Everyone should know!
I found this interesting text by chance while looking for papers on interview techniques:http://www.google.se/books?id=r_CuyHwdz7EC...mp;q&f=true
It explains an awful lot about why people don't/seem motivated, and how to effect a change in your own life and get it to stick.
It also reminds me of my brother who said that it isn't hard to get things done, just decide to do them - which seemed monumentally unhelpful at the time, because how do you get to the point where you decide to decide, so to speak.
A lot of it can be seen as "Well, that's just common sense", but as so often, having it written down makes it that much clearer to the mind. Clarity of expression is clarity of understanding, basically.
Interesting specific parts include going to three different treatment programs and telling the counselors that specific participants were likely to recover, and all of them doing so even though they were actually chosen at random.
"Accurate empathy" from the counselor was one of the most important factors in whether a patient improved, whereas confrontation would just make people resist more.
That last is one I particularly wanted to bring up, and much more relevant to us random people on the Internet than it might seem. Consider how people's attitudes are when discussing things with people they disagree with - often they're defensive and confrontational, like "maybe if you'd read my post more carefully" will just ensure hostilities continue without progress. So... yeah. If you wanna convince them, don't put their backs up.
I dunno, the text made it seem so clear...