

Feeling in-charge + effective + connected is essential for producing the “best” kind of motivation (more on this tomorrow)⁣

How well your health and fitness goals also meet these needs will determine your ability to be successful with them and maintain them long-term (Teixeira et al., 2012)⁣

What happens when our needs aren’t met?⁣

Research shows 🤓 that we create substitutes or compensatory behaviors to make up for this.⁣

And the results aren’t pretty.⁣

Unmet needs…⁣
➡️ emotional distress⁣
➡️ excessive eating or uncontrolled eating⁣
(Heatherton & Baumeister, 1991)⁣

Unmet needs…⁣
➡️ rigid behaviors⁣
➡️ shame when ultra-high/inflexible standards can’t be achieved (Verstuyf et al., 2012)⁣

Unmet needs…⁣
➡️ stronger urge to eat and/or binge eating behaviors⁣
➡️ lack of goal progress and mental health concerns (Schueler & Kuster, 2011)⁣

Obviously these research examples are pretty extreme.⁣

But if your ambitions stem from pressure from someone else,⁣
your own feelings guilt,⁣
or a lack of belief in your abilities…⁣

then your basic needs won’t be met.⁣

…and likely, neither will your goals.

Hi, I'm Kasey!

I coach, mentor, write, and teach with one main focus: Build strong bodies and healthy lifestyles, starting with your mindset.

 

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