What’s in It for Me? The Psychology Behind Showing Up
If I ask you to do something, the first question your brain fires back is: Why?
Almost immediately after, it does a quick calculation,
“What’s in it for me?”
And if the answer feels worth it, if the incentive matches your goals, values, beliefs - you take action.
That’s just how human psychology works.
It works so reliably that one of the world’s top gamification-for-business companies used it to help CAIXA Bank surpass their annual goal of reaching 9 billion Brazilian reais in revenue, months ahead of schedule!
“The core strategy was to connect business objectives with the emotional motivations of each employee. The gamification was designed to transform the act of meeting goals into an enjoyable experience, where each goal achieved resulted in a positive interaction with the implemented engagement techniques. These techniques served as psychological rewards, encouraging employees to repeat desirable behaviors and creating continuous cycles of engagement. In this way, the simple act of achieving goals became something employees genuinely wanted to do, significantly increasing their involvement and enthusiasm across the board.”
— Ricardo Lopes Costa, The Fantastic Engagement Factory
If it worked for a company with 83,000 employees, it will work for you.
Whatever you’re trying to accomplish, whatever hard goal you’ve set, you need more than willpower.
You need a reason to care. You need your WHY, as Simon Sinek would say.
You need to turn the journey into something that feels epic.
Something meaningful.
At the very least, you need a sharp answer to this,
What’s the mission? Why does this matter to me?
The people who stay the course, who show up with energy, who keep going even when it’s hard?
They’re not just disciplined.
They’ve figured out their hero’s journey. They know what they're fighting for.
They’ve made their mission matter.
No motivation = no fire = no follow-through.
So if you're leading a team, or yourself, remember this,
Before tactics, before strategy, before KPIs...
You’re working with humans.
And humans need their why.
Behavior change starts there.
Do you know what motivates you?
Do your people know what motivates them?
