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.

6 Steps to Successful (ADHD) Coaching

6 Steps to Successful (ADHD) Coaching

New clients often ask, "What can I expect from coaching?" This is particularly true for adults with ADHD who are already feeling overwhelmed. They want to change their lives for the better, but they want to do less - not more.

So, how do you get the best results? What leads to improved work performance, healthy relationships, and financial stability? As it turns out, the best results occur when clients are prepared to do things differently, rather than more of the same. Consider the following 6 steps:

Get to know your ADHD

Getting a diagnosis is important to your success. (By the way, getting a diagnosis is doing something differently rather than continuing with the status quo). There are three sub-types of ADHD, and many possible comorbid disorders that may be complicating matters. Once you know exactly which type you have, problem areas can be targeted more effectively. A diagnosis will also dispel the myth that your habits are a result of a character flaw (ADHD is a neurobiological disorder, not laziness). With a diagnosis, you will know definitively why you have not been able to focus at will like other people. You will learn that you did not cause your ADHD symptoms and you are not to blame.

Be committed to your stretch  zone

Being just out of your comfort zone is how you will make the changes in your life. Being slightly uncomfortable as you take risks with new behaviours will result in personal growth, new habits and increased self-confidence. This is because some anxiety is useful to the learning process. It keeps us on our toes and tends to mobilize us. The idea is to feel the stretch, take the action anyway, and celebrate. Your coach will support you in finding the balance between trepidation and effective learning.

Be in your neutrality

To go to your stretch zone repeatedly, you will need to respond to setbacks with neutrality. Responding to failure with non-judgment will support you in persevering until you reach your goals. When we decide to live bravely and tolerate some discomfort as a natural part of the learning process, these feelings diminish over time and we are more motivated to practice our new skills. Remember, failures are not personal. They are merely learning opportunities that are rich with Information about what we can do differently next time.

Set reasonable expectations for yourself

Learn to set goals that are achievable. Many people with ADHD take on too much at one time, become overwhelmed, and then stop. One of my clients had this experience when he decided it was time to become more efficient at work and streamline his paperwork. When we first met, he said he was feeling overwhelmed. When he thought about what it would take to reduce the amount of paper and set up systems so he would know where everything was, he quickly became overwhelmed. In his mind, it as one mammoth sized task. For him, the first step to success was a mini goal: purchase a scanner. Once he saw the purchase of the scanner as one small step in a series and paced himself throughout, he experienced improved feelings of control and self-confidence about making further changes.

Take action

Be prepared to take action in order to change your life. For people with ADHD, this is often very difficult to do because they tend to get sidetracked. Set the intention to take action and you will see results. Although your coach will support you in learning how to follow through on your plans, the most important work takes place between coaching sessions. Be mindful every day that doing something different is where the change occurs. This is when you will create new and more adaptive habits. Remember, whether you succeed with a new behavior the first time you try is not important. What is highly predictive of success is that you took action in the first place.  Action creates momentum. Once you get started, you are more likely to continue moving ahead. Remember too, that the quality of your action can always be modified later.

Consider all parts of your life

Be willing to explore all areas of your life. For example, if you make a plan with your coach for improved time management and do not share that you have a wedding scheduled in the middle of your peak work period, the plan is likely to fail. Be open to sharing what is going on in your life, even if it does not seem relevant. The best way to put the pieces of the puzzle together is to first throw them all on the floor. You can sort through them afterward.

Remember, coaching is a partnership to improve your life.   Decide to show up consistently, with openness and curiosity and you will find the success you are looking for.

For more information on coaching for ADHD, visit the Medipsy website, or visit www.adhd-tdah.ca for helpful resources. The Medipsy YouTube Chanel also includes helpful videos on ADHD. 

Lynda Hoffman

Certified Professional & Personal Coach

Medipsy Psychological Services

Services Psychologiques Medipsy

“If I know how to do it, why don’t I do it?”

Steve, threw up his hands in frustration saying, “Why don’t I do it? I learned from the best how to get organized, but I just don’t do it!” For adults with ADHD, repeatedly failing to do what they know very well how to do is very frustrating.

Steve loved people and people loved Steve. He was smart, charming, and creative. He was welcomed onto committees and he volunteered enthusiastically to take on important tasks. His input was valued and trusted, until it became clear that he was not doing what he said he was going to do. This pattern caused Steve deep embarrassment and eventually he decided to stop volunteering altogether. He was also failing to keep a job, or complete any task that required more than a few steps. He was in a tender place with his family who begged him to explain what was going on.  But he could not enlighten them any more than he could enlighten himself. Years of relative unproductivity eventually led to a growing sense of inadequacy. By the time I first met him, he was suffering with severe anxiety and he despaired that he could ever change this pattern of behaviour.  So, he asked me, “Why am I not doing what I said I would do?”

The short answer to his question was “ADHD”. This disorder is by definition an impairment of the self-management system, which includes the ability to modulate focus, and start and complete tasks. A patient once remarked to Dr. Thomas E. Brown, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and Associate Director of the Yale Clinic for Attention and Related Disorders, that having ADHD, “is like having erectile dysfunction of the mind.” You do not have conscious control over performing on demand. Imminent threat or reward, however, will change the brain’s chemistry and mobilize the person to action.

What does this mean for you if you need to follow through more reliably and you have ADHD?  Certainly, you do not want to live under threat in order to produce work and you know that you cannot count on will power to change your behaviour. The answer lies in using what you do have control over.  High interest and emotional pleasure are powerful motivators and, as such, they create the right brain chemistry for action.  For people with ADHD, finding what interests them can be used as a strategy, rather than a distraction. When you know your passion, and live it, you will be more likely to be complete work and persevere through tedious tasks.

On a deeper level, knowing what you dream of for yourself, and what you truly want out of your life, can powerfully draw you forward. Getting in touch with what matters to you, coming to know it, see it, visualize it, sense it, and breathe life into it, is a good way to change your brain chemistry. I have repeatedly been surprised by how much a client with ADHD can get done, or overcome, when sufficiently motivated.  The fact is, none of us knows, what we can accomplish in our lives when we allow ourselves to breathe in possibility. Likewise, the limits in front of us are often of our own making, If you believe that you must find success by doing things the same way was everyone else, and doing the boring tasks that you find difficult to do, you may be limiting your potential.  By focusing on what is not working, you inadvertently create a box for yourself. This brings more of what you don’t want: avoidance, withdrawal, and self-judgment. I would suggest doing the opposite. Set the intention to create what you want for your life.   You will be giving yourself the gift of energy and motivation to learn the skills of DOING what you know how to DO.  You can then learn to notice without judgment that “oops, I’m off track. My trip to the Amalfi coast is out there. Oh, the colours, the smells, and textures. Ok, time to get back to work.”

Lynda Hoffman, certified ADHD coach

Medipsy Psychological Services