Find ways to make the activity fun. If something is more enjoyable, it becomes intrinsically rewarding and much easier to accomplish. For instance, finding exercise and foods that you enjoy that help you towards fitness goals. If you don't enjoy something intrinsically, you will eventually avoid it and give up on it. Even the most dreary tasks can be livened up somehow. Role models are important figures in your life for your model is selling to whom you feel close into this place of qualities you'd like to see in yourself. ... you feel you have somewhat overlapping identities. You could potentially be like them, so they inspire you."

Why do we have so much trouble reaching some of our goals? Why do we make New Year's Resolutions about losing weight, making more money, finding new people, and all sorts of other things that we think will make our lives better? These resolutions come from an inner voice that we need to listen to and act upon. But by February, many of us give up on them. Attaining substantial goals is hard, and the bigger they are, the more they intimidate us. set positive goals, as opposed to “do not do” goals; avoidance goals are chores that lead to thought suppressionSecond, keep your goals abstract. Be careful not to be too vague, though. For example, “Improve my mental health” is better than “be happy” because it points you toward your next step: in this case, perhaps, starting therapy. be patient for the sake of others; it is much easier to accomplish things when they are for someone else

This type of approach doesn’t only apply to summiting a mountaintop. Each year over one hundred CEO’s in the S&P 1000 retire after reaching what can feel like a pinnacle in their career, leaving them feeling unprepared for the next phase. ask yourself why you are committed and confident in your goal; grow your abilities, rather than proving them When you find yourself facing a goal that's highly important, framing your progress based on what you haven't yet accomplished may be more motivating than thinking about what you've already done." We move toward and away from people as we prioritize or deeper towards the goals they can help us achieve. When it's the right time to attend to a goal or when we feel we're falling behind, a goal gets high motivational priority. As a result, we draw closer to those who are instrumental to achieving it. Once the goal has sufficiently progressed and its motivational priority reduces, we feel less close to those people."One way to sustain motivation is to pursue activities that feel like ends in themselves—activities you're intrinsically motivated to do for the sake of doing them, that are fun or enjoyable or exciting. For these activities, Fishbach says, The small area principle helps people know what to focus on when motivation lags in the middle. Emphasizing what you've already accomplished works best when you're in the early part of your journey. Looking ahead to the unfinished business ahead can be demotivating. But once you get closer to the goal, looking ahead can switch over to become very motivating. Think of the long distance runner who knows the finish line is just minute away- they get energized by the proximity of it! But earlier in the race is not the time to focus on that finish line. People are most enthusiastic about working toward a goal at the beginning and end of pursuing it—when they're energized by the newness and excitement of the goal, and when they're finally close to achievement. In between is the dangerous long middle. Motivation lags; you can see you've accomplished some, but not enough; there's still so much to do to reach the goal…

Ayelet Fishbach is a professor of behavioral science and marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She was president of the Society for the Study of Motivation, and continues to publish her insights into motivation research. Her work has appeared in journals such as Psychological Review and the Journal of Personality, and been publicized through media outlets including CNN, the Chicago Tribune, NPR, and the New York Times. the middle problem: compare your next action to whichever is smaller: previous progress or future progress Dacă vrei să schimbi ceva în viața ta primul lucru pe care trebuie să îl faci este să evaluezi situația actuală iar daca o schimbare este necesară, trebuie sa creezi circumstanțele pentru a duce la schimbarea dorită. If you want to achieve your goals, set reasonable goals. Many people set goals that are too abstract ("be happier"), too negative ("stop being addicted to social media"), or too vague ("get fit"). Instead, goals need to be linked to your purpose and your values—ask "why this goal?" for each goal you set. Then provide an answer. incentive structures: if the reward is incorrect, the outcome will be; adding incentives mainly dilutes the goalAbout the Author Ayelet Fishbach, PhD, is the Jeffrey Breakenridge Keller Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and the past president of the Society for the Study of Motivation.

Get It Done (2022) turns the spotlight on the person that’s often hardest to influence: you. Drawing on anecdotes and research from motivation science, it shows how modifying your circumstances can propel you forward both personally and professionally – even when you feel lost at sea. Genres Goals, like recipes, tend to work best when they’re quantified. Setting a target that’s challenging, measurable, and actionable will pull you toward your goal and enable you to monitor your progress. Just make sure, you’re the one to set the target rather than someone else. Because that’s going to help you be more committed. Fishbach explains scenarios where people work harder when others are watching (thre social facilitation effect), as well as cases when performance on complex tasks is hindered by an audience. She also explains how to bypass the social loafing effect, which is a motivation deficit that often occurs when working with others on group projects. Overall, this was a useful section. Get it done!

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T]he more goals … a single activity serves, the more weakly we associate the activity with our central goal and the less instrumental the activity seems for the school. Therefore, our central goal is less likely to come to mind when we pursue the activity. And when a goal doesn't come to mind, the activity doesn't seem to serve the goal." relationships: understand the aspirations of people around you; make your desires known; share interests Expensive coffees have been demonized as the reason people aren’t saving enough money. Some joke that lattes and avocado toast are the reasons millennials can’t buy houses, and yet: here we are buying our flat whites and lattes. You know why? Because they feel like a reward, whether it’s for the sometimes arduous task of getting out of bed or for having a productive morning of work. I’m sure we can always find a good reason. Fishbach includes chapters about self-control and patience. Her strategies for increasing self-control and managing temptations were fantastic, and I've included many in my article explaining ways to procrastinate less. In short, self-control is a two-step process: detect or become aware of temptations, and then battle them. Fishbach writes,