Why Carrot-And-Stick Type of Motivation Doesn’t Work and What Will
Do you know what’s the “carrot-and-stick” motivational approach is about? When you take action according to your plan, you are rewarded (with a carrot). And when you don’t follow through, you are punished (with a stick).
But do you also know that the carrot-and-stick motivation doesn’t really work?
This motivational approach is assuming we humans are like donkeys. You want the donkey to carry the load for you, so you put a carrot in front of the donkey to motivate him to move forward.
And when the donkey disobeys or doesn’t want to move, you will just hit the donkey with a stick. You punish the donkey for not doing the work.
This kind of motivational method isn’t truly effective.
By the end, the donkey will be bruised, felt miserable, battered, and fall into the emotional trap of “damned if I do and damned if I don’t.”
What’s worse is that when we use the carrot-and-stick approach to motivate ourselves, we become the donkeys.
We reward ourselves externally when we do, and this makes us only work for the reward, not the work itself. Plus, we punish ourselves when we procrastinate, and this makes us feel inferior.
This is why if you want to motivate yourself or others, don’t use the carrot-and-stick method, instead, use these 3 approaches…
1. Reframe the Meaning
I believe you understand that your purpose behind what you do is important. This is because your “why” is what inspires you into taking action and doing the work or task in the first place.
Many people fail to motivate themselves to work on their goals because they don’t have a strong purpose for achieving the goals.
When the meaning behind what you want to achieve is emotional and empowering, you will be automatically inspired and do the work.
In my blog post here, I shared a study from the best-selling book, Give and Take, on how when you find your work to be meaningful, you will be inspired to work for it…
“In an experiment conducted by Adam Grant and his team, he studied paid employees at a university’s call center who were asked to cold call for a fundraising campaign.
The work is grimed as employees don’t get high pay and they have to face rejections for asking for the donations. So, the turnover rate is high and the morale is low.
So, Grant and his team arranged a group of employees to meet with the students who received scholarships from the fundraising campaign. The employees got to ask the students about their lives and studies for just 5 minutes.
The following month, that little 5 minutes interaction with the recipients of the scholarships made a huge difference. The group of employees spent twice as much time on the phone and brought in more money from their fundraising call, from $185.95 to $503.22 per week. And that’s about 271% improved in performance.
You see, when you know what you do is helping and serving people, you become more motivated to work harder.”
This is why the meaning of what you do matters.
When you are doing something that you believe is meaningful, then you will be inspired internally to take action.
You don’t need to reward or punish yourself to get the work done, you are more willing to act by just reframing the meaning of your work.
2. Leverage the Environment
Another powerful motivational method is to build a supportive environment. When you are in the right environment, you will become more inspired to do the work.
This is why entrepreneurs and companies spend millions of dollars on building a great working environment because they know that environment plays an important role in bringing out the best of their people.
Regardless of whether you are working as a team or if you are a solopreneur, you can leverage the environment and build a surrounding that entices you to work and get things done.
Imagine if your goal is to write a book in 3 months. How can you leverage the environment so that it helps motivate and inspire you to get the book written?
This article from BusinessInsider.com shares how Dr. Maya Angelou, renowned poet and author got most of her work done in a hotel room.
This is what Dr. Angelou said in an interview:
“I have kept a hotel room in every town I’ve ever lived in. I rent a hotel room for a few months, leave my home at six, and try to be at work by six-thirty.
To write, I lie across the bed, so that this elbow is absolutely encrusted at the end, just so rough with callouses. I never allow the hotel people to change the bed, because I never sleep there. I stay until twelve-thirty or one-thirty in the afternoon, and then I go home and try to breathe; I look at the work around five; I have an orderly dinner — proper, quiet, lovely dinner; and then I go back to work the next morning.”
Dr. Angelou truly understood the power of an empowering environment.
When you build a supportive environment that inspires and motivates you to work, you are setting yourself up to win.
Sadly, most people neglect the environment they’re in and thought that motivation has nothing to do with their surroundings.
So, if you want to motivate yourself or others, start with the environment.
Build the environment so that you will want to work there and look forward to getting things done.
3. Create Small Wins
Tony Robbins once said:
“People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
This is why your wins are important, especially small wins.
Why? Because that’s how the Success Cycle works.
When you believe you can do it, you will tap into more of your inner potential. And when you do that, you are more likely to take more action.
And guess what will happen when you take more actions? You get more results. And when you see yourself getting more results and making more progress, you feel confident.
When you feel confident, you believe in yourself more. You believe you can do it and that your goal is possible. And you tap more of your potential and put in more actions. And you get more results.
And the cycle goes on and on.
Belief → Potential → Action → Result → Belief → Potential → Action → Result → and so on…
So, how do you create better beliefs and grow your confidence? Well, you chunk down and create small wins.
When you see yourself winning and are making progress toward your goal and slowly getting the result you want, your confidence will soar.
This is why you want to start small and take baby steps.
Creating small victories boosts your confidence and ultimately increases your motivation to pursue the goals you want to achieve.
Conclusion
Motivation doesn’t need to rely on reward and punishment. The old-school “carrot-and-stick” approach isn’t effective for most cases.
The best motivation is inspiration coming from within you. When you are deeply inspired and intrinsically motivated, you will do the work even without reward or punishment. And that’s the real motivation you want to get.
