This is How to Use If-Then Planning to Achieve Your Goals
At some point in your life, how many of you have read a self-improvement or ‘self-help’ book? Or how many of you have made a New Year’s resolution?
According to our friends at statisticbrain.com (they aren’t really our friends, but anyway):
41% of Americans usually make New Year’s resolutions.
Only 9.2% feel they were successful in achieving their resolution.
4% have infrequent success.
And a whopping 42.4% fail on their resolution each year.
Let’s agree that New Year’s resolutions are a type of self-improvement initiative, and we do know the U.S. population is 300+ million, so quick math tells us that’s a ton of people who make and then fail or have infrequent success on their New Year’s resolutions. And that’s just New Year’s resolution self-improvement initiatives, which are only a small fraction of self-improvement initiatives taken on by millions of Americans every year.
So, why is it that so many of us fail to follow through with our well-meaning intentions and what can we do to increase the chances of following through toward our goals?
In today’s post, we will discuss why we fail to follow through. We will also discuss a type of mental commitment, called if-then planning or an implementation intention, that we can use to help us follow through on our goals.
But before we discuss if-then planning, let’s first discuss good intentions.
The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions…
We have all heard this saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Meaning most intentions to engage in good acts fail unless they are acted upon.
So, the question is this – should we then refrain from making good intentions. According to psychologist Peter Gollwitzer, the answer is no.
As Gollwitzer suggests,
“Quite to the contrary, strong intentions (e.g., “I strongly intend to do x”) are reliably observed to be realized more often than weak intentions (see reviews by Ajzen, 1991; Conner & Armitage, in press; Godin & Kok, 1996). However, the correlations between intentions and behavior are modest; intentions account for only 20% to 30% of the variance in behavior.” 1
Meaning that strong intentions are important as they do make up 20 to 30% of us achieving our goals.
What we need is a way to make our strong intentions more effective, that way we have a method to implement actions that help us change our behavior.
Before we introduce the concept of if-then planning it is important to understand…
Why We Fail in the First Place
According to Gollwitzer, there are several variables that inhibit us from following our intentions and attaining our goals:
(1) Inability to shield goals from distractions
We all have busy lives filled with many distractions that make us fail to meet our goals despite good intentions. Some of these include family, work, time constraints, weather, social media, anxiety, and depression, to name a few.
(2) Having a hard time getting started
This could occur for a few reasons including not being sure what to do when the situation arises or forgetting that you need to do something because you are preoccupied with something else.
(3) Not seizing an opportune moment to act
Another problem is seizing the right moment to act which can be especially difficult when people face tight deadlines or limited windows of opportunity.
(4) Falling into Bad Habits
Lastly, many times the biggest obstacle we face is stopping behavioral responses because we have done whatever action over and over making it automatic or habitual.
If-Then Planning to the Rescue!
Ok, so what is this if-then planning thing and how does it work?
The concept of if-then planning is rather straightforward, and it works as follows:
Whenever you have a hard time taking action on your goals the idea is to summon an automatic process to help you reach your goals. This automatic process is called an if-then plan and it links anticipated critical situations to goal-directed responses.
It takes the form of:
“Whenever (or if) situation ‘A’ occurs, then I will perform response ‘B’.
For example, let’s say you want to make sure you go to the gym to exercise after work, the if-then plan may look like this:
“When I get in my car after work at 5 pm, I will drive directly to the gym to exercise.”
So, in effect, what if-then planning does is help us make a personal commitment in the form of an if-then statement. If situation A happens, I will do ‘B’ which will help me take action toward my goal.
Why Does if-Then Planning Work?
There are two main reasons why if-then planning works, it
(1) Increases our awareness of a specified trigger or cue
By specifying the critical situation ahead of time in the ‘if’ part of the if-then plan you will be more aware of that cue when it happens.
For example, let’s say you are trying to cut sweets so your if-then plan may be, “if the waiter brings a dessert menu, I will order a cup of tea and say no to the dessert.”
The ‘if’ part is the waiter bringing the dessert menu – by specifying the dessert menu beforehand you will more easily recognize it and attend to it when it occurs.
(2) Makes your action automatic
The second reason it works is that it makes the planned response automatic. Meaning that you no longer need to think when a situation occurs. Once the cue occurs, you automatically respond immediately with your planned action.
How to Engage in If-Then Planning
There are several steps you need to take to engage in effective if-then planning:
(1) Specify the ‘What’
This is where you need to set your specific goal, “I want to achieve X!” The stronger your intention, the better!
(2) Think About Steps You Need to Take and Obstacles That May Stop You
Next, figure out different things you need to do to achieve your goals as well as obstacles that may stop you. Do you get distracted by certain things? Do you have certain weaknesses that change your behavior? Are there specific things you need to do? Or are things you need to stop doing?
(3) Create ‘if-then’ plans
Lastly, you need to create if-then plans:
“If/when <fill in the blank> happens, then I will do <fill in the blank>
Some Examples of if-Then Planning
Before we go, let’s look at a few examples of if-then planning in action:
Hitting snooze on your alarm clock is something you want to stop doing.
Your if-then plan could be, “if my alarm goes off, I will get up, shut it off and walk to the bathroom and brush my teeth.”
Performing daily breast exams.
Your if-then plan could be, “when I get out of the shower, I will perform a breast self-examination.”
Wanting to learn and read more about personal development
Your if-then plan could be, “If I find a blog that offers entertaining and actionable self-improvement content, such as Prime Your Pump, I will sign up for their weekly blog post summary as soon as I see it!”
Staying calm during an anxiety-inducing moment such as road rage
Your if-then plan could be, “If I start to feel anxious when some jerk cuts me off in traffic, I will do my deep breathing exercises.”
Back to New Year’s Resolutions…
How about drinking less and hitting the gym more??
Oh well, no one’s perfect!!
Until next time, keep using if-then planning, cheers, and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick
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References
1 Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54, 493-503.
Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69-119
It is really worth reading and inspiring. I myself have thousands of times make my mind as strong as iron to work over my planning but fails. All the above reasons (discussed above) are the bitterly true for the fail of goals! But now I am clear what are the reasons of failure over and again. So I am learning myself to acquaint myself now with my priorities and adamantly follow it and implement it. Thank you.
Hi Piyali, Thanks for reading and for the great comment! Glad to hear and impressed that you have figured out how to follow and take action on your priorities!! Thanks again and stay safe! Best, Rick