More Intrinsically Motivating Member Messaging

Have you read the book Atomic Habits yet? It seems to be taking the world by storm for good reason. Ideally, we’d like to eliminate all of our bad habits (midnight carb loading on the couch, anyone?) and instill an excellent set of good habits.

One idea from the book I’ve been mulling over is the power of making the desired habit part of your identity. Typically we focus on the outcome. i.e., I am going to take that happiness course. Making the desired habit part of your identity means that rather than focusing on the outcome, reframe it so that it becomes part of your identity—like I’m a happy person. An outcome is that I will read 60 books this year, but an identity statement is—I’m the kind of person who reads lots of books.

This identity-based habit-forming makes a lot of sense because I can see how I already make loads of nearly unconscious decisions based on my perceived identity.

The question is, does this strategy work on someone else? And can it work at scale, like in member messaging? I think it can, and let me illustrate by way of example.

An outcome-based member message might look like this: To make completing your annual CE requirements easier, we have developed a learning library of over 75 titles. 

An identity-based member message might look like this: We know our membership is full of people who love to learn, so we built a learning library for you.

Both can be true. Which seems most intrinsically motivating?