The Psychology of Motivation: Setting Goals that Actually Work

Now that it’s March, we’ve all had a chance to see how our New Year’s resolutions have played out. If you didn’t achieve everything you hoped on January 1st, you are not alone in this. Goal-setting often starts with great intention but can be difficult to follow through on, which is human nature. We’re going to talk about a few ways that you can make your goals more achievable and sustainable.

Set goals that are in line with your identity

In reading the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, I learned that goals and habits that align with our identity provide the ultimate form of intrinsic motivation. When we decide what kind of person we want to be and what our values are, and then set goals that help us to realize this identity, they will be much more sustainable and meaningful. For example, if I know that I am someone who enjoys the outdoors and values movement, I might set a goal to walk outside for 30 minutes on 4 days of the week.

Make small, realistic changes

Achieving goals can prove to be very difficult when they are large, all-consuming goals. Most of us don’t completely change our behaviour overnight, and that is okay. In order to have sustainable habits that fit into our lifestyle, it’s important that our goals are broken down into small and reasonably attainable steps. For example, deciding that I’m going to go from no exercise to running 10 km tomorrow might not be a realistic starting point. But I can certainly start running for 10 minutes on 3 days of the week. I can then re-evaluate my goal and adapt it as I start making progress.

Make the goal measurable with a timeline

It’s much harder to track our progress towards a desired outcome if we don’t have a way to measure that outcome. When setting goals, it’s important that they are quantifiable with a timeline attached to them. For example, simply saying that I want to be a better piano player doesn’t actually help me take steps towards this. However, I can use this ideal to create a measurable goal and decide that I want to practice piano for 15 minutes on 3 days of the week for the next month. This gives me a way to know if I have achieved my goal by the end of the next month.

Hopefully this has given you some useful information to approach goal-setting. It’s also important to mention that we don’t always meet our goals the first time around, and that is okay. Readjusting a goal as necessary is completely normal and our efforts are still going towards something. Happy goal-setting!

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