What’s Your Fuel Level?

It’s the start of a new year, and for many of us, change is on the horizon.

Sometimes that change is self-initiated. Sometimes it’s suggested by others. Sometimes it’s formally required. In medicine and academic life, change often shows up wrapped in goals, milestones, improvement plans, or feedback.

We talk a lot about what needs to change. We even talk about SMART goals. But, we talk less about what that change is running on.

I want to illustrate this with a story. Well, it’s more of a composite example. From my own journey, and what I’ve seen others experience as an educator and as a coach. They are a high-performing, thoughtful, and well-read person.

They understand goals. They may be advanced in understanding that process-type goals (as opposed to outcome or  performance goals) really drive the most positive performances and outcomes. And they likely have developed SMART objectives, grounded in evidence. On paper, it makes sense.

And yet, something still isn’t clicking.

This could be the person who identified their own growth area and genuinely wants to improve. Or it could be the person who was sat down and told change was required, formally. Some people begin with a desire to grow. Others begin by wanting to get off the PIP, graduate, keep their job, or move on. Either type of starting point can lead to real change.

Different paths. Same internal moment. But even process goals can feel like white-knuckling.

If I can hold onto my plan for 10 more weeks, I will feel better.  I just need to do what they want so I can graduate. I just need to be more collaborative to keep this job for a couple of more years.

The thoughts are understandable. Under pressure, it’s what is accessible. And they can produce visible effort and some semblance of change. The person shows up, follows the plan, checks the boxes, and tries to be (or at least look) different.

From the outside, it can appear that change is happening.

On the inside, it feels shaky.

The process goal is being executed, but it’s running on pressure, resignation, fear, or resentment. Carrots and sticks can produce visible effort and short-term compliance, but they raise the emotional cost of change. And as soon as the scrutiny eases (by others or by the harsh inner critic), the behaviors revert.

Frustration peaks, sometimes along with a great sense of self-defeat.

Supervisors may think, they’re doing the steps, but they’re very defensive. Learners may think, I’m doing everything they asked. How much longer do I have to keep this up? The self-starter thinks, Something is wrong with me, I can’t ever make change stick.

What’s often missing isn’t effort or a quality process goal with SMART objectives. It’s the fuel. There are two main interrelated fuel sources: Quality Motivation and our Thoughts/Beliefs.

Process goals work best when a person’s motivation is strengthened (no matter the starting point for the motivation) and when thoughts/beliefs are aligned. That doesn’t mean external expectations disappear. Real consequences will always still exist. What changes is how those external forces function. When motivation is examined and strengthened, the work stops being powered solely by carrots and sticks and becomes something the person has chosen to engage with. And that requires slowing down long enough to examine the motivational building blocks and the meaning they’re making about the set of circumstances.

Quality Motivation. To strengthen motivation, it helps to explore the individual’s self-assessment of the (or your):

• Importance of the change
• Readiness to change
• Confidence that change is possible

Questions include:

• Why is this important?
• What’s in the way of feeling fully ready?
• What would help build confidence in the situation?

When the “why” is examined and owned, even if it initially felt imposed, the same external pressures begin to function differently. The work is no longer powered solely by carrots and sticks, but by a motivation the person has chosen to engage with. Even a short-term concrete why as simple as, I want to graduate and be done with this can still be workable fuel toward the goal.

Thoughts/Beliefs.

A Nonviolent Communication approach can help our thinking about such situations.

Separating:

• What’s being observed (the data, the feedback, the milestones, the actions I notice myself),
• From the interpretations/thoughts/beliefs (what I’m telling myself this means about me, the feedback, or others),
• From the feelings that those thoughts/interpretations generate (and the subsequent behaviors those naturally drive!)
• And the needs or values that are actually at stake.

That pause allows for reassessing, reframing, and agency.

The person begins to ask different questions.

What do I believe about myself right now? What makes this so hard to hear? What actually matters to me in the grand scheme of things? What do I want to take forward from this, even if parts of it feel unfair? Why do I want to make this change, even if it wasn’t something I decided? What need is being unmet currently, and how can I ask for that or address it?

The work becomes quieter, more consistent, and more transferable. The process goal stops being something to endure and becomes something to practice.

This is where real change happens.

Not because the plan improved, but because the motivation is of higher quality and the thinking is more aligned so that additional fuel is applied to the process.

Reflection

If you’re the one being asked to change (or asking yourself to change),are you running a process goal on pressure or on purpose?

What could open up for you if you slow down to examine what you believe about the situation (your thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions) and the emotions and actions those are fueling, along with your motivation (importance, readiness, confidence)?

If you’re supporting someone else, how might you reframe defensiveness or stalled progress as data, not a verdict?

What could shift if you relied less on carrots and sticks and slowed the conversation down to explore meaning, agency, and motivation?

And who is the best person to lead that conversation?

This is the work beneath the work. And it’s where lasting change actually begins.