Quotes About Motivation

Direct the Rider. What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity. So provide crystal-clear direction. (Think 1% milk.) Motivate the Elephant. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion. The Rider can't get his way by force for very long. So it's critical that you engage people's emotional side

spell out the benefit of the benefit. In other words, people don't buy quarter-inch drill bits. They buy quarter-inch holes so they can hang their children's pictures.

The psychologists Amos Tversky and Eldar Shafir offered college students a five-dollar reward for filling out a survey. When given a five-day deadline, 66% of the students completed the survey and claimed their rewards. When given no deadline, only 25% ever collected their money.

If you want a reluctant Elephant to get moving, you need to shrink the change.

For individuals' behavior to change, you've got to influence not only their environment but their hearts and minds.

if people are facing a daunting task, and their instinct is to avoid it, you've got to break down the task. Shrink the change. Make the change small enough that they can't help but score a victory.

By using Kamb's level-up strategy, we multiply the number of motivating milestones we encounter en route to a goal. That's a forward-looking strategy: We're anticipating moments of pride ahead.

should not be "losing 10 pounds," it should be something intrinsically motivating, such as "Fitting into my sexy black pants (without gastrointestinal distress)." Suddenly, your weight-loss mission starts looking more like a playful quest, with frequent victories along the way, and less like a daily weigh-in on the bathroom scale

SMART goals presume the emotion; they don't generate it.

Psychologists have identified two contrasting mindsets that affect our motivation and our receptiveness to new opportunities: a "prevention focus," which orients us toward avoiding negative outcomes, and a "promotion focus," which orients us toward pursuing positive outcomes.

motivation comes from feeling—knowledge isn't enough to motivate change. But motivation also comes from confidence. The Elephant has to believe that it's capable of conquering the change. And there are two routes to building people's confidence so that they feel "big" relative to their challenge. You can shrink the change or grow your people (or, preferably, both).

You can't count on these milestones to occur naturally. To motivate change, you've got to plan for them.

if appropriate, add an element of surprise.

People find it more motivating to be partly finished with a longer journey than to be at the starting gate of a shorter one.

Many people have discovered that, when it comes to changing their own behavior, environmental tweaks beat self-control every time.

When a CEO discusses "unlocking shareholder value," there is a tune playing in her head that the employees can't hear.

It can sometimes be challenging, though, to distinguish why people don't support your change. Is it because they don't understand or because they're not enthused? Do you need an Elephant appeal or a Rider appeal?

An old advertising maxim says you've got to spell out the benefit of the benefit. In other words, people don't buy quarter-inch drill bits. They buy quarter-inch holes so they can hang their children's pictures.

A sense of purpose seems to spark "above and beyond" behaviors.

To make progress toward a goal, whether it's noble or crass, requires the energy and drive of the Elephant. And

To get the Elephant off its duff, you need to reassure it that the task won't be so bad.

action triggers can have a profound power to motivate people to do the things they know they need to do.

Action triggers simply have to be specific enough and visible enough to interrupt people's normal stream of consciousness. A

Rescue—if people are facing a daunting task, and their instinct is to avoid it, you've got to break down the task. Shrink the change. Make the change small enough that they can't help but score a victory. Once