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This theoretical paper is based on a collaboration of Mirko Wegner (chair of Sport Pychology at the Humboldt University of Berlin), and Julia Schüler and Zsuzsanna Zimanyi (chair of Sport Psychology at the University of Konstanz). The authors  integrated two research concepts that are important for high performance and health in sports, but that are theoretically relatively loosely connected so far. These are the concepts of implicit and explicit achievement motives and self-control. The article states that whether the goal striving process toward high performance feels "stony", "graveled", or "paved", depends on the presence or absense of activity-related incentives (e.g., enjoying the activity), high or low task difficulty, and the congruence or incongruence of implicit and explicit achievement motives.

Abstract of the paper:

Self-control is associated with several positive outcomes such as high performance in different lifedomains. The exertion of self-control, however, is experienced as strenuous and aversive. Referring totheoretical approaches from motivation psychology, we assume that striving for performance goals canfeel more or less strenuous, because the goal is based on the implicit or on the explicit achievementmotive or on both types of motives. We argue that three sources of self-control demands (difficulty of thetask, lack of activity-related incentives and motive-goal incongruence) determine whether the processof goal striving feels easy, moderate, or hard, or, in other words, whether the path to high performance is “paved”, “graveled”, or “stony”.

Full paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.peh.2019.100146

Citation: Schüler, J., Zimanyi, Z., & Wegner, M. (2019). Paved, graveled, and stony paths to high performance: Theoretical considerations on self-control demands of achievement goals based on implicit and explicit motives. Performance Enhancement & Health, 7, 100146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.peh.2019.100146