Written by: Vickie Sullivan  |  September 12, 2013

Where Are You Coming From?

I love rhetorical questions that change my thinking.  And Tory Higgins asks a big question in this interview from Booz & Company’s Strategy+Business.

The upshot:  our motivation rests in one of two areas — a promotion-centered focus that centers on pursuing goals or a prevention-centered focus that looks at goals as conduits for safety and security.

I talk to a lot of people about their goals. I can hear their excitement.  My take:  you can tell where someone is really coming from when they have to take a risk.  The crossroads come when I tell them what it will take.  The promotion-centered people will start to figure out how to make that happen.  The prevention-centered people will back pedal and say something like “not now…”.

It’s easy to have rose-colored glasses on while operating in your comfort zone.  The real question: When reaching your goal requires you to take an uncomfortable risk, what’s your focus?  That’s when the true motivation kicks in.