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The definitive formula to take action and achieve your goals

The definitive formula to take action and achieve your goals

March 28, 2024

How many times have you abandoned an activity that generated good results but it entailed effort and discipline? In fact, how many times have you thought about starting a positive project that you never carried out? I do not know about you, but I do not have fingers to count them.

Procrastination and cognitive laziness are inherent in people because they allow us to save a lot of energy, however, when trying to achieve the goals we want in our lives are two major barriers we must overcome.

Achieve the objectives that we set ourselves: how to achieve it?

Psychology studies motivation as the psychological process that links our behavior to our goals. However, this process has the great disadvantage of being temporary.


It may interest you: "Types of motivation: the 8 motivational sources"

We would all like the motivation that comes from watching movies like Invictus, Gladiator or the famous TED talks; stay in our day to day to achieve the goals we propose, although experience tells us that in a matter of hours we return to the baseline to connect to social networks and lie on the couch.

The implementation of intentions

According to Theory of Planned Behavior of Fishbein and Azjen, the relationship between intentions and behavior is 26%; Now you know the reason for your failed attempts. This low correlation shows that intentions are not enough and that we have to find a system that continually provides us with our objectives.


The New York psychologist Peter Gollwitzer realized the frequency with which people encountered problems when transforming our intentions into actions and created the concept of implementation of intentions.

According to this theory, when defining an objective of behavior in response to a future event, the passage to the act increases markedly. Therefore, the best strategy to carry out all the projects that we want to undertake even if they cost work, consists of define in advance the situations of our day to day in which we will act in a certain way to achieve our objectives .

The formula to maintain motivation

This formula of action is known as the planning "if-then" ("if-then") and one of its determining phases is to create all those situations "If X, then Y". Let's see some examples:


If our goal is to get in shape we will consider:

  • If I am at home and I have one free hour ahead, then I will go down to the gym.
  • If I enter the portal to go up to my flat, then I will use the stairs and not the elevator

If our goal is to find a partner:

  • If at a party I see a girl I like, then I'll go and say hello.
  • If there is chemistry between the two, then before the end of the night I will ask for the number and return

It is necessary to emphasize that these rules they are established as universal laws of conduct so that whenever this situation arises, we will act as indicated.

Why is this theory effective?

The effectiveness of this technique lies in the fact that the formula "If X, then Y" is the code that best understands the brain and, above all, keep in mind that the motivation is temporary , so we impose a rational system based on situations-behavior that will prevail when laziness assaults us.

In addition, numerous investigations indicate that "if-then" planning increases team performance by emphasizing group focus and provoking members to carry out key actions in a timely manner, according to Heidi Grant of the School of Business. Columbia.

The fundamental idea is that the variable that mediates between the intention and the action does not reside in the temporal motivation, but in the decision. So, l decisions about how to act are shown as the mediating variables of the actions that will take us to our most desired goals .

Moment to take action

You already know that the most effective way to start training, get the best score on the exams, work more efficiently or whatever your ambitions may be; It does not consist of watching motivational videos or overcoming films, but rather locating the situations that occur to you on a daily basis ("Yes"), planning the most effective actions to achieve your objectives ("then"), implement them and consider them as rules of the game to achieve the better result


IMPORTANT GOAL ACHIEVEMENT INFORMATION | Sales Training (March 2024).


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