Posts Tagged ‘goals’

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Think Big in 2012: The Power of New Year’s Resolutions

January 1st, 2012 by Jane

Today, at the start of 2012, many of us will take on adopting healthier habits, but in the next breath, or by tomorrow, or the next week, we will have given up and gone back to our old ways.

A conversation I had with a friend last year nicely illustrates this point. We were discussing the year ahead and he said –

“This year is going to be better than last. This year I’m going to be fit and healthy. No more smoking!”

A moment later, he pulled out a cigarette, lit it up and took a puff.

Naturally, some of us have become cynical about new year’s resolutions. “They don’t work” and “Don’t waste your time with them” I hear my friends and family say.

But research findings indicate that we may have underestimated the power of new year’s resolutions. A longitudinal study by Norcross, Ratzin and Payne tracked over 200 people and the progress of their new year’s resolutions. They asked themselves the research question “How long would these people last in sticking to their new years resolutions?”

The results were impressive. Over 77% of participants had kept their main resolutions after 1 week, 55% after 1 month and 40% after 6 months.

This study also looked at the factors and strategies people used to stick to their new year’s resolutions and examined the effectiveness of each.

There appeared to be two main factors that predicted people’s success when it came to sticking to their goals. Firstly, people had to be ready to change and take action. Simply having a strong desire to change wasn’t enough. Secondly, they had to believe that they could. Having confidence in their ability to change their behaviour was key.

We can also look to people who have successfully overcome powerful addictions (e.g. alcoholism and smoking) for insights into how to break bad habits and develop healthier ones.

The researcher Glasgow and his team followed over 100 people who were trying to quit smoking. Those that managed to do so, used more positive self-talk than those that failed to quit.

For example, instead of saying positie statements such as “I’ll feel great and be able to breathe more easily”, they’d say “I’ll be a loser if I can’t quit the smokes”. Positive self talk appears to make a huge difference.

“Stimulus control” and “reinforcement management” are other psychobabble terms that are used to explain strategies that can help you to change your behaviour. According to behavioural psychologists, the surrounding environment shapes human behaviour.

In other words, if you have an endless supply of chocolates and lollies in your pantry, then most likely you’re going to eat them and may even develop a sugar addiction. Similarly, if your friends and family always offer you cake and chocolate and even praise you for eating these foods (i.e. reinforcement), then it’s highly likely you’re going to develop some bad habits.

The idea behind stimulus control is really quite simple. Look around and ask yourself “What is triggering me to eat chocolate?” (i.e. what’s the stimulus or trigger of the undesirable behaviour?) It may be the sight of the chocolate on your desk. So then what? Get rid of the chocolate. Throw it in the bin and don’t buy any more. Too easy.

But what about that big Aunt who always force feeds you her chocolates as a way of expressing her love, and gives you boxes of the stuff for Christmas? Well, according to behavioural psychology you need to manage the stimulus and reinforcer, which means Bye Bye Aunty. Stop seeing her.

But if you’re like me and you know you just couldn’t do that, this is where the power of impis come in.

Impis (short for implementation intentions) take the form of “If…then…” statements and allow you to make a desired behaviour automatic. For example, I could set myself the impi of –

If my aunt offers me chocolates, then I will politely say “No thanks”.

The beauty of impis is that they are pre-decisions. This means you have made the decision before the situation arises, so the next time you see your aunt you immediately know what you’ll say and do. “No thanks”.

Here’s the thing, I don’t smoke. I don’t drink alcohol. In fact, I’m pretty fit and healthy but I’m not going to pretend that my life is perfect because it isn’t.

Like most people, I want 2012 to be better than previous years. There’s room for improvement. I know that I spend more time than I would like on the internet. So I’m resolving to cut back on my internet use. No internet before 10:30am. Checking emails only twice a day.

In a nutshell, the research is clear – new year’s resolutions can and do work. Now is as good a time as any to establish some healthier habits for a happier year. So what are you setting out to create for the new year? Let me know by posting a comment below.

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Posted in Goal setting, Lifestyle, Motivation | 5 Comments »


How Focusing on Results Limits Success

September 25th, 2011 by Jane

“Early education makes us mindless” states social psychologist Ellen Langer.

In her book “Mindfulness” Langer argues that from a young age we are taught to focus on goals rather than the process by which they are achieved.

With such an intense focus on achieving goals and high results you may have become locked in a certain way of thinking. “Mindless” is how Langer describes this state.

Instead of asking “How do I do this?” or “How can I do this?” you find yourself anxiously thinking “Can I do this?” and “What if I fail?”. The joy of learning ceases to exist.

It can be tough being a student in a highly competitive, results oriented school system. As Author and Educator Allison Zmuda states -

“In their efforts to do well in school, students have largely become low level bureaucrats who complete the requisite paperwork but suffer from the monotony of the experience”.

Sadly, this was the case for me. In high school I was a rote learning parrot. Bored out of my brain but extremely driven.

Did I care about whether I had a deep understanding of my subjects? No, not at all. All I wanted were gold stars, high percentages and the letter A on my work.

Then almost overnight everything changed.

I got 1 out of 20 on my first test at Law school.

That’s right. 1 out of 20. And boy, did that hurt.

High school had trained me to become a masterful rote learner, capable of churning out hundreds of abstract, sterile facts. But this skill no longer served me well in a system that required you to have a deep understanding of complex ideas.

In my heartbreak of receiving such a lousy mark, I remember asking myself –

“What is the point of going through another 5 years of study if it’s only for a piece of paper? Is there any point if I don’t enjoy myself and grow as a person?”

At that point I let go of my obsession with results. I became fascinated by the process of learning (eg. How does one learn information at a deep level?). For the first time in my life I started to enjoy learning. I mean really enjoy learning. Some subjects gave me such joy and changed my entire outlook on life.

10 years later, I am now doing my PhD. My uncle would call me a “professional student” but I don’t see it that way. I love learning.

I spend my days exploring original ideas that fascinate me. It’s common for me to stumble across an idea that makes me want to scream out with joy. I only wish it hadn’t taken me so long to arrive at this point.

When you shift your focus from results to the process, not only do you experience greater happiness and fulfilment, but you stop comparing yourself to others. I’m sure you’ve had the experience where you compared yourself to another person and subsequently, felt jealous.

Langer argues that often when we feel jealous of another’s accomplishments it’s because we focus on the end result (not the process the person has gone through).

When I first started my PhD I would compare myself to a 70 year old accomplished professor. I found myself thinking “He is so smart”, “Look at these articles he has written…I can’t write like this” and “His ideas are so deep…I’m so simple”.

Here I was embarking on the beginning of my research career comparing myself to a professor who had been developing and thinking about ideas for over 50 years!

This is indeed a trap that many postgraduate students fall into. Langer states –

“They begin their dissertations with inordinate anxiety because they have seen other peoples completed and polished work and mistakenly compare it to their own first tentative steps.

With their noses deep in file cards and half-baked hypotheses, they look in awe at Dr So-and-Sos published book as if it had been born without effort or false starts, directly from brain to printed page.

By investigating how someone got somewhere, we are more likely to see the achievement as hard won and our own chances as more plausible”.

In my experience, learning can be a tremendous source of fulfilment and joy. But to experience this takes valuing the process over the end result and not comparing yourself to others.

The paradox is that when you immerse yourself in the process, you will most likely get a better result and experience far more rewards along the way.

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Posted by Jane Tags: , , ,
Posted in Goal setting, Lifestyle, Motivation | 1 Comment »


Creating Lasting Habits with the IMPI Strategy

January 22nd, 2011 by Jane

According to psychological research only 53% of peoples’ goals are actually translated into action.

A measly 53%.

Why is this the case?

Professor of Psychology at New York University, Dr Peter Gollwitzer, believes that there are a number of things that derail us from achieving our goals.

We may find ourselves being distracted by Facebook and email, overwhelmed with negative thoughts or perhaps we just can’t seem to get started (i.e. we procrastinate).

So what’s missing from goal setting? IMPI is missing.

IMPI is short for implementation intentions.

Most people either gawk or their eyes glaze over when I say the term “implementation intention”. I know, it sounds awfully academic and a bit scary. So for the sake of this blog post, I’ll just refer to this strategy as “IMPI” (plural: IMPIs)

What is an IMPI?

IMPIs are different from goals in that they specify the when, where and how of a goal. They are particularly good to use for achieving unpleasant goals and goals that are easy to forget.

Here’s how they work –

Whilst a goal typically take the form of “I will do X”, an IMPI takes the form of an “If-then” plan (“If situation Y arises, then I will do X”).

For example, if I have the following goal of “I will not eat sugar”, then I could set an IMPI of “If I am offered some sugary food, then I will firmly say no thank you”.

Basically, IMPIs are just pre-decisions that make the desired behaviour (e.g. not eating sugar) automatic when a particular situation arises. They stops you from having to expend mental energy thinking “Do I have the donut or not? Looks kind of tasty but I really shouldn’t….”

Dr Gollwitzer states –

“The idea is that people do not have to deliberate anymore about when and how they should act when they have formed an implementation intention [i.e. IMPI]”

Research indicates that IMPIs can help us act quickly, deal effectively with cognitive demands and significantly increase the likelihood of taking action on goals.

In one experiment, students were asked to write a report during their holidays about how they spent their Christmas. The students who set an IMPI to complete this task (i.e. they specified when, where and how they would get started on the report) were 3 times more likely to write the report than students who just set a goal (e.g. “I will write the report over the holidays”).

Other studies have shown that IMPIs are effective for helping people to lose weight, manage their time, recycle, perform better on academic tasks and deal with negative self talk.

For too long teachers and self help gurus have been telling us the power of setting goals whilst overlooking the obvious – that most of us have trouble just getting started and taking action towards our goals.

IMPIs are a simple and effective way to help you get in action without much thought and effort being required.

One thing I really want to stress is that impis are more than just deciding on a time and day when you’re going to perform a certain behaviour. Studies have actually found that the particular “If-then” format of the sentence is critical to the effectiveness of the IMPI strategy.

If you’re still having trouble getting your head around the IMPI strategy, here are some examples:

  • For healthy eating: “If I am hungry and need a snack, then I will eat a piece of fruit”
  • For study: “If I start a new task, then I will tell myself: I can solve this task!”
  • For being more focused: “If I have to study, then I will lock myself out of Facebook and close the door”
  • For dealing with difficult people: “If Joe approaches me with an outrageous request, then I’ll respond in a polite and friendly way”
  • For sports performance: “If I start to feel nervous, then I will take a few deep breaths”

    • I challenge you to choose a behaviour you want to change or perhaps a new years resolutions that you have given up on and to set an IMPI (“If-then” plan) to help you accomplish it.

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    Posted by Jane Tags: ,
    Posted in Goal setting, Motivation | 2 Comments »


    43 things to help you achieve your goals

    January 28th, 2009 by Jane

    Do you need a bit of inspiration and help with setting your goals for the year? Not sure where to start or how to word your goals?

    I recently stumbled across a great goal setting website called 43 things.

    It allows you to list your goals, share your progress and encourage others to do the same.

    Better still, people who have achieved the same goal that you are currently after can tell you how they did it and what made a difference to them!

    When I’m on 43 things, it’s like I’m on facebook. The only difference is I’m not wasting time looking at random photos and thinking about what to update my status to. Instead, I’m setting goals and getting inspired about my life (which is a way more productive use of my time if you ask me).

    The basic idea behind the website is simple: if you write your goals down in a list, then you’re half way there to achieving them.

    Sounds too simple? Too good to be true? Well, maybe that’s a little oversimplified but I love the basic idea behind the site.

    My only gripe is often we set goals for ourselves and then feel completely overwhelmed by them. The website doesn’t really appear to go into detail about how to maximise your chances of actually achieving the goals written on your list.

    ‘How will I get from here (where I am now – thesis not finished) to over there (where I want to be – thesis finished)? It seems all too hard!’ is what goes through my mind nearly every day.


    But then a hungry jacks whopper will flash before my eyes.

    No, I’m not binging on hungry jacks. The whopper is symbolic.

    Years ago (when I was feeling overwhelmed by a big project) a friend sat me down and said:

    Friend: ‘Jane, how would you normally eat a burger?’
    Me: ‘I guess I’d press down the top first…’
    Friend: ‘Yeah and what else would you do?’
    Me: ‘I’d take a bite…’
    Friend: ‘And then what?’
    Me: ‘umm…if it tasted good, I’d take another bite’
    Friend: ‘You wouldn’t put the whole thing in your mouth at once would you?’
    Me: ‘No, that would be stupid…I’d feel sick and bloated..’

    My friend went on to tell me that the burger represents my long term goal (the project I am working on) and the bites out of the burger are my short term goals. It’s only through taking one bite at a time that I’d be able to eat the whole burger. The thing is all those little bites add up.

    That image of the burger has stayed with me ever since. I now know that if I want to achieve a goal, I need to break it down into all the little action steps. A mind map usually does the trick.

    Then of course, I need to take action.

    But where do I start?

    David Allen in his book ‘How to get things done’ recommends we ask ourselves ‘What’s the next action I can take to move me forward on this project?’

    So in a nutshell: Write it down, break it down, ask yourself ‘What’s next?’ and then do it.

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    Posted by Jane Tags: ,
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