How to motivate yourself to change your behavior:
What does make us change our actions? Tali Sharot reveals three ingredients to doing what's good for yourself.
Dr. Tali Sharot is a neuroscientist at University College London and the director of the Affective Brain Lab. She is a faculty member of the Department of Experimental Psychology, a Wellcome Trust Fellow, and currently a visiting Professor at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on how emotion, motivation, and social factors influence our expectations, decisions, and memories.
We believe that scaring people into taking action will have an impact on their behavior. However, in practice, this has little or no effect because we often choose to ignore the facts given to us and manufacture justifications in our heads. Wherever we can, we try to take beneficial steps. We will always prefer a positive outlook on our futures to a negative one. We like to be a part of what others are doing, and we can utilize this to persuade others to take the appropriate activities. People are also more likely to do something they would not otherwise do if they are compensated. This can help them form better habits by associating future positive behaviors with receiving something in return. Finally, we may highlight others' progress to keep them on the course — people prefer to develop and show them how might help them grow in the appropriate ways. These things can help us feel more in control of our life and motivate us in the right way.