As Tory Higgins and Heidi Grant Halvorson have discovered in their work at Columbia University’s Motivation Science Center, everything we do is motivated either by a desire to be better off or to simply hang on to what we’ve got. And understanding the simple but crucial difference between the two can empower you to motivate yourself and influence everyone around you. Examining how promotion/prevention focus applies across a wide range of situations—from selling products to managing employees to raising children to getting a second date—Halvorson and Higgins show us how to identify, change, and use focus to get the results we want.

托里．希金斯與海蒂．格蘭特．海佛森在哥倫比亞大學的動機科學中心做研究，他們發現人所做的每件事不是受到慾望的激發想要變得更好，就是只想緊握已經獲得的東西而已。了解兩者之間簡單卻又關鍵的差異可以加強自我激勵的能量，同時也能影響周遭的人。這兩種求成與避敗的動機廣泛的應用在各個情況，從販賣商品到管理員工；甚至從養育小孩到獲得第二次約會的機會。海佛森與希金斯告訴我們如何辨別、改變、使用動機焦點達到我們想要的結果。