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Implementation intentions: A strategy to help you reach your goals

Implementation intentions: A strategy to help you reach your goals

By Isabelle Leduc-Cummings, Medipsy Psychological Services.

            How many times have we set New Year’s resolutions that did not make it past the month of January, or set the same resolutions year after year? How many have tried to eat healthy or exercise more only to revert back to old habits after a few weeks, if not a few days?

        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.

http://candiaoaks.com/golf-goals-do-you-have-them/   

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.

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Is it normal? Or is it Alzheimer’s?

I used to have the memory of an elephant. I remembered the names of people I met at parties and things I had to get done by Tuesday at noon.  These days, I go through a fair size package of post-it notes to get through the month.  

As we age, we often have more difficulty remembering things the way we used to when we were younger.  And of course, the question that lurks in the backs of the mind is, “Could this be Alzheimer’s?”  You may have an aging parent and be asking yourself, “Is this a normal part of getting old or should I be concerned?”  So here are a few guidelines, hopefully to reassure you, or at least to indicate if it is time to take steps.

Let’s say you forget the name of the person you just met, or as you go to write down a phone number, you can’t recall the last two digits.  This can just be normal forgetting or lack of attention, and on its own is not cause for concern.  The kind of forgetting that is more of a problem is not being able to remember what you did recently.  For example, did your mother forget that she just had lunch an hour ago?  This is not usually in the category of normal forgetting.  Words also get forgotten.  There are times when I get to the middle of a sentence and the word I am looking for just will not come.  It is frustrating, it is embarrassing, but it is also normal.   But it is not normal if I think that the thing that I use to comb my hair is called a cup.  Forgetting words is in the normal range, using words incorrectly is not.  Similarly, if I misplace my glasses or my keys (even if I do it often), there is probably no cause for my husband to be concerned.  But if I start keeping my glasses in the freezer because I think that they belong there, please call my doctor.  If your Dad used to be a crossword whiz and he is not as fast as he used to be, don’t panic.  If he is slower at balancing his checkbook that is probably not a problem but, if he forgets how add or subtract or forgets what to do with the phone, it is time to get help.

Other changes that are part of Alzheimer’s include a general sense of apathy or lack of initiative. Not wanting to do things can also be part of normal grieving. So, if Dad died a couple of months ago, Mom not being interested in things it is not cause for alarm.  But if there are no reasons that you can think of for the apathy, or if Mom seems often confused in familiar situations, or suddenly angry at nothing, assessment is probably a good idea. Finally, we all show poor judgment at times, a bad investment or a bad choice of hair color are unfortunate but not symptomatic.    But if you notice your friend using poor judgment about everyday tasks – going outside in winter without a coat – take notice. 

I hope that these examples give greater peace of mind.  But if you think that there may be cause for concern, a memory assessment with a neuropsychologist can give you a clearer idea if there is a problem.

This article was written by Dr. Marilyn Fitzpatrick.  Dr. Fitzpatrick is a 65-year old Professor of Counselling Psychology at McGill University and Partner in Medipsy Psychological Services in Westmount (www.medipsy.ca, 514 419-3005).  Medipsy offers assessments and services for seniors.