Get it Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation

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If you’re new to the gym, start counting the days that you’ve gone. How awesome is that – maybe you’ve made it to the gym three times last week! But if you’re a real fitness buff and you kinda fell out of your routine, think about all the days that you’ve missed. Let that little taste of guilt do its thing. Dr. Fishbach has been published in many psychology and business journals, including Psychological Review and Psychological Science, and served as an Associate Editor of several journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Psychological Science. Her research is regularly featured in the media, including The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Chicago Tribune, NPR and was selected to be featured in the New York Times'"Annual Year in Ideas." Dr. Ayelet Fishbach, a leading behavioral scientist, Chicago Booth professor, and member of the CDR governing board, has dedicated much of her extensive career to answering some of the biggest questions on the topic of motivation.

Fishbach argues that intrinsic motivation is decreased by extrinsic rewards because of how goals and activities are associated. At first, the goal of intrinsically motivated activities may be enjoyment or self-expression. When you add the reward, the activity becomes associated with getting the reward as well—a second goal. Fishbach argues that having multiple goals associated with an activity dilutes the importance of the activity in working toward the goal. She writes, 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. fantasizing is fun but doesn’t generate action; fantasies about outcomes are largely ineffective tools for growth Daca pentru a atinge un obiectiv este nevoie sa faci ceva ce nu îți face plăcere este foarte puțin probabil să rămâi consecvent până la îndeplinirea obiectivului; But if you’re an expert or you already know that you’ve committed to a goal, it’s actually the glass-half-empty mentality that may push you over the finish line.We can use this principle to increase patience. All we need to do is introduce more time before the smaller-sooner option becomes available. P165 “Being reminded of your future self puts you in a very broad decision frame. Whatever decision you make today, you should be able to envision making it again and again over many years. So instead of asking yourself whether it’s okay to procrastinate, cheat, smoke, or drink today, you should ask yourself whether it’s okay to do so for the rest of your life. Multiplying a small temptation by the number of times you would succumb to it in the course of your life will surely make it too large to ignore.” The final, crucial ingredient to goal-setting is fun. I know. I just basically talked you through a bunch of homework you should do to get stuff done. And now I’m telling you to have fun, too?Bear with me. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain’s titular character notes that “work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” That is basically another way of defining intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is when you do something just because. Because you want to. Because you have fun doing it. Because it’s your dream. Because. Maybe there isn’t even a proper reason. It just feels good.

pay attention and make the middle moments memorable when you want to give up; set subgoals; create landmarks The problems come in when you have two goals in conflict—for instance, eating healthy by only buying organic food, and also staying on budget. Fishbach relates two strategies: First, compromise. You might make progress on all fronts but not satisfy anything completely. Second, prioritize one goal at the cost of the other. She says we tend to compromise when we feel like we've made some amount of sufficient progress. We prioritize when we feel our actions need to express commitment to the goal, when we want our actions to reflect who we are as people, and when we think our actions say something about our identity. Compromising in this case would send a mixed message.

Neither strategy is necessarily better or worse – but it is useful to be able to know when to implement one over the other. And here’s some more actionable advice: Try to get rid of the middle problem with the “fresh start effect.” great goals: are not proxies/means to other goals, are specific, have potential to fail, great incentives, intrinsic

P65 “One way to increase your empathy for your future self is to set goals while you’re in a state similar to the state you’ll be in when executing them.” each additional action has a larger perceived impact on the progress (0-1/10=10%, 6-7/10=25% of remaining) Pentru a face un anumit lucru, încearcă să gândești că o persoană care face acel lucru în mod normal;

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About 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.