Introduction: Stop Beating Your People with Carrots

Are you motivated to read this book? You might find this a silly question given that you are reading it. I agree it is silly but perhaps for a different reason.

Asking if you are motivated raises more questions than answers. What criteria do you use to determine if you are motivated? If I asked you to decide if a colleague of yours is motivated to read this book, how would you reach your conclusion? How do you evaluate another person's motivation? What does motivation even mean?

For many years, my go-to definition of motivation was simply “the energy to act.” It turns out my definition has the same fatal flaw as the other 102 definitions you can find for motivation. Thinking of motivation as having the energy or impetus to act fails to convey the essential nature of human motivation. It does nothing to help you understand the reasons behind the action.