How To Conquer New Years Resolutions With If-Then Plans
If I told you to think back on every New Year’s resolution, every commitment to a healthier lifestyle, to save more, or to be better, you’d likely notice a common theme — a failure to start.
In my quest to achieve more, I’ve spent a lot of time committing to goals and as much time pretending they don’t exist. All I had was an intention. I rarely had a plan. As Kelly Williams Brown put it in Adulting,
Successful goal pursuit requires both a purpose and a plan. Research shows that committing to a goal only accounts for 20 to 30 percent of the variation in our behavior.
Simply put, without proper planning, you’re unlikely to make a change. Past behavior is one of the most significant predictors of future actions. So, if your goals involve a change in behavior, you’re likely to fall back on old habits without a plan.
This shouldn’t be surprising. Commitment is easy. We celebrate commitments to change every year. It’s the follow-through that’s difficult, this is where implementation intentions, or If-Then plans, come in. They are a precise response to the poor habits and tempting thoughts that tear our focus in two.
Implementation intentions are a self-regulation approach to increase goal attainment. Peter Gollwitzer first introduced them in the late ’80s, and their success comes from two paths. First, from identifying an event that hinders goal attainment. Then consistent rehearsal of a strategy that mitigates failure in that event.
We usually frame goals as an end product, “I want to lose weight,” “I want to graduate from college,” or “I want a raise.” They fail to take into account the small intermediary steps necessary to get you there. Nor, do they consider the pain points you experience when striving towards a goal.
Honestly, though, that’s fine. Goals should be ambitious, but they can’t reasonably encompass everything. You do, however, need to come up with a supporting action plan — something that will help when you encounter distractions and failure.
Every time you give in to your short-term interests you’re building up a harmful habit. Each temptation nets a small, immediate reward like swapping a side salad for a dessert. The trade-off goes against a long-term goal, but it’s easily justified. Eventually, these failures become ingrained behaviors. And, getting rid of them takes a lot of effort and time.
This is why we need If-Then plans. To provide a buffer when we face temptation. We shouldn’t be relying on an overarching goal for motivation; we know that doesn’t work. Instead, we target specific, challenging moments and plan for them. In turn, these responses become automatic, positive habits.
IF [Situation] THEN I WILL [Action]
Implementation Intentions often take the above form. Because of this they are more commonly referred to as If-Then plans. A quick Google search will net around 900 million more hits for If-Then plans. It’s likely due to this that articles offering advice on them are removed from the research.
That’s a huge problem. To receive the full benefit from these plans, you need to understand how to construct them and why they work. It’s not uncommon to see plans written as “if it’s Saturday then I’ll go to the gym.” This plan is useless. That statement is merely a schedule.
A definite “If” component describes a concrete situation with an opportunity to act. The “Then” component specifies an effective goal-directed response.
If-then plans are useful because they create a stronger perception of specific situations. They better attune your focus to goal attainment.
When you have a predetermined response, your brain is more aware of the cue prompting it. In turn, this increases the likelihood you’ll notice goal-conflict and respond appropriately. The outcome is a habit, one that triggers immediately in response to the ‘if’ and encourages your ‘then.’
The above is a simple outline for a goal to reduce spending. There’s a lot more to add, but the second action step lets us create a firm implementation intention. Since I know the longer I spend on Amazon, the more likely I am to fill my cart, I need to reduce the time I spend there. My problem is I go to Amazon when I’m bored. Since I know that my trigger is boredom my then-response needs to relieve that.
If I end up browsing on Amazon, then I will watch a video on YouTube.
Here I’m replacing a negative behavior with a proximal, rewarding, and immediate one. Ideally, the video will provide enough entertainment, so the urge to shop passes. If this doesn’t help, I can replace YouTube with another activity like talking to friends or playing a game. The point is to identify the trigger and build a response around that.
Ideally, I’d be able to replace shopping with something more productive. However, since my cue is boredom and my goal is saving, I’ll let that be my focus. I know myself and what to expect from my behaviors and habits.
If you think you can replace a harmful habit with a positive one, I encourage you to try. But do realize that it can be incredibly difficult to make such a significant shift. Especially if the habit you’re replacing acts as a stress-relief like smoking, gaming, or eating.
Gollwitzer gave the following example in his earlier research. It showcases someone attempting to reduce their alcohol consumption when they go out.
If a waiter suggests another drink, then ask for mineral water.
This way, the example person has an immediate response that quenches their thirst in a goal-directed manner. It’s brutally simple, but it takes time and self-awareness to master.
Like goals, implementation intentions should be specific, challenging, and proximal. Walter Mischel, a long-time self-control researcher, provides a starting point for If-Then plans. The first step “is to identify the hot spots that trigger the impulsive reactions you want to control.”
Implementation intentions are best in specific situations when temptation or stress is strong. Importantly, you need to identify your hot spots. A close friend or partner can help you notice your triggers, but for the most part, you’ll need to self-monitor. Unfortunately, our temptations and actions aren’t uniform. You and I could be working towards the same goal, but what disrupts you could be nonconsequential for me.
On the same note, with the proper environment and planning, our temptations are infrequent. It can take time to notice what causes goal-failure. And, the only person who may notice a goal-conflict is you. But when it does occur it can be impossible to resist. It’s in these pivotal moments that goal-directed behavior is crucial. Failure in these instances creates a pile on effect. That’s why we must identify these moments to develop functioning If-Then plans.
If-Then plans are so beneficial because they involve rehearsal. Walking through the chain of events that prompts habits is key to linking cues to behaviors. With nothing concrete tethering you to the act there’s no chance for the then-component to activate.
If-Then plans support various health goals including breast cancer examinations, weight loss, and fruit and vegetable consumption.
With each experiment the results were staggering. If-Then plans doubled follow-through. Self-done cancer examinations were far more frequent with If-Then plans. Weight-loss averaged 4.2kg for implementation intentions. Intentions alone saw an average of 2.1kg. And, in a more recent study, fruit and vegetable consumption increased by roughly 50%.
These results, across a realm of different initiatives, are outstanding. I’d invest time into any act that produced a fourth of these results. Especially if it helped me increase my self-awareness.
Further research on implementation intentions has highlighted some helpful tips. First, make sure they are specific to troublesome cues, that they reflect on prior mastery and consistent visualization.
Trigger Specific
Take a goal like cutting calories. You may do a great job at this at home, but work is a different environment. You have a coworker who always offers to share their afternoon snack. At this point, it’s an expectation. Not only do you always say yes, but you expect to eat around 3:00 pm every day.
Creating a plan like, if they offer a snack then I’ll say no, isn’t useful if you’re still hungry. It might make things worse. Putting off your hunger can make you irritable or more likely to overindulge at dinner. Instead, you should make a positive implementation intention. When they offer their food, then you’ll reach for the healthy snack you brought with you.
You can use this same process in response to a stressor. If you overeat to destress, you should focus on mitigating those feelings. Even if your goal is health related, the trigger is stress. Don’t try to ignore cravings, do something to prevent them. It’s vital to understand that, in this example, hunger and food aren’t the triggers. Though they relate to the goal, stress causes you to overindulge. You need to address it first.
Reflecting on past successes increases the strength of implementation intentions. If you have a mastery over a related experience, it can provide you with a source of encouragement. The higher your self-efficacy, the more likely you are to pursue your intentions. This is especially true if the task is challenging or complex.
Rehearsal and the Future-Self
The ‘why’ behind the effectiveness of If-Then plans is still up for debate. Recent research points to repetition as a critical mediator for implementation intentions. Focusing on the future-self, your connection to the future also supports planning.
The more time spent practicing your response, the more ingrained it becomes. For some individuals, these effects last longer than the If-Then plan is in use. They’re effectively developing positive habits by imagining they already have them. It’s the quintessential, “fake it until you make it” plan.
It’s clear that resolutions are more likely to succeed when supported by If-Then plans. For those to work, you need a passionate commitment to your goal and the program you created.
Autonomous goals are easier to commit to since they are intrinsically motivated. If you have an extrinsic goal, like lowering your cholesterol, it’s best to think of how it will benefit you. This transitions the intent from being an external “you should do x because” to an internal, “I’ll do x because…”
Finally, the construction of your If-Then plan is crucial to its success. The if-component needs to connect to a specific, proximal cue. The then-component needs to be immediately actionable. As Walter Mischel put it in The Marshmallow Test,
So, with the New Year in front of us and resolutions on the mind, you should take the next month to set yourself up for success. Identify the triggers for habits you want to change and make an If-Then plan to address them.
Feel free to share your plans in the comments below. The more examples, the better!
How To Conquer New Years Resolutions With If-Then Plans
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