How To Get The Most From Yourself And Others By Understanding The Basics of Motivation

Two basic kinds of motivation are at the most fundamental level: the carrot or the stick.  People are either trying to achieve something good or avoid something bad.

People naturally want things and either move towards what they want or away from something they don’t want, thereby getting what they want.

It helps to understand what motivates you or someone else.  It usually doesn’t work to use the stick on a carrot person or offer a carrot to a stick person.  It will only cause frustration to everyone.

You don’t have to let motivation happen passively when you understand this. You can now control what motivates you and the people you sell to.

If you are trying to motivate someone to buy your products, sometimes the carrot is a weak tool, especially if the person doesn’t feel in danger.

That’s why the stick works best sometimes.  The polite thing would be to say, “Wouldn’t it be nice to carry a pepper spray so you would feel more secure when you leave your home.”

But, it would be more effective if you said, “The odds are 1 in 7 that you will be raped someday.  Do you want to gamble with those odds, or would you prefer to carry a $10 pepper spray?”

Instead of moving them towards the warm and fuzzy feeling of being safe and secure (the carrot), you want to make them aware of the bad that could happen so they will do whatever they can to avoid it (the stick).  Your products will help them avoid the bad thing.

To better understand what motivates you and others, you must understand the three basic desires that motivate people. All three have the carrot-and-stick variation.

One would be power. 

People want to either gain more power in their lives or avoid feeling helpless.

The second would be association.

People want to either do things that will make them liked and admired by others or avoid things that will make people dislike them.

The third is accomplishment. 

People want to either succeed at things or avoid failing at things.

Unfortunately, most people do not have the ambition or prosperity consciousness to make the carrot effective. Most respond to fear or the stick: fear of being poor, fear of losing their home, fear of not having money for retirement or their children’s college, fear of someone taking what’s theirs, or fear of someone hurting them.

This has no right or wrong, but you must understand it. Understanding it will give you greater insight into what motivates the people you sell to.