Importance and Confidence: The Two-Number Scaling Question That Helps You Talk Yourself Into Change

Key takeaways

• The importance ruler and the confidence ruler are two separate 0 to 10 questions from motivational interviewing: one for how much a change matters, one for how able you feel to do it.
• Each rating gets two follow-up questions: why that number and not a lower one, and what would move you up a single point.
• Asking why not a lower number is deliberate. It gets you defending the reasons for the change instead of defending why you have not made it yet.
• A high importance score paired with a low confidence score points to a sizing problem, not a motivation problem: the first step is too big.
• Weighing your reasons for and against a change works better when it leans toward the reasons for changing, not an evenly split list.
• You can run both rulers on any real decision in under five minutes with a pen and a line from 0 to 10.

Everybody knows the feeling of announcing a change and then not making it stick. You decide, out loud or just to yourself, that you are finally going to train for the race, pitch the idea, paint more, or save more, and three weeks later it has quietly stopped happening. Motivational interviewing, a counseling approach built specifically around ambivalence, has a two number tool for exactly this moment: two numbers you can write down and answer for yourself, with a pen, even though the method itself was designed as a two person conversation.

What is the importance ruler in motivational interviewing?

The importance ruler is a single question: on a scale of 0 to 10, how important is it to you, right now, to make this change? Psychologists William Miller and Stephen Rollnick developed motivational interviewing. In their own words, it is "a collaborative conversation style for strengthening a person's own motivation and commitment to change," and the importance ruler is one of its simplest tools. In a clinical setting, a counselor asks the question out loud and listens. Used in a journal, you are asking it of yourself and writing down your own number, which keeps you in the position motivational interviewing was built around: the one doing the talking, not the one being talked to.

What is the confidence ruler, and how is it different from importance?

The confidence ruler is the second 0 to 10 question in the pair, and it asks something different from the first: not how much a change matters to you, but how able you feel to actually do it. Rating a change a 9 for importance and a 3 for confidence is common, and that gap does not mean you need more motivation. It means the goal itself was never the obstacle, the size of the first step was. In practice, the confidence number often turns out to be the more useful one to watch, since it points more directly at what a person actually goes on to do. That is a general pattern described in behavior change research broadly, not a specific finding about this journal or about any particular change you are working through.

Why ask yourself why not a lower number instead of why not higher?

Because the two versions of the question pull opposite arguments out of you: defending a number you already picked draws out your own reasons for the change, while explaining why it is not higher draws out your reasons for staying the same. After you write your number, the standard motivational interviewing follow-up is "why a [number] and not a lower one," never "why not higher." Asking why not higher invites you to explain your hesitation, which puts your reasons for staying the same into words and, ironically, strengthens them. Asking why not lower does the opposite: it requires you to defend the number you already picked, so you end up listing your own genuine reasons for the change, in your own words. Motivational interviewing calls this kind of self-generated language change talk, and it is treated as more useful than a reason someone else hands you, simply because people tend to believe arguments they made themselves. A second follow-up question rounds out the ruler: what would move you up a single point? Not from a 4 to a 10, just one notch, which turns a vague goal into one specific, small next action.

What does a full importance and confidence ruler exercise look like?

A full exercise looks like two numbers and four short, honest answers, not a long essay. Here is one, run on a genuinely ordinary decision: starting a daily walk before work.

Importance, 0 to 10: "I'd say a 7." Why a 7 and not a 3: "I've felt foggy by mid-morning for months, and I already know from the times I've done it that twenty minutes outside changes the rest of my day. That's not a 3, this actually matters to me." What would move it to a 9: "Probably if I stopped assuming it only counts at a full twenty minutes."

Confidence, 0 to 10: "Honestly, a 4." Why a 4 and not a 1: "I did this for two weeks straight last spring, so I know my body can handle it, and I don't have an early meeting most days. I'm not a 1, I've already proven I can do this." What would move it to a 6: "Laying my shoes out the night before, and starting with ten minutes instead of twenty so I can't talk myself out of it."

Notice what the two numbers do together, which a single "I should walk more" never could. A 7 and a 4 point to a specific plan a 9 and a 9 would not: skip the pep talk, shrink the walk, and remove the one obstacle named in the confidence answer.

The right column is not more optimistic than the left one. It is just specific enough to act on, which is the entire point of putting a number, and then a reason, next to a goal instead of leaving it as a feeling.

What is decisional balance, and how does it fit with the rulers?

Decisional balance is the practice of writing out your own reasons for and against a change, and here it works as the ruler's natural follow-up: the ruler gives you a number, decisional balance is where you write out the reasoning under it. It works best when it is not treated as a neutral, evenly split exercise. On paper that might mean three or four lines under "why this matters to me" and a single honest line under "what I'd be giving up," rather than a balanced two-column grid with equal room on each side. Motivational interviewing generally cautions against the evenly weighted version of this exercise, because giving equal space to the reasons for staying the same tends to talk people out of changing rather than into it. Motivational interviewing instead leans toward drawing out more of your own reasons for change, on purpose, which is the same logic behind asking why not a lower number in the first place.

How does The Epic Journal use the importance and confidence rulers?

The Epic Journal uses both rulers as written prompts inside its 30 day guided practice, with a worked example on the page and a short note on why the question is built the way it is, including why "not a lower number" beats "not higher." It is built for anyone building a life on purpose: athletes, founders, creatives, and anyone in a season of change, and its prompts more broadly are informed by questioning techniques used in motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy. Motivational interviewing was designed as a two person, collaborative method between a counselor and a client, and no printed page can replicate that conversation. What a guided prompt can do is put the same well tested questions in front of you, in the right order, so that you remain the one supplying the number and the reasoning behind it. That makes it a self guided practice built on real technique, not a substitute for working with a licensed clinician or counselor.

What is the importance and confidence ruler in motivational interviewing?

It is a pair of 0 to 10 self-rating questions used in motivational interviewing. The importance ruler asks how much a change matters to you right now, and the confidence ruler asks how able you feel to actually do it. Each number is followed by two more questions: why that number and not a lower one, and what would move you up a single point.

Why ask yourself why not a lower number instead of why not a higher one?

The two questions produce opposite answers. Asking why not higher makes you explain your hesitation, which puts your reasons for staying the same into words. Asking why not lower makes you defend the number you already gave, so you end up stating your own reasons for the change instead, in your own words. Motivational interviewing calls that kind of self-generated language change talk.

What does it mean if my importance score is high but my confidence score is low?

It means the goal is not your real obstacle, the size of your first step is. A 9 for importance and a 3 for confidence is common, and the useful move is not to hunt for more motivation, it is to answer what would move me up a point and shrink the action until the number moves.

Is decisional balance the same thing as the importance and confidence rulers?

No, but the two are meant to work together. The rulers give you a number, and decisional balance is where you write out the reasoning behind it: your own reasons for the change, weighted more heavily than a neutral list of pros and cons would be, since research behind motivational interviewing has found that giving equal space to reasons for staying the same tends to lower motivation to change.

Do I need a therapist or coach to use the importance and confidence rulers?

No, these two questions were designed to be asked and answered honestly, and you can do that on your own page. That said, motivational interviewing itself is a collaborative method meant to happen between a counselor and a client, and a self-guided version like this is not the same thing as working with a licensed clinician. If you are working through something more serious than a habit or a decision, use this alongside professional support, not instead of it.

Can I use the importance and confidence rulers on more than one goal at a time?

Yes, though it works better one decision at a time rather than all at once. Rate importance and confidence separately for each goal you are actually considering this month, then start with whichever one has the highest confidence score, not the highest importance score. Confidence tends to be the more practical number to watch, though that is a general pattern rather than a guarantee for any specific goal.