The right choice of words is a crucial element in our videos in order to convey the core message correctly. But it is also an important key to smooth communication in day-to-day interactions. Words can trigger a wide variety of emotions: They can annoy, disappoint, confuse, but also surprise or inspire. But language can do even more; it can motivate and influence decisions.
When people act, they always do so for a specific motive: they go shopping because they are hungry; read to relax or ride a bike to keep fit. The reason behind each action varies from person to person. It can happen that a person travels to satisfy their curiosity about foreign cultures. Another, however, because she is looking for relaxation in the sun.
Behind everything we think or do, certain patterns of decision-making can be identified. As an example of the different motivation profiles, we would like to explain the limbic preferences to you today.
The limbic preferences
The limbic preferences are a model that divides our values into 3 expressions:
- inspiration
- enforcement
- balance
Every person has their own values to which they align themselves. They vary depending on personality, life history and past experiences. They form points of reference in life and control our brain activities and hormone release. We perceive this as different emotions such as anger, fear or joy.
But everyone is known to be happy about different things – and this is where the limbic preferences come into play again.
inspiration
For example, we call Person A with the expression “Inspiration” Julia. She loves trying new things, going on adventures and being creative. Julia wants exciting experiences in her life and is always curious. She has a lot of humor and joie de vivre and likes to sink into daydreams. Her favorite color is yellow.
enforcement
Our example character for the Enforcement pattern is Thomas. It is important to him to strive for power, wealth and status. He always seeks competition, wants to be at the top and only buys premium products. Thomas wants to set himself apart from others, be superior to them and have control over them. He likes the color red.
balance
And “Balance” Beate is happy with security, harmony and love in her life. She is always concerned for the well-being of her family and friends and treats everyone fairly. Beate treats everyone tenderly and values trust. She likes to save money in the supermarket and collect loyalty points. Beate likes the color blue.
language as a motivator
Now let’s say the three of them work together for a company and their boss approaches them with an “exciting new project”. Thomas will probably first wonder how he can make fame or money out of it. Beate, on the other hand, will be rather scared by the many news and risks of the project. Only Julia will be enthusiastic and very happy to take over the management of the project.
When you consider that the boss could have used other words to describe the project, you realize how much the choice of words can motivate certain people. Thomas would have jumped in immediately with a “successful luxury project” and Beate with a “fair community project”. But the boss’s choice of language only triggered rejection from them.
But be careful: Just because Beate is concerned about safety at work doesn’t mean that she doesn’t do crazy extreme sports in her free time. And while Thomas wants to be the best at work, at home with his family he may value caring and quiet more. Depending on the situation and environment, people can act according to different values. The characteristics can also have different strengths or mix.
And what type do you have?
With a bit of practice and concentration you can learn to recognize the three characteristics in your counterpart. In this context, observe your own environment and your own choice of words. Can you see patterns there? What values do you act by and where would you place them in the limbic preferences?
The limbic preferences in a nutshell
Our decisions are driven by individual patterns, the so-called motivation profiles. The most important of these is the division into limbic preferences. Our motifs are divided into three categories: inspiration, enforcement and balance. We can use the limbic preferences profile as a tool to better understand our fellow human beings and to improve our communication with them.
Find the right language for your message!
We at videodesign are experts in all directions of limbic preferences. We look forward to original, traditional and exclusive inquiries and will find exactly the right words for your target group! ?
