Obstacles to goal pursuits

Photo by Ju00c9SHOOTS on Pexels.com

There are four potential problems for goal pursuit: failing to get started, getting derailed, becoming rigid, and overextending oneself.

First, once a goal has been set, people often fail to initiate goal-directed responses when given the opportunity. There are a number of reasons for this: Individuals may fail to notice that an opportunity to get started on their goal pursuit has arrived, may be unsure of how they should act when the moment presents itself, or may simply forget about their goal when busy with other things.

Second, individuals may fail to achieve their goals because they get derailed from a goal-directed course of action. Because many goal pursuits entail continuous striving and repeated behavioral performances, one must shield goal pursuit from distractions. These distractions can come in the form of temptations, moods that can unknowingly affect one’s ability to succeed, or habits that compete with one’s chosen course of action.

Third, individuals may fail to achieve their goals because they become rigid in their goal pursuit. They may either need to disengage from their goals because of new information that changes the value of the goal, or they may need to switch their means of approaching that goal because it has become ineffective.

A final obstacle to goal pursuit is overextending the self. Individuals who expend effort on a given goal pursuit experience a subsequent reduction in the ability to self-regulate; this is called ego depletion. Ego depletion results from having drained one’s regulatory resources by exercising self-control in a demanding first task; the ego-depleted individual then shows lowered performance in a subsequent task because these self-regulatory resources are now lacking.

How to follow through with your goals?

The punch line is clear: people who make a specific plan for when and where they will perform the tasks that will take them closer to goals are more likely to follow through. 

Share this:

Implementation intentions

What to do when plans fall apart?

The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.
—Robert Burns

Sometimes you won’t be able to implement a new behavior — no matter how perfect your plan. In situations like these, it’s great to use the “if–then” version of this strategy.

You’re still stating your intention to perform a particular behavior, so the basic idea is the same. This time, however, you simply plan for unexpected situations by using the phrase, “If , then .”

The “if–then” strategy gives you a clear plan for overcoming the unexpected stuff, which means it’s less likely that you’ll be swept away by the urgencies of life. You can’t control when little emergencies happen to you, but you can control how you want to respond to them.

Planning out when and where you will perform a specific behavior turns your environment into a trigger for action. The time and place triggers your behavior, not your level of motivation.

Motivation is short lived and doesn’t lead to consistent action. If you want to achieve your goals, then you need a plan for exactly when and how you’re going to execute on them; including stating “what .. if ..” scenarios.