Meaningful Motivation Principle 5: Motivation that creates ownership

TLDR:?

Meaningful Motivation creates a strong sense of personal ownership. To put your client in the driver’s seat of their journey, help them?

• Gather insights about their patterns
• Continually re-establish their compelling why
• Define their personal guardrails
• See their role in their success

Meaningful Motivation comes from believing that we are in the driver’s seat of both our journey and our successes. However, one of the biggest mistakes companies make when developing motivational support systems is putting themselves in the role of savior. This is usually driven? by an underlying belief that their product or experience will have more value by doing everything for the customer. I’ve sat in on some of these conversations with companies and they usually sound something like, “Our customer is struggling. If we help them, they’ll value our services enough to pay us.” There’s some truth to the thinking, but unfortunately, it is an unsustainable business model. Self-efficacy research shows us that, while saviorism may work as a short-term strategy, it actually increases likelihood of early lapsing since it lowers change resilience and active engagement in the change process. In this article, we outline the principles for a more sustainable and intrinsically motivating approach.

Help them see their patterns

Whether you’re helping people on a journey to change their patterns around spending,smoking, eating, exercise or medical device compliance, your client has existing patterns of engagement. One powerful way that you can help stoke their inner fire and put them in the driver seat to effect change in their lives is by helping them see those patterns and make informed decisions about how they’d like to change.?

Help them maintain a compelling “why”

Change journeys impact change. As we change, our whys (e.g. what inspires and energizes us) changes as well. Sounds obvious enough, but companies and individuals who support change journeys regularly fall into the trap of treating “why” as a one and done. Instead, clients need us to regularly check in and reconfirm that their why is still compelling.?

Help them define their personal guardrails

Guardrails are used on the sides of roads to help protect and guide us when we lose focus or control. They’re used similarly on balconies, and even hospital beds. They form parameters that we can consistently rely on. When it comes to creating change in our own lives, they function in largely the same way. While learning to care for ourselves and create change, we learn what helps us stay centered on the path and what sends us careening. By creating regular moments of reflection you can help them name and declare their personal guardrails. Intermittent Fasting is an excellent embodiment of this concept, as the entire system hinges on defined parameters for eating patterns.?

Help them increase their belief in their own strength

Self-efficacy is the belief we have in our abilities and competencies. It influences our thoughts, emotions, actions, and motivation and shapes our perceptions of life experiences. A person with high self-efficacy is more likely to feel confident, perceive failures as opportunities to learn. To help your clients boost their self-efficacy, guide them toward goals that are both challenging and reasonable, encourage them to approach change in ways that they enjoy, reinforce the power of learning from both challenges and successes, and perhaps most importantly, don’t over-emphasize results.?

The wrap-up

Meaningful Motivation comes from within. To effectively and sustainably support your clients and customers in their journeys, remind them that they are in the driver’s seat, and that your job is to fill the gas tank by providing insights, triggering reflection and celebrating their learning and successes.