Goals, failures, success (Part 1)
Not surprising, but a good reinforcement of principles – goal setting, benchmarking, feedback loops, and your resilience index.
On the side – It also refers to a principle put forth by behaviorist Kahneman in his nobel winning work ( yes, unlike US Presidents, he had to deliver something first) on decision making, that even just a significant risk of a negative consequence will weigh heavier than a sure reward – i.e., humans are inclined to be risk averse. Or, as sales seminars point out, people are apt to make real shifts only if uncomfortable with their current position; conversely, if it’s a significant decisional shift, you’re not going to be successful by making the other person simply comfortable with you or the product: and they note the features and benefits only after the shift, to justify the purchase – to themselves or to the wife. ; ).
http://lifehacker.com/5500692/boost-your-self-control-with-a-mental-budget
It’s easy to set goals, but the chasm between saying you’re going to do something and exercising the willpower and self control required to actually follow through can be enormous. Psychology Today recommends setting a mental budget to improve your self control.
The basic requirements for setting a mental budget, as laid out in the blog post, are four-fold (and in this instance are written with food/diet goals in mind):
1. You need a point of reference for setting your mental budget. In the case of diet, for example, you need to know what sort of consumption is normal.
2. You need to be able to track your goal (e.g., you need to be able to see how many calories a food items contains).
3. It may not sound all that fun, but your mental budget will be most successful if you’re thinking about the negative aspects of failing your goal rather than the positive (e.g., you’ll be more successful with your diet if you think about the fat content of candy bars than the deliciousness).
4. Last, you need to remember that your budget isn’t guaranteed, and you have to make your budget realistic if you’re going to stick to it.
As noted, the Psychology Today post focuses mostly on food and diet, but the concepts laid out for setting a mental budget seem like they could apply to goal setting across the board. Want to dive deeper into self control? Check out the willpower techniques you can learn from the marshmallow test.
Here’s a Lifehacker post about a model for willpower through setting mental budgets (from Psychology Today‘s Krishnamurthy and Procopec). Not altogether new, but a good reinforcement of classic principles – goal setting, benchmarking, feedback loops, and your resilience index.
“It’s easy to set goals, but the chasm between saying you’re going to do something and exercising the willpower and self control required to actually follow through can be enormous. Psychology Today recommends setting a mental budget to improve your self control.
The basic requirements for setting a mental budget, as laid out in the blog post, are four-fold (and in this instance are written with food/diet goals in mind):
1. You need a point of reference for setting your mental budget. In the case of diet, for example, you need to know what sort of consumption is normal.
2. You need to be able to track your goal (e.g., you need to be able to see how many calories a food items contains).
3. It may not sound all that fun, but your mental budget will be most successful if you’re thinking about the negative aspects of failing your goal rather than the positive (e.g., you’ll be more successful with your diet if you think about the fat content of candy bars than the deliciousness).
4. Last, you need to remember that your budget isn’t guaranteed, and you have to make your budget realistic if you’re going to stick to it.
As noted, the Psychology Today post focuses mostly on food and diet, but the concepts laid out for setting a mental budget seem like they could apply to goal setting across the board.
And that ties back to decision making. Nobel winning behaviorist Kahneman (who, unlike US Presidents, had to deliver something first) gave us the insight that we’d give more weight to a negative consequence, than to a higher-probability reward – i.e., humans are inclined to be risk averse. It is not mere coincidence many sales gurus point out that people are apt to make real shifts only if uncomfortable with their current position; conversely, if it’s a significant decisional shift, you’re not going to be successful by making the other person simply comfortable with you or the product: people may take note of the features and benefits only after the shift, to reinforce the purchase – to themselves, or later to the wife.
; )
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Julian, very helpful article underscoring the relevance of risk to driving change, and in my world view, redefined as the importance of pain.
I wrote a blog about your perspective – http://www.performancesolutionstech.com/what-makes-us-follow-through/
I am visually challenged by the Reference Point graphic. I kept trying to see it as underscoring the point that outcomes are better predicted by avoiding a risk than achieving something positive. Perhaps you have another one you can share on another of your blogs.
Rodney
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:52 am
Kahneman developed that prospect theory graph, based on the Marginal Utility concept in economics – and it is more analytical than prescriptive. Further into his discussion, he does depict various risk slope/preference curves, representing different personalities.
The graph I clipped shows the deeper drop in value of the situation as that individual contemplates the risks, in contrast to how the individual’s perceived value of the gains levels off sooner. But, yes, his insight could have been more apparent if that graph also showed a more dramatically steep initial slope in the lower-left (loss/risk) than in the upper-right (gain) area, apropos to a quicker urge to stanch losses. (Lazy me – I should have hyperlinked the graph back to his article.)
I will follow-up on the next blog, thanks, Rodney.
May 2nd, 2011 at 9:08 am
tnxfor this text so i looking for relatedarticle for a long time, thank you!
November 14th, 2011 at 9:07 am
I personally feel you really have established lots of absolutely appealing pointers! Not really as effectively numerous people might really think regarding this the way you just did! I am actually fascinated that there is so much regarding this subject that has been disclosed and you created it so effectively, with so highly class. Outstanding, stuff! Indeed awesome elements right here!