Want people to act? Give them a reason to move

Motivation isn’t mystery, it’s movement. Once you understand it, you’ll know exactly how to influence decisions.

Author

Scott Harrison
August 12, 2025

“Motivation” gets thrown around like confetti in leadership books, negotiation seminars, training sessions, and team meetings.

But when I ask people to define it, I usually get blank stares.

Yet this one word underpins all influence, persuasion, and negotiation.

So let’s clear it up.

The word motivation breaks down into two root ideas:

  • Motive = reason

  • Action = to do or move

Put simply:
Motivation means a reason to move.

And if you know how to give people the right reason, you can change minds, shift resistance, and influence outcomes.

Let me show you how powerful that is.

People move for only two reasons.

Either they want to:

  • Gain something desirable, or

  • Avoid something painful

Most professionals understand this in theory.

But what they often miss is:

People will work far harder to avoid a loss than to achieve a gain.

And the more contrast you create between those two outcomes, the more urgency you create.

Now let’s add the second insight:

People don’t decide with logic.
They decide with emotion.
Then justify with logic.

Something has to feel right before it ever makes sense.

You’ve likely had conversations where your proposal was logical, reasonable, even beneficial, and still, the other person didn’t move.

It’s not because they didn’t understand you.

It’s because it didn’t feel right.

So if you’re leading with logic, and ignoring emotion, you’re talking to the wrong part of the brain.

This brings us to one of the most effective Magic Words in negotiation:

“How would you feel if…?”

This simple phrase does 3 powerful things at once:

  1. It triggers the emotional brain

  2. It invites the person to time-travel into a future scenario

  3. It makes them feel the consequences before they arrive

You’re not just describing a possible outcome, you’re helping them feel it.

And that creates real motivation.

Examples:

  • How would you feel if this decision led to your promotion?

  • How would you feel if your competition passed you by?

  • How would you feel if this helped you rebuild trust with the client?

  • How would you feel if you lost this account after all the groundwork you’ve done?

  • How would you feel if, one year from now, you were clear of this problem — and finally moving forward?

Positive or negative - both versions work.

Why?

Because you’re helping them picture a truth worth changing for.

I hope today you’ll takeaway that:

Motivation isn’t magic.

It’s movement, triggered by emotion, shaped by contrast, and guided by timing.

So the next time someone pushes back, pauses, or stays stuck…

Don’t ask them to agree with you.
Ask them to feel it.

See you next week.

Scott