Implementation
intentions: A strategy to help you reach your goals
By Isabelle
Leduc-Cummings, Medipsy Psychological Services.
We set goals in almost all areas of our lives: “exercise more” (health), “earn a promotion” (work), “spend more time with my family” (relationships), etc. We set both small goals (e.g. “meet my friend for lunch”) and large ones (e.g., “build a career”). Setting goals is an essential part of our lives. Yet, as some of the above examples with New Year’s resolutions illustrate, we are sometimes bad at attaining those goals. There may be many potential explanations for these failures: lack of intrinsic motivation, low commitment, difficult and/or frequent obstacles, and so much more.
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One area in which people experience difficulties is in
implementing their goals once they have been set. In other words, people have
difficulties in getting started or staying on track with the pursuit of the
goals they have selected. Luckily, research shows that there are useful
strategies we can use to become more successful at pursuing our goals. One of
those strategies is called “implementation intentions”. Implementation
intentions are if/then plans. They link a specific goal-directed behaviour to a
specific future situation: "I intend to do y when situation z is encountered."
(Gollwitzer, 1999; Gollwitzer & Brandstätter, 2007). For example, if I have
the goal of eating healthy, a helpful implementation intention might be: “I
intend to eat a salad when I go to McDonald’s”. Implementation intentions translate a goal
from more abstract and general terms (e.g., “I want to eat healthy”) to more
specific and concrete ones (e.g., “I will eat a salad when I go to McDonald’s”)
by specifying when, where, and how one intends to pursue their goal.
So whether you’re trying to get started on a new goal,
or keep working towards a long-standing one, using implementation intentions
might help you get one step closer towards achieving that goal. To do so, you must first identify a future
situation relevant to your goal, whether it is recurrent or not. For example, a
common obstacle (e.g. bad weather, when you have the goal to be more active) or
a potential temptation you anticipate encountering in the near future (e.g., the
open bar at your cousin’s wedding, when you have the goal to reduce your
alcohol consumption). The next step is choosing a specific behaviour that is
line with your goal, and that will be enacted when the previously identified situation
is encountered (e.g., following from the previous example: “I will have a glass
of water when someone offers me a drink at my cousin’s wedding.”).
One of the keys to the success of implementation
intentions is that they allow you to avoid exerting effort in the situation.
Indeed, instead of being “at the mercy” of momentary influences such as a strong
desire for the tempting object that is conflicting with your goal, shifts in
motivation, or low energy, the situation has already been anticipated, and
associated with a specific behaviour. Thus, when the situation is encountered,
the associated behaviour is simply enacted (Oettingen & Gollwtizer, 2010).
There is less room for weighing the options and potentially giving in to less
desirable alternatives. Thus, implementation intentions appear to be especially
useful in the context of difficult goals (Gollwitzer & Brandstätter, 2007).
Just as we set goals in all areas of our lives,
implementation intentions can be used with any goal. Indeed, they can be used
for health goals (e.g., “I will take the stairs when I see the elevators at
work”), school/work goals (e.g., “I will answer school/work emails when I feel
tempted to check social media while studying/working”), therapy goals (e.g., “I
will practice deep breathing when I experience fear during an exposure exercise”),
and so much more.
Medipsy is a private clinic situated in Westmount (Montreal), Quebec, that offers a wide range of clinical services delivered by different professionals including psychologists, psychotherapists, sex therapists, ADD/ADHD coaches, neruopsychologists, and guidance and vocational counsellors.
References
Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects
of simple plans. American Psychologist,
54, 493–503.
Gollwitzer, P. M.,
& Brandstätter, V. (2007). Implementation
intentions and effective
goal pursuit. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(1),
168-199.
Oettingen,
G., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2010). Strategies
of setting and implementing goals: Mental contrasting and implementation intentions.
In J. E. Maddux & J. P. Tangney (Eds.), Social
psychological foundations of clinical psychology (pp.114-135). New York, NY:
The Guilford Press.
