Hey guys, and welcome back to another episode of ChangeWired Podcast, guys. What if the key to doing hard things consistently wasn't discipline, but design for something else? In today's episode, we explore how to push your own buttons on purpose. What does it mean to push your own buttons on purpose? What does it mean to push your own buttons? It means to know to learn how to design your life in a way that activates what drives you, so then you can do hard stuff on purpose consistently without having to rely on discipline, which actually is quite unreliable.
Speaker 1Yukai Cho, one of the top world's gamification minds in the world. He's going to join me in eight weeks on one of the podcast episodes for ChangeWired, but today we're going to unpack eight core drivers that we're going to talk in more detail on the upcoming podcast. Today you're going to learn what drives humans to do hard stuff. So we want to do that stuff and it actually feels like fun. Like for Yukai, you're going to learn about how Yuk can use it to write his book. But whatever that is writing books, getting after that workout, eating healthier, building businesses, motivating teams, motivating customers to use your products it's all about knowing what actually drives and moves you and people, what actually drives and moves you and people, and how to design life, environments, products that life and work feel like a game we want to play. If you've ever said I just need more willpower or I need to motivate my people, this podcast episode is for you. So back to that conversation that we had yesterday with Yukai for recording of ChangeWired podcast, or I like that.
Speaker 1Pushing your own buttons. It makes it sound like someone else has control over you and instead you can learn how to control yourself. That's what Yukai said to me during our podcast recording on gamification and how to control yourself. That's what you guys said to me during our podcast recording on gamification and how to make ourselves do hard things. Not just do them, but want to do them and have fun doing that. We hear it all the time and, guys, there are no lack of quotes on social media. Something along the lines Motivation isn't reliable. You need discipline, but I'd argue and Yukai, world's top gamification mind, agrees nothing, guys, nothing happens without motivation, even discipline and willpower run on fuel, and that fuel, willpower run on fuel and that fuel, it's motivation, more specifically, the core drivers that move you and other humans into action. Pushing your own buttons means it's all about knowing which drives you the most, what drivers work best for you, and then designing your life environment to activate those drivers.
When Yukai, for example, needed to finish his book, which wasn't his primary activity he's not a writer between his work with clients and family commitments, kids and all, he didn't rely on willpower to write that book. That needed to be written, to build up his expertise, to transfer his knowledge, to bring more business down the road. But he didn't rely on his willpower. He used social pressure. So he told people at one of the upcoming workshops in a few months that they'd be getting his book as part of the deal and the fear of losing his face, his reputation, disappointing people work better than any calendar reminder or discipline. He wrote. He delivered. That's what pushing your own buttons looks like.
Speaker 1Let's break down those eight core drivers. Well, there is a ninth one that you're going to learn about on our upcoming podcast with Yukai Cho. But eight core drivers that drive human beings to take action. When you don't need to tell yourself or I need to get disciplined, but it actually pulls you into action. You know, like I don't know, you get your work done, you feed yourself, you take care of your kids or your parents or your partners. You do a lot of stuff. How do you get things done? And you get those things done and other things by activating, by those core drivers being activated and, again, pushing your own buttons. And part of mastering life is learning what actually drives you and use that, using that in designing your life experience, your work experience, so you are pulled into action on the things that you want to deliver and create in your life. So, eight core drivers let's go through them and again all the details and how to apply them, whether that's your personal life, whether that's professional setting or designing products and services or helping others to do the right thing. So these core drivers and learning to activate them will help you to get yourself and other people into action.
Speaker 1So, number one epic meaning and calling. Now the names. Obviously Yukai came up with the names, but the essence, that's what matters here understanding that. So epic meaning and calling it means when you feel you're part of something bigger than yourself, purpose beyond the task. So, for example, in corporate setting, they always say if you want to motivate your employees, if you want them to deliver high performance, then you got to talk about purpose. People need to feel that they're part of something bigger. So that's what it's all about, right? Epic meaning and calling Development and accomplishment, progress, mastery, the win you earn, the progress, the tracking of numbers, the number you see on the scale or on the P&L sheet, like developing, accomplishing, moving forward, making progress.
And think about the things you do consistently in your life hard things when you're making progress. Isn't that making it easier? And you want to see more progress? You want to keep doing. Just think about these drivers and, as I'm walking you through, those where you are driven by them and where you can use more of them to do things that you've been failing for a while to do for a while to do Empowerment of creativity and feedback making choices, expressing yourself, seeing impact, creating something. So that's core. Driver number three Feedback is very crucial here, like, for example, when you write a blog, when you deliver your podcast, when you do whatever work or, I don't know, making progress in your workout. That's why all those fitness trackers work so well they give you feedback and that empowers you, empowers you to continue.
Speaker 1Ownership and possession. Driver number four you care more about what is yours. That's why you know. That actually reminded me of Tamagotchi. I remember when I was a kid I don't know if you remember those or used those toys. You know Tamagotchi, where you would have, like I had this little egg that's supposed to grow up either into a princess or prince if you feed it and you know, like play with it, et cetera, et cetera. And it can get sad if you don't pay attention to that. Like I felt, like I, you know I had ownership over that and it was my responsibility to take care of it. It's like the same when you get a pet, like it's in your possession, your own, or when you do a piece of, if you do art or craft, or when you do a piece of if you do art or craft, like that thing that you put yourself into, you pour your energy and effort into, like it feels so precious, even though it might cost close to nothing. Number five core drive. Number five social influence and relatedness, recognition, connection, status, community. That's what Yukai used to make himself write that book, even with all the busyness in life Scarcity and impatience.
Speaker 1Driver number six the ticking clock, the exclusive spot, the almost gone, the deadline at work, right. So that's where we get scarcity, impatience, again, like that's why you want to get that I don't know seat in a restaurant or on a concert, when they say, oh, the tickets are selling out, so scarcity and impatience. And when we want to get certain things done because we feel like we're going to be late to the party, like we want to build this product because otherwise somebody else will do that and we're going to miss out, right, so scarcity and impatience, then you have driver seven unpredictability and curiosity. That's what gambling uses a lot. Surprises, mystery, like what's next? That the question I used at the beginning. You're going to learn what drives people better than discipline. What, if it's not discipline that makes people do the hard stuff, right? So that's where you get the curiosity, the unpredictability Gambling, again. You might win, but you don't know when, how much, whether it's going to happen, but people keep playing and casinos make millions and billions.
Speaker 1Driver number eight loss and avoidance. The pain you don't want, the risk you won't take. That's why a lot of us stay where we are and we don't go for adventures, whether that's work, life, relationship. We don't want to lose what we have. We want to avoid pain of being rejected. We don't want to go for that promotion because we might be rejected and we don't like losing.
Speaker 1Or you might say that Yukai used it when he said I'm going to deliver that book for participants of my workshop and he didn't want to endure the pain of not doing that and then people being disappointed and breaking his word, et cetera. So the combination of not doing that and then people being disappointed and breaking his word, et cetera, so the combination of these drivers will help you to learn again how to push your own buttons to do the hard stuff but also feel like you want to do that. And also you might say that loss, avoidance, is not something usually fun or deadline, for example. Yeah, you're pushed, but it's not fun. And on our podcast with Yukai we'll talk about what Yukai calls black hat drivers and motivation and white hat drivers and white hat gamification, and it's all about what makes you feel like positive and empowered, like something bigger than yourself, larger purpose. But then we have loss and avoidance. That are black hat gamification methods which don't necessarily feel good but make you do it anyhow, right?
Speaker 1Alex Harmozy, one of the most famous entrepreneurs on social media these days. He always says if it's anger, use anger to build your business. If it's fear of missing out, then use that. If it's bigger purpose, use that. Whatever drives you, whatever you have, just use it and do the thing that you need to do.
Speaker 1And that's what pushing your own buttons is all about. It's not choosing the most positive, positive, empowering thing. It's like asking yourself honestly what will drive me to deliver on this goal. Um, it's good to have a set of those things, not just one driver, but several, so you can deploy them in different moments, like for me, when it really gets tough. I ask myself yeah, what am I going to be missing out? What am I going to not have? Because I failed to show up and do these actions consistently and sometimes it's not about you especially before public speaking and doing workshops I want to over-deliver, not because of myself that will not drive me but because of the impact that I can make on other people and the lives that I can improve and the world I can improve through improving individual lives. Right, that's what would drive me. And so, learning a combination of these core drivers again, you can listen, or let's repeat, epic meaning and calling.
Number one Number two development and accomplishment. Number three empowerment of creativity and feedback. Number two development and accomplishment. Number three empowerment of creativity and feedback. Number four ownership and possession. Number five social influence and relatedness. Number six scarcity and impatience. Number seven unpredictability and curiosity. Number eight loss and avoidance. Which ones spark action in you In which situations? Which ones spark action in you in which situations Knowing that will allow you to do so much more than discipline could ever dream of? Which ones get you to follow through even when it's hard? Ideally, you want to choose a combination of black ones and white ones, the ones that make it fun, but also the ones that sort of have a stick under your butt effect that's going to push you to deliver.
Speaker 1No matter what your long-term goals, guys, they won't be accomplished by discipline. They'll be accomplished by knowing what drives you and pushing the right buttons, deciding your own life in a way to activate these drivers at the right time to do the things that you got to do to build the life that you want to build and live. And can you imagine just think about that, it's a side note Elon Musk waking up every morning and saying I have to be disciplined to build the rocket and send us all to Mars, like building this billion trillion dollar businesses. Do you really think that discipline, pushing himself into what he doesn't want, got him here there, like really, discipline can only last so much that willpower they actually did a lot of research Willpower doesn't freaking last. It doesn't even last when people have to choose between cookies and carrots and then have to do math. Their willpower, by the time they need to do math, is already gone.
Speaker 1Without motivation, nothing, nothing works long-term, and discipline including so it's a motivation that is lasting. But you need to learn how to turn your motivation into internal fire, internal energy source, not an instant spark, once and gone, and that's where you learn about core drivers. If you want to get ahead and learn more about you guys's work and apply it to your life, to your business. Yukai has a website. He has a page, his own page, on Wikipedia. He is an author of two books Actionable Gamification, where you get all the mechanics, but then also if you just want to sort of get your life together and move your goals forward, then 10 Hours of Play that is his latest book, and stay tuned for our podcast recording in a couple of weeks.
I finally also got an editor for my guest episode. So more guest episodes coming, as I recorded already a bunch of them but just never got to doing them. So now having my editor pushes me into actually delivering. So, guys, I hope you learned a lot and you know what I hope. I hope you had a change of mind, that now you understand that discipline actually doesn't last and when you think about yourself or other people, you see that it wasn't discipline that drove them. It's something that was inside of them that drive this urge, something was active that drove them through all the obstacles, and that wasn't discipline. Discipline again, and willpower just do not last.
Speaker 1So really listen to this podcast episode to think about core drivers in more depth and detail so you could actually see in your life, in your work, which ones drive you to follow through and do the hard stuff and then design your life and your work around the activation of those core drivers so you can expand and deliver even more, especially in the areas where you struggle. At least, that's what I'm going to do with this information. I'm like, okay, this is where I follow through. I deliver even when it's hard. So how can I design my life and work to follow through on the things that I usually fail to follow through on?
Speaker 1And, guys, as usual, please do share this podcast with at least one other person. Let's help each other to get better, to get stuff done that we need to get done, and know how to push our own buttons to create the life that is fulfilling that we absolutely love living. I cannot do it without you, so please do share this podcast episode. Also, rate review so the platforms push this podcast forward and we reach more ears, more people and we deliver. In our life, we design the life that we absolutely love living. We improve the world. So that's what it's all about. Let's share. I cannot do it without you guys. And until next time, thank you so much for listening, for tuning in, until next time. Keep growing, learn how to push your own buttons and follow through.