Matt Ryder describes a gym client who went from 100 lb overweight to 180 lb overweight in six months. He explains a framework for changing behavior: show people their goal, their current actions, the problems those actions create, and the cost of doing nothing. Time moves you toward or away from your goals whether you act or not.
I'll never forget, I had this guy walk into the gym when I used to own them, and he was about 100 pounds overweight, and I couldn't get him over the line. I saw him maybe 6 months later, he was probably 180 pounds overweight. And when I saw that, I was like, oh shit, that's on me, right? That person is bad at that thing, therefore they probably make bad decisions. The person did not do the thing that was clearly in their best interest because of something that I couldn't do. I was not able to create a clear enough cost of action. So what you do is you get someone's goal, the thing they're doing to achieve the goal, the problems associated with what they're doing. If they were to solve that problem, what kind of solution would they be wanting want to get to, what's the ideal outcome. Then from there you go the cost of inaction. So it's the cost of not achieving the solution. And if people don't understand the actual cost of their inaction and they think that they can just idly march by, but in reality time is marching forward and we either pick a lane that goes towards our goal or away and there is no in between. And a lot of people just don't think or realize that, but that is just reality. You can only go towards or away from your goal. You can't idle. You can't pick a lane where you delay because that goal is only getting further because of time. If you want to start making meaningful and tangible sales, then focus on making people understand the cost of their own inaction. Because if they don't think it's a big deal when they fail, there's no way you get them over the line.
