How To Motivate Yourself And Others
Picture this. You’re an Olympic diver. You’re perched on top of the platform you’ve dreamed of for as long as you can remember. You hear the first few notes of your National Anthem and know you’re about to feel that smooth ribbon around your neck, the weight of the gold medal.
Quick: What got you there?
One of two things — a carrot or a stick.
But it goes a little further, and if you can see the value in knowing what motivates you and others, this is going to be really helpful.
How can this help you?
Two ways, really.
First, knowing what motivates you will help you see what’s most likely to move you forward, to help you accomplish what you desire. Instead of leaving your motivation unconscious, you can harness it to take you where you want to go.
Also, if you interact with anyone anywhere… professionally or personally, knowing what motivates them is invaluable, too. Chances are, you’re dealing with people every day who are not motivated in the same ways as you are. Without understanding their motivations, you’re going to be a lot less effective and a lot more frustrated than you need to be.
So, what motivates people?
You've probably heard about the carrot and the stick.
About half the world’s population is motivated by the carrot - a reward of some kind, something you’d do just about anything to move toward. The other half is motivated by the stick - a negative consequence that you'd do just about anything to avoid.
But it goes deeper than that.
There are three major areas (Power, Affiliation, Achievement) that motivate people, and with each, people are either striving toward something (carrot) or away from something (stick).
When you combine them you have 6 very distinct motivation types.
Let me explain.
Carrot + Power
Stick + Power
The first area is power. For someone motivated by a carrot and power, the goal is to beat everyone else, to rise above the crowd, to be Number One, the best.
The person motivated by a stick and power, they'll do just about anything to avoid the feeling of being defeated or powerless. It’s just unbearable for them to lose, and they can't stand the thought of looking up to anyone else who defeated them.
Carrot + Affiliation
Stick + Affiliation
The second area is affiliation. Someone who’s motivated by a carrot and affiliation gets pumped up by the idea of having recognition, of being loved and admired by an audience of fans full of admiration and applause.
In contrast, someone motivated by a stick and affiliation wants to avoid being a loser, thinking nobody will like them if they don't win. Avoiding being alone, isolated, and cut off is what drives them.
Carrot + Achievement
Stick + Achievement
The last area is achievement. The carrot here involves competing with yourself, and there’s nothing more satisfying to this person than setting a goal and achieving it. It’s not about winning or losing, but about reaching the goal. It’s more of an internal thing rather than competing against others.
The stick-driven person here wants to avoid failure at all costs. If they do fail, they will redouble their efforts, blaming only themselves. Next time, they'll start sooner, work harder, and do whatever it takes not to fail again.
The question to ask is, which category best fits you?
Knowing what motivates you can give you great clarity on your own life - both in what you’ve done in the past and what you want to accomplish in the future.
Based on how you’re motivated, what can you do to move yourself forward?
But this is also a great tool when you deal with other people.
Knowing what motivates them helps you to empower them to be the best they can be. You can tell a lot about their motivation type from what they say and do. It will be language and action that fits into one of the 6 categories.
The mistake you might make in not understanding these motivations is that you’re likely to try to motivate others the same way you’re motivated. Unless they come from the same angle you do, it’s probably going to misfire and frustrate both of you and make them UNmotivated!
One more important thing about this - there’s no right or wrong to human motivation; it’s more a matter of how we’re wired. Understanding motivation is just a matter of being able to better understand people and what makes them tick.
Turning this toward your online business, what’s going to move you forward? Think keeping these motivations in mind as you write your sales letter might help you connect more with your prospects? Use both the carrot and stick, power, affiliate and achievement in your writing.
No Tags
Comments
March 12, 2009
The Goal Guru said:
This is a great post and a great discussion.
Personally, there are times I am motivated by the carrot and other times I am motivated by the stick.
During my first 10 years as an entrepreneur, my mentor used the approach on me that worked for her and that was competition. She used the stick, but sometimes she beat you with it! It got old fast. After a while, everyone around her grew tired of these tactics and left. The team that she built fell apart because she was always pitting people against each other.
There is nothing wrong when you see another in your field who is excelling, and you feel you are just as capable and talented as them so you strive to model them or surpass them because you know you have the capacity. If you use this wisely, you will bring out the best in yourself. That can be very powerful but you have to be careful of your deeper motives. I have seen people make it to the "top" but they are alone because they alienated everyone around them because of their competitiveness. If you spend too much time looking at your 'competitors' that is time you are not focused on your own Goals.
You might get a big ego boost when beating someone, but to really raise your self-esteem, all you need to do is know you are doing the best you are capable of. There is a big difference between Net Worth and Self Worth. Those in balance have both
As I grew and evolved, I learned that for me, I got farther being motivated by creativity and contribution to others and had a lot more fun. I also made A LOT more friends. I often work alongside my 'competitors' and look for win-win situations to share with them.
Same powerful results, different approach.
Live Your Dreams,
Jill Koenig
http://www.TheGoalGuru.com
March 14, 2009
Fred Raley said:
Hey Kevin,
Great topic.
This also has a lot to do with the "Color" of the person. Each person reacts differently depending on their outlook on life, what motivates them and other factors. Reading about people "colors" really helped me understand that not everyone reacts to things like I do! DUH….
Appreciate all your help in putting things together. Once I started focusing on the important things, great things started happening!
Fred Raley
Woodbridge, VA
703 203 4648
http://www.EMailSalesExplosion.com
Gregory Anne Cox said:
This is the first time I've seen this concept explained like this–very clear and easy to grasp. I am with the commenter above, sometimes I'm carrot and sometimes stick. I've recently been playing with stick motivation in sales copy, it certainly catalyzes folks to respond but sometimes they are just pissed. I wonder how much cultural influence there is on certain demographics as to what makes them be one or the other? As in do we act in certain ways depending on what group we are affiliating with? Great food for thought, thanks.
Dave Main said:
As the above comment states this is a very good discussion.
I know what has kept me constantly motivated is the lessons learned from taking action and no action. Every time I didn't take action the result was the same - nothing happened.
Every time I have taken action the results have proven that something always will happen. Now the result may not be exactly what we were looking forward to. The result may not even gotten me to my goal. But the fact that I was seeing results kept me motivated to keep putting in action.
And every time I was not reaching the goal I wanted I always discovered what was blocking me from the ultimate achievement. Then the momentum kicked in and I zoomed to achieving my goal.
I still use this mind technique to this very day.
It is a technique that uses both the carrot and the stick.
Kevin thanks for the insight.
Kevin Wilke said:
From my experience, I have both a "move towards - carrot" and a "move away - stick" side.
However the move away/stick is greater short term immediate motivation. And the move towards/carrot is greater long term motivation.
So my dominate one is a stick + achievement… avoiding failure. If you have heard my story, my greatest motivation that led me to be successful was to not experience the financial struggle I saw growing up.
March 15, 2009
Tasha said:
Thank you so much for your post. I've never though of what motivates me in this way, and your post gave me a great insight into what drives me. I'm sure it will help a lot to fight my demon - procrastination! :-)) Thanks again!
Internet Marketing Expert said:
I believe achievement is a great motivator. It is generally seen that achievement motivated people evidence a significantly higher rate of succes in life compared to others… It helps to set moderately difficult but easily achievable targets to generate to reach targets and feel in control.
Brenda Blindenbach said:
Hi Kevin, What an excellent article. Lots to think about on the ways a person has motivated themselves in the past, and maybe a better way of doing it in the future.
Thanks for sharing these insights.
With gratitude,
Brenda
http://www.peacefulinterlude.com/
art said:
nice one. but i see also a different angle. money and sex, i guess are the main common factors that a person is being motivated. everyone wants to have money… for money is linked with power… power to buy and own!
and sex impulse drives one to aggression
March 16, 2009
positive attitude and positive mindset said:
Achievement: competing with yourself, and there’s nothing more satisfying to this person than setting a goal and achieving it.
IMO this is obviously the best motivation you find deep into yourself. This is such a huge energy to "exploit".
But there's more than:
- identify your gaps to be able to go one step further (until you reach your goal or face another difficulty)
- staying positive = BELIEVE in yourself!
In fact most of our personal or professional achievements start in our mind.
To Your Success!
Arthur Orchid.
ashraf said:
Nice article about motivating ourselves and others. The best type of motivation I came accross is Carrot + Achievement. It not only makes us, but others also, proud about us.
Thanks for eloborating motivation.
Live your dream,
ashraf
http://ilsbi.50webs.com
http://iahbe7.50webs.com
March 18, 2009
Susan Owen-Thursfield said:
What a thought provoking post.
These different motivations should be borne in mind when choosing a mentor too! I have had mentors totally motivated by Affiliation (both stick and carrot). Their pep talks (and teaching methods) wore thin very quickly and I stopped listening. I didn't know why as the information was sound. Now I do. I am mainly Carrot + Achievement motivated and to a lesser extent Stick + Achievement. I am never, ever, Affiilatiation motivated.
I'll certainly bear this in mind when choosing my gurus in future!
Thanks!
Susan
April 7, 2009
Tabi said:
Good topic for discussion and i have got a lot of inside Carrot and stick is not strange to me,Carrot and achievement is my way,Failure and lack of support from Mentors really disgust me.I would strongly put in energy when carrot system is put on me,common it is true humans at times need wt if you know your goal you will drive well without any whip
Thanks a lot for your testimony