In this last video on motivation I consider the relationship between motivation and the goals that we set for ourselves. I discuss the importance of setting self–concordant goals which are intrinsically motivated and then discuss strategies for achieving goals. In order to maintain motivation for the specific behaviors that need to be done in order to achieve a goal, it can be helpful to use implementation intentions. These if-then rules can help us to schedule our time and also help us to recognize opportunities to work on our goals that we might otherwise miss. They can also be combined with temptation bundling in order to accomplish the boring or routine aspects of a goal while engaging in something enjoyable (like watching tv or listening to a podcast). Lastly I consider how goal setting is (or should be) a never-ending part of a successful life as we can always ask ourselves what we want, what we can accomplish, and how we can make progress.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel to see future videos! Have questions or topics you’d like to see covered in a future video? Let me know by commenting or sending me an email!
Check out my full psychology guide: Master Introductory Psychology: http://amzn.to/2eTqm5s
Video Transcript
Hi, I’m Michael Corayer and this is Psych Exam Review. In this last video related to motivation I’d like to talk about goal-setting and consider the relationship between our motivations and the goals that we set for ourselves.
The first term that I’d like to introduce are what are called “self–concordant goals“, and this refers to goals that are intrinsically motivated, meaning that people want to achieve these goals for personal reasons, a sense of satisfaction that they’ll get if they accomplish it. And they’re not motivated by extrinsic rewards or punishments. So they’re not doing it because they’d like to earn more money, if they, if they accomplish this goal or they’d win some award. Now the same overall goal could be intrinsically or extrinsically motivated depending on the person. So I might say I’d really like to become fluent in another language because I’d feel a sense of satisfaction, I’d be able to communicate with people that I couldn’t communicate with before, and I could learn from them and that would be intrinsically motivated. But I could have that same end goal of saying oh I’d love to be fluent in another language because it would impress people and they’d think I was really smart when they heard me speaking and in that case it will be more extrinsically motivated. So the idea of self concordant goals is you think about what would you really want for yourself, what would bring you a sense of personal satisfaction, regardless of any external rewards.
And research on self concordant goals suggests that people who set these self concordant goals experience greater boosts to their well-being when they achieve them, compared to people who set and achieve extrinsically motivated goals. Now you might say, “ok, this is great, I’ve sat down and figured out my self concordant goals. I know what I want from my life and now the problem is I don’t know how to actually accomplish it. How do I stay focused?” because one of the problems that you’ll run into, even if you’ve set self concordant goals, is these types of goals tend to be long-term. They’re not the types of things that you can do in 10 minutes: “so I really, you know, like to buy groceries, that’s my, you know purpose in life”. Well, okay then you do that in 20 minutes, later it’s like “what do I do now?”
Usually our self concordant goals are going to be long-term goals. They’re going to take long periods of time and they’re going to involve the delay of gratification. So we’re going to have to put in some effort, make some sacrifices, and we might not get any results. We might even feel like we’re not getting anywhere for months or even years at a time. But it’s necessary to put in that long process at work in order to actually achieve the goal, maybe five years later. So how do we stay focused during that time? How do we continue to push ourselves and how do we delay our gratification?
Well, one thing that we can do is use what are called “implementation intentions” and this is really just a fancy way of saying if-then rules. So what an implementation intention does is says “if this happens then I do this” and it helps keep you focused on specific behaviors. Because our overall goals tend to be fairly vague. So “I’d like to be fluent in a language” well what exactly does fluency mean? And how do I get there? And this says well, think about specific behaviors that I know will get me towards fluency. Eventually, like, I have to learn vocabulary words, I have to be able to recognize certain grammatical structures. And so I might create some if-then rules that will help me focus on doing those behaviors. And so one way these help is they aid with scheduling. They essentially allow us to create a calendar that keeps us focused on the behaviors that move us towards our goal.
So I might say “ok, I want to improve my grades in my psychology class”. That’s a little bit extrinsically motivated but let’s say for my own sense of satisfaction, I really like to learn about psychology. “Ok, well if it’s Monday at 4 p.m. then that’s when I’ll review my psychology notes”. This helps to eliminate some of the obstacles and eliminate some of that time-wasting decision-making that we do where you say “oh it’s 4 p.m. Monday and I have some free time like what should I do today? Should I review for my chemistry class or should I look over my psychology notes? Or maybe I should play video games for a little bit? Maybe I need to relax? Or, you know, maybe I should go to the gym?”. And you sit there and then half an hour later you realize you haven’t done any of those things. And so an implementation intention says “well, if it’s this time then I do this. If it’s 4 p.m. on Monday then I study for psychology”.
Now this is not just about creating a calendar or a schedule, what implementation intentions can also help us do is recognize certain opportunities that we might otherwise miss. So we can create some if-then rules for situations that might happen and that way if they do happen we can take advantage of them. So I might say “ok, my goal is to become fluent in some language and that means I need to have some specific behaviors in mind and so one behavior might be I need to review some flashcards of vocabulary, you know. I read something and I make some flashcards and then I need to review those. And so if I’m waiting in line at a store that’s a perfect opportunity to review flashcards for four or five minutes.” So now I have this implementation intention that helps me to recognize the opportunity. So now instead of just standing in line frustrated at the grocery store for five minutes thinking that I’m wasting my time I say “oh this is something where I can work on my goal. This is an opportunity. If I’m waiting in line then I review the flashcards”. And that will help me stay on track with the behaviors that hopefully are moving me towards the eventual accomplishment of my goals.
Now we can also think about combining this with what’s called temptation bundling and temptation bundling just refers to combining activities; one of which you want to do and is enjoyable and pleasurable, and one of which you have to do but it’s not really that fun or it’s kind of boring or it’s kind of routine. And so by bundling those two things together you can do the pleasurable thing while also getting the productive but boring thing out of the way. So one of the most common ways people talk about temptation bundling is they do something like “I really want to watch some TV show, that’s, you know, it’s not really related to any of my goals. It’s just kind of fun to watch, enjoyable but I also want to be productive. I don’t wanna waste time just sitting on the couch watching this TV show”.
So what I might do is combine it with something like exercising: “Ok, if I am exercising then I’m allowed to watch this TV show”. So this is something I’ve followed myself where I have some show on Netflix that I want to watch but I don’t want to spend all of my time just sitting on the couch for watching it. So, I might say okay for me the gym I used to go to when I was living in Austin had little tablets on all of the cardio equipment, I said “ok, well if I want to watch this show, if I go and get on the elliptical machine then I’m allowed to watch you know 20 or 30 minutes of this, you know, stupid TV show”. And so this allows me to do the pleasurable thing which is watching the TV show while also combining that with something that’s a little bit more productive.
You could also think about other ways to do this with something like, let’s say, there’s a podcast that you really like listening to. You say, “well I don’t want to sit and listen to this podcast for three hours. So if I’m listening to the podcast then I will also clean my room”. And what that will do is allow you to do the pleasurable thing, listen to the podcast that you want to listen to, but also get something that needs to be done but it’s kind of boring. And you know that allows you to accomplish that. Another way that I’ve done this is, you know, I play trumpet and I have to, you know, maintain my chops and stay in shape to play and this means I have to do some boring exercises; play some long tones or some drills that, you know, I’ve played a million times and but they’re useful to just keep my chops in shape. So I might watch a TV show and practice these exercises quietly. So “ok, if I watch an episode of Rick and Morty for 20 minutes, I’ll play long tones while I’m doing that very quietly”. And that allows me to do something enjoyable while also making progress or doing these sort of boring routine behaviors that I need to do in order to reach my goals.
Now I don’t want to get too bogged down in these strategies here because I think the real point of any of these techniques related to goal setting is that you take the time to actually think and plan for your future. I think that’s the most valuable part, you know, these specific ways that you want to implement it or the specific rules that you create aren’t as important as sitting down saying “ok, what do I really want? What would I be satisfied with if I could, if I could actually achieve it? What do I want from my life? And what could I accomplish? And sitting down and taking the time to think about that in a detailed way and to write it down and say “ok, what could I really accomplish and then how could I organize my life and organize my time in order to make that happen?”. So if it’s something I really want, I’m intrinsically motivated to to do this and I think I could actually accomplish it and then you say “ok, well now I just have to plan out how to make that happen. What are the specific behaviors I need to do? How do I have to manage my time in order to make that happen?”
And the exciting thing here is that this is something that you’ll do for the rest of your life. This is not something that you sit down and do once and then you say “ok, I’ve got my goals and now my life is all set and planned out”, you know, life is unpredictable. Things will change, you know, there’ll be chaos that arises and obstacles that appear and things will change and your goals will change. What you think you can accomplish will change and I think this is exciting. This is why you can just really never run out of goals to have, no matter what happens to you. You can sit down and say “ok, given this new situation, what do I want now from life? What could I accomplish? How could I provide value and help people? You know, these are questions that you can ask for the rest of your lives and you’ll always be thinking of new ways that you could go about setting and hopefully achieving your goals.
So I hope you found this helpful, if so, please like the video and subscribe to the channel for more. Thanks for watching!
