Extrinsic Rewards Provide Motivation for Exercise "What's the
trick for sticking with an exercise program?"  That's a question
I often get from patients and from folks at book signings and
other events. I guess people believe that since I was good at
something, I must also know some secret way to make it easy.
Gosh, I wish I did.  Unfortunately, there is no trick. Even the
greatest athletes struggle with motivation. But my lifelong
friend, Michael Lardon, M.D., associate clinical professor at
the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and
award-winning brain researcher, has some clues. Based on his
work on athletic peak performance, he says, "Having a reward is
a way you activate your behavior with a purpose and a direction.
You might have all sorts of high emotions and desires,
constantly thinking, 'I want to do this, I want to do that,' but
very few people can channel that into action. When you
consciously channel it into action, that emotion is called
motivation."  Lardon, himself a former