You may have heard the famous proverb that "the first step is the hardest".  This is completely true.  Most likely you may also have heard about positive reinforcement.  

Educational psychologists have researched how to influence people to create results. One effective method to motivate people is through positive reinforcement: encouraging a certain behavior through a system of praise and rewards.

Positive reinforcement means giving something to yourself when you perform the desired action so they associate the action with the reward and do it more often. The reward is a reinforcing stimulus.

Positive reinforcement works because the brain connects the action to the reward, and the idea is that you will repeat the target action in hopes of being rewarded in the future.

A technique you can do for yourself called Gamification is a great example of positive reinforcement in practice. 

Gamifying results is something that professional track stars and football players are trained to do. The combination of being motivated by a reward to take action to achieve a result is very powerful.   

Gamification seeks to create a similar set of experiences to those when playing games in order to motivate and engage users.  Gamification applies the elements of a game to make an activity engaging to drive - for example - interaction, competition and other gaming type behaviours in a non-game context.

Gamification can be very powerful if you are the type of person who is already - or who is open to gaining - the following three behavior factors: 

·         Do you have the motivation and want to perform the behavior?

·         Do you have the ability (and access to all the resources necessary) to carry out the behavior?

·         Is there a trigger that prompts you to take action?

This has been described in a nice diagram as follows:

The most important thing though is whether you have all three factors at the same time.  Only then will you carry out the behavior you are wanting to achieve.

The motivation is simply the incentive or reward outcome that you will set yourself for achieving your objective.  Whether it is a trip to the Caribbean on the completion of a project or something more simile like a meal out at your favourite restaurant.  

Understanding what motivates you is so important to life and is key to successful gamification.  Sports teams use psychologists and their existing knowledge of the players or athletes to make gamification successful.  But no one knows you like you do - so you might be in a great place to already be identifying what motivates you.  

But it's absolutely OK if you are the type of person that doesn't know what motivates you or you are worried that you think you don't understand your true driver and if you want a useful resource sheet to get you going then sign up to my newsletter below. 

The trigger is usually based on timing - i.e. ensuring that you are at a point when you have the highest motivation and ability to achieve the outcome.  Oftentimes the trigger will be when you have a very clear and real understanding of the limitation of resources that is currently preventing you from achieving your objective.  This is often the most effective trigger to prime you into action.

Ability is the final factor to take note of.  For example, rather than assuming that you have the ability to achieve your outcome you might undergo a training programme or validate your existing skill set through undertaking a proof of concept (like I explain below at #3).  

Positive Reinforcement - success builds success

Positive reinforcement is especially effective at establishing new behaviors, but it may not work as well in the long term if you becomes bored with the reward over time.

Positive reinforcement is a practical way to put psychological principles to work in everyday life for great results. It can improve confidence and self-esteem and encourage self-reliance. The benefits are clear.

This is one of my favourite sayings.  If you take action you will generate a result. 

I can hear many of you reading this saying  that you are worried about the type or quality of the result that you achieve.  Studies show that many successful entrepreneurs have started and failed at many businesses until they hone in on the activity that make them millionaires.  

The difference between successful entrepreneurs is very often that they have taken action, had some really educational failures and sought to learn from those failures to make their next venture better than the last.  They are resilient enough to keep going long enough to accrue enough learnings to generate a success.  

Often this is seen by outsiders as "being in the right place, at the right time" but you would be surprised by how many successful people have, to a large extent, made their own luck by constantly iterating through ideas and opportunities until they position themselves for the big one.