Let’s say you know me and know I never lie. Everything I say happens. Now, if I told you, “If you give me $1,000 today, I will make it into $10,000,000 in 2261.” Would you do it? Why not?

Now, what if I said, “Give me $1,000 today and I will give you $1,000,000 tomorrow.” Would you do it? Why?

In the first example, even though the money will become a million dollars, you’ll never be able to use it. There is no reward for you. However, in the second example, you will have a virtually instant payoff.

This is one of the biggest keys to motivation, whether you are trying to motivate yourself or others. If people do not see the payoff or cannot accept the payoff, they have absolutely no reason to be motivated to action.

So, here are some things to remember:

1. Have rewards. If you are motivating yourself, give yourself a reason to accomplish your goal. Let’s say, for example, you want to lose weight. You’ll have to diet and exercise. Give yourself one day a week when you can eat whatever you want if you did well the other six days. Not only does this create short term (weekly) goals for you, but it also gives you something to look forward to. You will be able to see, touch, smell, and taste your reward every Saturday (or whatever day you choose).

2. Set Milestones. This goes along with number 1. If you need motivation for a large task, make sure there are waypoints. Returning to our weight loss example, if you want to lose 36 pounds in one year, you must lose three pounds per month. Now, every Saturday you have something to look forward to and every weigh-day (the same each month) you can check your progress. Give yourself a non-food prize. Perhaps you want a smaller sweater or want a new painting for the living room. Promise yourself you will not get these things unless you achieve your milestone goals.

3. Get Buy in. While the other two are important, this one is probably the most important–especially when motivating others. Let’s change examples for a moment and say you are a sales manager and want your new salesperson to hit quota. You promise to take him to the new Chinese restaurant if he succeeds. That’s great, but what if he hates Chinese food? In order to motivate others, you must give them something they want. They must have a reason for accomplishing the task. If you can give them something they want that they cannot get themselves, that’s even better. For example, you have an out-of-print book he has been looking for. This principle applies to you as well. They rewards you promise yourself must be worth the investment and come in a timely fashion. Returning to the diet example: if you refuse to go to the grocery store until Saturday and refuse to have junk food in your house, then you can shop on Saturday and reward yourself. In short–rewards are not rewards without buy in.

4. Be timely with the rewards. I used to work for a company that sometimes had some great incentive programs. The only problem was, by the time they got around to passing out the bonuses, people had forgotten about them and why they received them. After a while, many people stopped caring about the contests and such because they knew it would be a while before they ever received their prize. This was intensely magnified at another company where the rewards were small trophies and in-house printed “awards.” No one cared. Sure, management thought they were great, but the salespeople often complained, “Why am I going to bust my tail to get a piece of paper five months from now?”

Becoming and staying motivated is only as hard as you make it. Motivating others is a little more difficult because it requires you to find out what types of things the person desires. People are often motivated by money (material goods), recognition, or autonomy. If you must motivate a large group of others, have a grand prize that covers all the bases. For example, a monthly contest where the winner is presented with a certificate that grants him/her an afternoon off and a $25 gift certificate to their favorite restaurant. Then you can have a couple of smaller prizes in each of the areas so everyone has something to get excited about.