Motivate — But How?. In English the word ‘motivate’ is…
By: Create Cultivate
Tags: Fear, Psychology, Motivation, Procrastination, Positivity

Photo by Peter Fogden on Unsplash

It is easy to say someone ‘Motivate yourself...go to the gym.. workout and lose some weight’. Again to reach the weight loss goal, how can we really motivate someone? Money can not buy motivation. Moreover, it is difficult to stay consistent that is, eating only healthy. My friend tried it a couple of times but, failed to be consistent. This reminds me of, Will Durant’s (Historian) famous quote, ‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit’. In English the word ‘motivate’ is pronounced as /ˈməʊtɪveɪt/. When positive feelings are created in a person, the person is motivated to act.

The answer to ‘What motivates you?’, can vary vastly, for some it might be a challenging job, for others it might be helping people. Everyone has a different mindset, personality, opinion etc. Life can be beautiful but not that easy. I have come up with some points on how to motivate people with different backgrounds.

The antonym of motivate is demotivate meaning discouraged. People get demotivated by warnings used to induce fear. When warnings are given to people they act only for the sake of doing what is asked from them. The behavior which is the main issue here does not get changed. Whereas, motivation is the readiness to act.

Sometimes warnings have an opposite effect. Mostly, when people are threatened through warnings such as, ‘junk food can cause obesity and diabetes’. They start justifying this themselves for example, ‘its okay to have junk food, my family history does not have diabetes or obesity. So, I am blessed with good genes, no need to worry’. This is a natural behavior, in order to neutralize this warning, our brain as a defense mechanism starts justifying it. There are many behaviors that people want to change like procrastinating, their love for junk food, smoking etc. which could have serious consequences later in life. Motivating people to change their behavior is important because it gives them a sense of control.

Below are the ways to motivate effectively-

Emphasize what other people do- We are social people, we really care what other people are doing, we want to do the same and even challenge others by doing it better. For instance, teachers have the responsibility of motivating students to study. To motivate reading habits in the class, a teacher can motivate students by saying ‘X always reads books, that’s the reason she scored well in her English exams’. Likewise, to motivate employees working in the Sales Team, the Sales Manager can say, ‘Laura usually exceeds her sales target because, she maintains good relations with her customers’. It is important that organizations' motivate their staffs’, this is the main reason why some businesses are more successful than others.

Give instant recognition for worthy behaviors- This works because we value instant recognition, what we can get now makes us more content and happy than, the ones we get in the future. Of course, we want to be happy and successful in the future too but, the future is so far away. Future is uncertain. People tend to choose something sure now rather than, something that is unsure in the future. Referring my previous example if another student Y follows X’s habit of reading books then Y should be rewarded because reading becomes associated with recognition and it then becomes Y’s habit ultimately Y’s life style. Therefore, giving instant recognition as a result of a worthy behavior now will bring positive change to the future as well.

Highlight amelioration not failures- This means in order to motivate people, you might want to highlight their amelioration or progress not their failures. Suppose, if a kid eats junk food quite often, you might want to tell them, ‘You know, if you stop eating junk, you’ll become better at sports’ rather than ‘If you don’t stop eating junk, you might get diabetes and obese’. So, you highlight amelioration not the failure.

In conclusion, there is no need to communicate risks, but we need to rethink how we do it. Warnings to induce fear do not change behaviors but make a person do only what is asked. Motivating people change their behaviors making actions ingrained as their habit therefore, paving the way for trusting and relying on people and, not depending on negative strategies like micro-managing people. We need to try positive strategies rather than warnings and fear on people to seek amelioration.