Reframing the Role of the Personal Trainer.

Furniture and Cake? ( Dan Ariely “What makes us feel good about our work”). Once I have been through being enticed to try, found the task/exercise compelling, and achieved some success, how am I going to feel at the end of all this? Was it all worth it? (The Value concept).

Dan Ariely talks about assembling furniture (IKEA furniture)in terms of the value one feels after assembling one’s own furniture: a tangible end result. The effort involved in assembly and then experiencing the finished item of furniture is very rewarding. This experience he called The IKEA EFFECT. The assembly of the furniture comes with instructions, pieces to be assembled, necessary nuts and bolts to attach the various pieces together, and so on. Alongside this, I have to have a certain modicum of skill with tools, patience, and perseverance in order to complete the assembly, and take pride in the finished article- the work I have done!

In another example of value and effort, Dan Ariely talks about Cake baking and the effort required to bake a cake. Traditionally, to bake a cake one had to find all the ingredients and assemble them together in the correct portions, and put the mix into an oven for a certain length of time to experience the end result. However, when these corners are cut and one does not have to assemble the ingredients, but only put the cake directly into the oven to have a finished cake ready for eating, the value is lost because one did not have to do any work. This Dan called “The Egg Theory”. Having to put work into something makes it more appealing.

How much effort did I have to put in? How did the very thought that I could assemble furniture in the first place (especially if I have never done it before)entice me to have a go? What tangible results was I experiencing? Something was appearing out of all the different pieces that I could see,feel and experience. Something that seemed challenging, is easy after all, and the effort I have put in is worth it!