Dr. Michelle Segar is a motivational scientist who has been studying what motivates people to choose and maintain healthy behaviors, particularly around exercise.
We start with Michelle explaining what she does as a motivational scientist. Research suggests we tend to make daily health decisions based on emotions and in the moment instead of according to logic. We'll make the choice based on how we feel.
Wellness has come out of a medical model that's logical and makes sense but long term benefits of exercise don't influence people. The "feel good" benefits of exercise do drive long term exercise.
We need to look to marketers as we are trying to change health behaviors. Michelle compares this to Apple and how they guide us to feel in the moment. We can help people see that if they move for 10 minutes they do have more energy. We also need to decrease the standards we give to people using a Kindergarten mindset. Let's shrink the goals we're asking people to achieve (at least at the beginning).
How can we move exercise from a chore to a gift? When you frame exercise as fun instead of physical activity, we get them to see it differently. Hook people to re-frame exercise by the quicker benefits like feeling happy, better sleep, stronger sex drive, connecting with your love ones, etc.
We need to shift people's perception that healthy behaviors from logic health reasons but instead as a vehicle to feel better immediately. Encourage people to notice how they feel differently when they make healthy choices. Ultimately, increase their self-awareness. The most challenging aspect is sustaining the health change because of the ongoing self management around the behavior.
Michelle gives her thoughts on external motivators like gift cards and financial incentives. She leaves us with a tangible tip to assess the reasons we give employees to participate....are they based on logic?