How to get off the ground. Heidi Grant Halvorson The Psychology of Achievement

Dedicated to husband Jonathan Halvorson,

to our children Annika and Maximilian

and my mother Sigrid Grant

Published with permission from Hudson Street Press, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and literary agency Andrew Nurnberg.

Published in Russian for the first time

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holders.

Legal support of the publishing house is provided by the law firm "Vegas-Lex"

Foreword

Heidi Halvorson knows just about everything there is to know about setting and achieving goals. In this book, she shares her knowledge.

It identifies the main points in the latest research in psychology and explains how to apply this information in life. Why don't you keep your New Year's resolutions? How can I immediately start writing a report that needs to be submitted soon? Why might academic performance suffer if a student focuses on grades? How to choose goals that match your outlook on life? Why do some depressed people work effectively? The author gives answers to these and many other questions that can be applied in practice.

Halvorson is not only a writer, but also a scientist; the book largely presents the results of her own scientific research! She recognized early on that goals were critical to success, and through her research she discovered why people set goals and why they achieve or fail. She managed to answer all the questions that I cited in the previous paragraph.

Halvorson also knows how to evaluate other people's work. It determines their significance, is able to convey the essence and practical benefits. Sometimes carefully conducted psychological research turns out to be inconclusive, and sometimes important issues are studied casually, and their results do not inspire confidence. All of the work you read about here sheds light on the underlying processes of motivation and is held to the highest research standards. This is what makes Psychology of Achievement unique.

The main idea of the book is that people can change. This is not always easy, but it is quite possible with the right motivation and information on how to do it. However, obtaining the necessary information is a big problem. But now they are at your fingertips - just turn the page.

I am proud to have been one of Halvorson's mentors and have been delighted to hear of her accomplishments, which speak to the author's insight. By reading the book, you will understand what I mean.

Introduction

Why are we failing to achieve our goals? After all, we all believe that some area of our lives needs improvement. For example, we want to impress management, find love, streamline our finances, or take better care of our health. (Typically areas for improvement are more than one.) We try to improve, but for some reason nothing works, and sometimes we get on the wrong track, and everything repeats again and again. Starting to look for the cause of failures, we most often find it in ourselves, believing that we lack some qualities to achieve our goals. But this serious delusion.

We often misunderstand the causes of our failures. Until I started studying achievements professionally, my thoughts on this matter were no better than others. I thought I excelled in academics and lagged behind in sports because I was “born that way.” Turns out I misunderstood the cause. I had a lot to discover for myself.

After many years of studying achievements, I came to another conclusion: any a person is able to successfully achieve their goals. I repeat it tirelessly because it is important. And first of all, discard thoughts about past failures, because, most likely, they are wrong. And then read this book.

There is a list of the most popular New Year's resolutions that people make to themselves year after year. It will hardly surprise you that the list includes solutions to "lose weight" and "quit smoking." Every January, millions of people—myself included, and maybe you too—set one of these goals for themselves, swearing they’ll start living healthier lives, fit into tight jeans, or stop throwing a ton of money on cigarettes.

Many people dream of losing weight. After all, being overweight is not only an increased risk of developing diabetes and heart disease; in a society where it is fashionable to be slim, it hits hard on self-esteem. But despite the abundance of books on diets and the burning desire to lose weight, few manage to lose weight and maintain this achievement. We are all not losing weight, and tight jeans are still in the closet.

According to surveys conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seven out of ten people want to completely quit smoking and almost half of them (more than nineteen million) have stopped smoking for at least a day in the past 12 months. But only about three million were able to consolidate the result. That is, approximately 85% of those who set themselves goal quit smoking, fail. Although society knows the dangers of this habit, almost half a million Americans die each year from related illnesses. So, if you can't quit smoking, it can kill you. This is known to those 85% of people who annually, but unsuccessfully try to quit smoking.

Why is the failure rate so high? The reason is clearly not a lack of motivation, because millions of people who want to lose weight or give up cigarettes have a very powerful incentive - a deadly threat to health. Why do they still fail to achieve the goals on which their lives depend? The most common answer (probably you thought about it): it's all about willpower. By this concept, I mean the inner strength inherent in a person that allows him to avoid temptations. Most people are convinced that this is a feature of character. Some (slim, non-smokers) have it, and we admire them. Others do not, and we condemn them. They are weaker, less successful, and their character is not worthy of praise.

Interestingly, this is how we describe not only other people's, but also our own shortcomings. I've heard a thousand times from colleagues, students, and friends that they "just can't" quit smoking, resist dessert, start a difficult project. And since you decided that you lack willpower, why try to do something? Is there any hope to achieve what you want?

There is, and a considerable one: after all you misunderstand what is willpower. Maybe we should use a less pompous word - self-control? Self-control is the ability to direct your actions in pursuit of a goal: to persevere, not to turn off the path, despite temptations, distractions and other obstacles. Self-control is extremely important. This is one of the main elements of achieving the goal, which I pay a lot of attention to in the book. But the mechanism of self-control is not what it is often presented.

Heidi Grant Halvorson

Dedicated to husband Jonathan Halvorson,

to our children Annika and Maximilian

and my mother Sigrid Grant

Published with permission from Hudson Street Press, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and literary agency Andrew Nurnberg.

Published in Russian for the first time

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holders.

Legal support of the publishing house is provided by the law firm "Vegas-Lex"

Foreword

Heidi Halvorson knows just about everything there is to know about setting and achieving goals. In this book, she shares her knowledge.

I am proud to have been one of Halvorson's mentors and have been delighted to hear of her accomplishments, which speak to the author's insight. By reading the book, you will understand what I mean.

Introduction

Successful people and the paradox of self-control

First, you can't assume that some people have self-control and others don't. This is not true, otherwise the whole world would be divided into "winners" and "losers". With the powerful weapon of self-control, successful people always would win, and the unsuccessful (those who lack this quality) constantly failed. Moreover, without self-control, they would not be able to get out of bed in the morning!

In reality, everything is different. Winners do not achieve endless success, and there are no people who have not achieved anything in life due to a complete lack of self-control. True, in some this quality is more pronounced than in others, but in all it is necessarily present. And it turns out that even people with strong self-control sometimes lose it. There are many successful individuals who have reached the top in their field of activity, who just can not keep at least one or two New Year's resolutions.

Let's remember the stars who make no secret of trying to become slimmer: among them are the winners of the Grammy (Janet Jackson, Wynonna Judd), Oscar and Emmy (Oprah Winfrey, Roseanne Barr, Kirstie Alley, Rosie O'Donnell, Elizabeth Taylor) . You have probably seen pictures of these women on the covers of popular magazines more than once. Sometimes a celebrity proudly shows off a slim figure - the result of a healthy diet and training. And it happens that the photo shows the consequences of returning to addictions, accompanied by unflattering comments. (Do you know why I only listed famous women? Successful men also struggle with being overweight, but women are more likely to speak openly about this problem.)

Perhaps it is appropriate to emphasize that sometimes we do not achieve our goals because we do not understand what needs to be done. But more often we exactly we know what to do, and yet we fail. Everyone knows that to lose weight you need to eat less and move more. But knowing is one thing, and make- completely different. Many people will remember trying to cope with some task: to lose weight, quit smoking, realize their potential in school or work, improve relationships with someone (or, conversely, cut off unnecessary contacts). People make the same type of mistakes over and over again, even if they think they have already learned the necessary lessons, and the failure is widely publicized and relentlessly criticized.

A good example of a famous person who has not yet been able to fulfill his New Year's resolution is the current US president (he regularly tries to quit smoking). In February 2007, Obama (then a senator) told the Chicago Tribune that he had decided to quit smoking once and for all.

For the past few years, I have quit smoking intermittently. And now my wife has demanded that I not give in to this habit despite the stress of the campaign.

But he didn't last long. Already after his election to the presidency, at the end of 2008, he told TV presenter Tom Brokaw that he had stopped smoking, but sometimes breaks down. As the New York Times wrote in December 2008, “In various interviews, he answers questions about smoking in a friendly but vague way. From this it becomes clear that Obama, like many others, did not follow through on his New Year's resolution to quit smoking." In fact, it is impossible to know whether the president smokes or quit: his aides do not discuss this, and it is unlikely that you will be able to catch Obama with a cigarette on the White House lawn. I, of course, hope that he got rid of the addiction, but I would not be surprised if this is not the case. After all, some people need ten or more attempts to quit smoking forever.

Does the president of the United States lack self-control? Unlikely. Having risen to power from a relatively modest position, Barack Obama is regarded by many as the most powerful man in the world. He made a meteoric rise: social organizer, editor of the university's Harvard Law Review, state senator, U.S. senator, and finally national president. Such a career is admirable, even if Obama had grown up in a respectable, influential family of descendants of early European settlers. But he is a mulatto from a middle-class family and did not have any special advantages, except for an outstanding mind and determination. Even if you are not enthusiastic about him, you have to admit that this person knows how to achieve his goals.

All the people I have listed have achieved extraordinary success, some of them in spite of insurmountable obstacles. Many children dream of a career as an artist and awards, but only a few make the dream come true. To achieve such success, it is necessary strong self-control. Even everyday success requires serious self-control. Think about what accomplishments you are most proud of. Surely you had to sweat, go to the goal in spite of difficulties and not turn off the path, although it is much easier to relax and not bother yourself. You had to avoid temptations, although they promised pleasure. And, probably, it was possible to resort to self-criticism, although it is much more pleasant to think that you are already beautiful and there is no need to improve. For all these aspects of achieving the goal, self-control is necessary. Undoubtedly, President Obama possesses it to an extraordinary degree. But after all, he has repeatedly unsuccessfully quit smoking. Where is the logic?

Self-control: what is it?

Everything will be logical if you understand the true nature of self-control. Recently, as a result of interesting research, psychologists have come to the conclusion that the ability to self-control is in many ways similar to the work of a muscle - for example, biceps or triceps. Sounds weird, but let me explain.

The strength of self-control, like the strength of a muscle, can be unequal, and not only in different people, but also in one person. at different times. Even well-developed biceps sometimes get tired, as does the self-control muscle. In one of the first studies of this force (as it is sometimes said, the forces self-regulation) Roy Baumeister and his colleagues offered hungry students two plates: with chocolates and radishes (1).

Both plates were placed in front of each student and left alone. Some students were asked to eat two or three radishes and not to take chocolates. Others (lucky ones) were offered to have a snack with two or three sweets and not touch the radish. Those who were offered radishes required a fair amount of self-control. Most people find it difficult to eat a raw vegetable or refuse to have chocolates on hand; imagine how much more difficult it is to do both at the same time!

To understand the power of self-control used by the students in the groups, Baumeister gave each of them a task that was difficult and had no solution. The researcher was interested at what stage they would give up. In complete agreement with the muscle theory, radish eaters gave up much faster than chocolate eaters and even reported feeling more tired.

How does this apply to ordinary situations where the radish does not appear? Here are some examples: if you recently completed a workout, then your muscles are probably tired and you have wasted a certain part of the strength with which you entered the gym. If you've just completed a task that requires a lot of self-control (such as producing a TV show), you've probably put in a lot of effort too. According to recent research, even everyday activities (making a decision or trying to make a good impression) deplete our self-control resources. People who are successful in a certain area are successful because that is where they use the main reserves of self-control. Being subjected to daily stress, any person feels tired and unable to achieve their goals.

TV presenter Oprah Winfrey wrote in a magazine O that she gained weight again. At the end of the article, she noted (2):

This year I realized that the solution to my weight problem is not to eat less or exercise more ... My life lacks balance: too much work and not enough fun, no time to relax. My well is dry.

I think that the idea expressed in the last sentence is especially relevant. If you draw too often from the well of self-control, it is sure to dry up.

What can you do

You are probably thinking: “So I can’t lose weight, not because I have little willpower, but because I spent it on other important goals - success at work, for example. Perfectly. But what is the use of this discovery? Fair question. After all, understanding the essence of self-control, you will be able to make appropriate plans. We have come close to the second quality of self-control, in which it resembles a muscle: if you let it rest, then the strength will return. Depletion is temporary, and you are most vulnerable immediately after you have exhausted your reserves. Have you ever noticed that resisting temptation becomes easier with time? At first, you experience real anguish, refusing dessert, a cigarette, or remembering the beginning of a difficult project. But time passes, and it no longer seems like torture. If you can get past the point where your self-control is almost exhausted and give it time to recover, then you will surely succeed.

There are other ways to solve this problem. Insufficient strength of self-control can sometimes be compensated for with reasonable incentives. Psychologists Mark Muraven and Elizaveta Slesareva asked students in a study at Case Western Reserve University to watch a five-minute video of Robin Williams acting out a particularly funny scene (3). Half of the subjects were warned that they would be watched and instructed not to laugh or smile while watching. The students needed serious self-control (the scene was very funny) and it drained their willpower resources. To demonstrate this, each student was given a cup of Kool-Aid orange drink, only the experimenters added vinegar instead of sugar. Drinking is unpleasant, but you can force yourself. If you've had to put up with taking a disgusting-tasting drug, then you know how much self-control this procedure requires.

Muraven and Slesareva, continuing the experiment, offered students different levels of payment for each ounce of vinegar drink that they managed to swallow. When the subjects were paid relatively little money for drinking Kool-Aid (a cent per ounce), those who were eligible to laugh at Robin Williams drank twice as much as the participants forced to stifle smiles. It is clear that the second group has indeed exhausted its reserves of self-control. But among students who were paid more (25 cents an ounce), this effect disappeared. Even those who couldn't laugh drank quite a lot of this nasty drink.

Does this mean that money helps create self-control? Or, in other words, that the reward can replenish the expended willpower? Not really. To put it more precisely: increased motivation through improved rewards can help compensate for a temporary loss of self-control. This is why many successful dieters report using non-food rewards as a key element of their diet strategy. Boosting your motivation in any way that works for you is a great way to help yourself when you're too tired to resist temptation.

Perhaps you thought that willpower, or self-control, was something innate and unchanging. This is not true. Self-control can be learned, developed, and made stronger (or weaker) over time. If you need more self-control, this can be achieved in the same way as for building muscle - regular training. Recent studies have shown that when you do habitual activities - exercising, keeping track of your finances and nutrition, or simply straightening your back, remembering your posture - it helps to develop the ability to self-control. For example, one study found that students who performed a daily set of physical exercises not only improved their health, but also almost stopped leaving dirty dishes in the sink (washing them more often immediately after eating) and made less impulsive spending.

Here is another example of how to increase self-control through regular use of it: Matthew Galliot and his colleagues asked participants in an experiment for two weeks to actively use a hand that was not their dominant hand, such as brushing teeth, stirring drinks, eating, opening doors and use a computer mouse (4). (In another version of this study, participants were asked not to use swear words, to speak only in complete sentences, to answer “yes” and “no” instead of “uh-huh” and “no-ah,” and not to start sentences with the pronoun “I.”) Two weeks later on a task that required willpower, these subjects' self-control muscles significantly outperformed the no-training group. They more easily managed to avoid stereotypes, making an impression of a person. Unfortunately, this task was very difficult - but that's a topic for another book.

Theme for this book

I talk a lot about self-control, not only because of its importance. It helps to understand how intuition fails us where everything seems obvious. That is, the example of self-control convincingly demonstrates the benefits of psychology: this science not only helps to explain the essence of the concept of “willpower”, but also offers methods for strengthening it that we can use.

The theme of my book is not only willpower, but also the achievement of goals; and self-control is only one element of this theory. My task is to help you understand what goals are, what problems most often arise on the way to achieving them, and what you can do to get what you want or help other people achieve it.

Too often we hear useless advice, such as: “Keep a positive attitude!”, “Make a plan!”, “Act!” But why Should I keep a positive attitude? Is it always necessary? (No.) And what plan should be drawn up? Does it matter? (Yes.) A as should I act? I know that in order to lose weight I need to eat less and move more, but it doesn’t work. Can I fix it? (Certainly!)

Some of the tips will surprise you. But they are drawn from excellent sources. This is not only my own research, but hundreds of detailed experimental studies by the world's leading psychologists over several decades.

Success does not fit into a simple scheme; much more needs to be learned to achieve it. For example, there are many ways to mentally formulate the same goal. Let's say you want to get a promotion. How do you view it: as what you aspire to Ideally, or something like obliged achieve? Why do you do assignments in class: to develop your skills or to show others how smart you are? All this is important: Goals formulated in different ways require different strategies, and when they are achieved, different types of errors usually occur. It is possible to formulate the goal in such a way that the person striving for it will work hard, but will not get pleasure from this. And with a different formulation, he will pursue it with interest, but will not receive brilliant results (at least in the near future). Some goals cannot be achieved without self-confidence, while for others it is not very significant.

It is important to remember that in order to successfully achieve goals, it is not enough to master some simple scheme (“three reliable ways”), but there are no excessive difficulties here either. In Part I of the book, I will talk about the basic principles of goal setting that can be applied in any area of life: at work, in relationships, or for self-development. In Part II, you will learn about the types of goals we set for ourselves; special attention will be paid to the main differences between them. I'll show you how to choose the goal that best suits your particular situation. You will also learn to instill beneficial goals in your children, students, and subordinates. In Part III, I will examine in detail the most common causes of failure on the way to the goal. You will also learn effective and easy-to-apply strategies to avoid future failures.

Over the past ten to twenty years, social psychologists have learned a lot about goals and achieving them. This book is my attempt to summarize the information found in scientific journals and textbooks and make it useful to many people.

We plan the route of travel to the goal

Do you know where you are going?

To get to your destination, you must first decide where you want to go. It's so obvious that you're probably wondering why I'm writing about it. But despite the obviousness of this step, we surprisingly often forget to take it. Of course, it seems to you that you set many goals for yourself, but is it? Or do you just dream about how you will become happier, more successful, improve your health, but have not decided what you will do for this? You have many desires, but how many of them have you turned into real goals? Desires that are not transformed into goals remain dreams. Let's say you want to take a break. But if your plans do not go beyond the thought “I wish I could go to warmer climes!”, then you are unlikely to go anywhere.

Goal setting is important, and in this chapter I describe research that will help you understand why. But that is not all. After all way setting a goal - mentally formulating the desired result and the actions needed to achieve this - has the same significance. Success is more likely when you focus on the right details.

You don't need to "make the most effort"

Tell the person "Give your best effort!" – a great way to motivate him, right? Most of us have said or heard this phrase many times. It is always well-meaning and is meant to cheer the person up without putting undue pressure on them. It is assumed that, having heard this call, anyone should show themselves in the best way. But this does not happen, because “put your best efforts” is a useless means of motivation.

And the main reason is that this phrase is very vague. What maximum effort for me? Imagine that you are a manager and you are instructing your subordinate to explore the possibility of a sale that can bring big profits to the company. This is a laborious and very important task. What will you tell the employee? "Bob, do your best." But what is Bob's maximum effort? And how do you determine that he applies them? And how can Bob determine this? Does Bob—or anyone else—know what this maximum effort looks like?

Having heard such a call, no one thinks: “I will work as long as I have the opportunity to apply at least Little more effort." It would be stupid and would probably take so long that neither you nor Bob would benefit. When someone hears the phrase "Give your best effort," the person thinks, "I will do this task well enough for the manager to believe that I did my best and be satisfied." It cannot be said that such a thought is inspiring. In the absence of a specific goal, the call put in the best effort, paradoxically, leads to modest results, this is a sure way to a low quality of work.

What is the alternative? Put specific difficult goals. Edwin Locke and Harry Latham, two prominent organizational psychologists, have studied high performance as a result of setting specific and challenging goals for decades (1). After reviewing the results of more than a thousand studies conducted around the world, they found: when the goal is formulated with accurate indicating the desired outcome, and the achievement bar is set high, the results are much better than in the case of goals with a vague formulation and a low level of achievement. And this is true regardless of the origin of the goals: you can set them yourself, receive them as an assignment, or develop them with your parents, teacher, supervisor, or colleagues.

Why are specific, difficult goals more motivating than “do your best” wishes? With concreteness everything is more or less clear: when people know what is expected of them (or decide for themselves what they want to achieve), this eliminates the possibility of being content with less - telling yourself that everything is “good enough” anyway. If you are aiming for something vague, then the temptation is too great to take the easy way when you are tired, frustrated, or bored. But a clear goal does not give a descent: you either reached it or you didn’t. In the latter case, there is nothing left but to keep trying if you are striving for success.

And now - the second characteristic of the goal: difficulty. Is it dangerous to set difficult goals, will there be problems if I raise the bar high? Will it lead to disappointment and failure? Not at all! (Have you seen the movie Stand and Do? If Jaime Escalante could teach calculus to underachieving students, imagine what you could achieve if you dared to try!) Of course, don't set unattainable goals. The main thing is that they are difficult but real. After all, challenging tasks force you (often on a subconscious level) to try harder, focus more on the goal, persist longer and use the most effective strategies.

Locke and Latham have shown that this is true for different groups of people whose day-to-day goals are not the same: scientists, businessmen, truck drivers, laborers, and lumberjacks. In a study in the early 1970s, Latham found that logging truck drivers were transporting loads to the sawmill that averaged 60 percent of the legal limit. Because of this, time and other company resources were wasted. But the drivers did not have a specific task regarding the loads they should be transport at one time. Then Latham set a goal for them: to transport goods weighing 94% of the legal limit. Nine months later, Latham checked the figures and found that the average weight of the load was now over 90%. The company saved amounts that would be in the millions of dollars today.

So, if you set a goal for drivers - to transport much more timber, then they will carry much more timber. People most often do only what they are asked to do, and no more. Assign a person to achieve excellent results, and the likelihood of obtaining them will increase significantly if you indicate what “excellent results” means. Set challenging goals for yourself, and the quality of your work will tend to that level. In one study of almost 3,000 federal employees, those who agreed with statements like "I have a tough job" and "People in my group need to work hard" showed the highest results in the annual assessment of their effectiveness.

Perhaps they felt unhappy? Not at all. Setting and achieving challenging goals leads not only to great results, but also to additional benefits. Recall two times in your life: when you managed to achieve something difficult and when you coped with a relatively easy task. Now compare your feelings: when was it more pleasant for you? Success in hard work brings more joy and enhances the feeling of well-being. And an easy victory is almost never remembered. According to a recent study in Germany, only those employees who found their work difficult reported that over time they began to feel more satisfied and proud of their achievements.

The question arises: does job satisfaction lead to improved results, or vice versa? Both answers are correct: job satisfaction increases the commitment of employees to their organization and increases their self-confidence. This, in turn, allows them to take on more challenging tasks, resulting in increased work efficiency and job satisfaction, and so on. Setting specific, challenging goals creates a cycle of success and joy that can repeat itself endlessly; Locke and Latham call it the "high performance cycle" (2).

And you can start such a cycle in your life. First, set specific and challenging goals for yourself. And to increase the chances of success, look at them in such a way as to motivate yourself as much as possible.

General picture or details?

Any of your actions or goals can be formulated in various ways. For example, cleaning with a vacuum cleaner - "clean up" or "remove debris from the floor." The desire to get an A on a math test - "solve almost all problems correctly" or "learn algebra." Regular exercise - "try to lose five pounds" or "try to improve your fitness."

How do you feel about your actions?

Before you continue reading, answer the questions to find out how you usually think about your actions. Write down the answers. Right, wrong or the best there are no answers. Choose the description that you think matches your behavior.

1. "Make a list" means:

- a) organize their actions;

b) write down the necessary things.

2. "Clean in the house" means:

- a) to be careful;

b) Vacuum the floor.

3. "Pay the rent" means:

- a) provide yourself with a roof over your head;

b) write a check.

4. "Lock the door" means:

- a) insert the key into the lock;

b) keep the house safe.

5. "Greeting someone" means:

- a) to say hello;

b) be friendly.

1a = 2; 1b = 1; 2a = 2; 2b = 1; 3a = 2; 3b = 1; 4a = 1; 4b = 2; 5a = 1; 5b = 2 (3).

If your result is six or more, then you probably tend to think about your behavior abstract: in describing everyday activities, the main thing for you is - why you do them. That is, wielding a vacuum cleaner, you "show your accuracy"; wanting the house to be clean is the reason you vacuum, that's why you think about it that way. If your result is five or less, then you probably tend to think more specifically. When describing your behavior, do you think about certain actions. So the meaning of manipulating the vacuum cleaner is to “remove the garbage”; these are real actions, that's why you think about it that way.

The two descriptions of the vacuuming process are accurate, and one cannot be said to be correct and the other not. But they are not similar, and this is the fundamental difference. After all, it turns out that both types of thinking about their behavior - the abstract why and a specific “what” - there are pluses and minuses in terms of motivation. Each of these types of thinking in different situations can lead to increased achievement. But for this you need to adapt your thinking to the circumstances, and this, fortunately, is not so difficult. You just need to figure out when to think “why” and when to think “what”.

Let's start with an abstract type of thinking ("why"). Abstract thoughts about behavior can actively spur action because you associate a particular, often minor action with a higher meaning or purpose. What in itself seems insignificant can appear in a completely new light. For example, if you need to stay late at work and you think of it as "good for my career" and not as "an extra hour at the computer", then the likelihood that you will want to work is much higher. The “why” mindset is highly motivating, so it’s no surprise that many choose to think of their actions in this way.

If you want to motivate another person to take action, then describing them in terms of “why” will also help. For example, you need to convince your son to study for a chemistry test. Explaining that he needs to strive for good grades in chemistry in order to get into college will probably inspire him more than simply having him open his textbook and memorize all the elements of the periodic table. He must necessarily learn that H is the designation of hydrogen, but describing, what he has to do, you are unlikely to increase his enthusiasm. It is quite possible that for this you need to tell, why him to deal with.

So is it worth thinking about your actions in terms of specific actions: what is that what I do? Yes. First of all, this type of thinking is useful when you have to do something. unusual, complex or requiring long-term development. If you are picking up a vacuum cleaner for the first time in your life, then it is more important for you to think about "taking out the garbage" (what), and not "keep clean" (why).

Psychologists Daniel Wegner and Robin Wallacher asked avid coffee drinkers to drink a cup of the drink and then rate how each of thirty different descriptions fit that action. (You probably didn't think it was can be expressed thirty ways. I didn't know that for sure.) Options ranged from abstract "why"-based descriptions (e.g., "I'm addicted to caffeine" and "I'm getting a boost of energy"), and more specific, literal, "what"-based descriptions: "I drink liquid" and "I swallow."

Half of the participants in the study were offered coffee in a regular cup, while the other half were offered coffee in a bulky mug that weighed more than two hundred grams. (You might say it's not that hard. But the study was conducted in 1983, when no one drank coffee from huge Starbucks mugs. Back then, a cup weighing two hundred plus grams was considered very heavy.) When the subjects were asked to choose the best descriptions of their action, those who drank from a regular cup preferred descriptions in the spirit of "why". In other words, under normal circumstances, coffee drinkers wanted to think about their consumption in terms of cause (4).

But those participants who drank from heavy mugs opted for clearer descriptions - "what." They thought of specific actions, such as "I lift the mug to my lips." After all, in order to manage to drink coffee from a mug that much heavier than usual, and nothing don't shed, I had to mentally draw a diagram. They had to focus on what they do (i.e. firmly grasp the handle, raise the mug to their lips, swallow the drink) rather than why. By concentrating on specific details, they were able to drink from unfamiliar dishes without making mistakes. And if they approached the matter from an abstract position (“why”), then instead of “I get a boost of energy”, it could well come out “I drench and burn myself”.

Wegner and Wallacher found similar results when they asked students to eat Cheerios with their hands or chopsticks. Subjects preferred to think of their actions as "I put food in my mouth" and "I move my fingers" ("what") rather than "I satisfy my hunger" or "I refresh myself" ("why"). We are again convinced that it is more useful to think of complex actions as simple, concrete steps - “what”, and not to hover in the clouds of an abstract “why”. (Have you suspected that social psychologists enjoy asking people to do strange things, like eating breakfast cereal with chopsticks, eating raw radishes, or not laughing at Robin Williams? Honestly, yes, it's nice. It's moral compensation for the long hours spent studying statistics.)

Having gained experience in any business and having learned to do it with ease, we often begin to consider it more abstractly (“why”) - from the point of view of meaning or task. For example, in one study, underage drinkers with little experience most often described the process of drinking as "I sip" or "I raise my glass." And patients treated for alcoholism preferred the expressions "I relieve stress" or "I want to dispel boredom." Apparently, the reasons for this addiction (“why”) were not very clear to inexperienced drinkers. Older alcoholics knew them too well.

When thinking about their actions in terms of “why”, people are guided by generalized ideas: everyday actions become part of something larger. They are more closely tied to long-term goals. Thinking “why” rather than “what” makes us less reckless, less tempted, and more likely to plan our actions (this does not apply to “why” alcoholics, but the main conclusion is correct). Thinking “why” gives people self-confidence, they are less likely to consider what is happening to them as the result of the intervention of external forces (other people, luck or fate).

When thinking about their actions in terms of “what”, people focus on the details – the order of actions that will allow them to get from point A to point B. And although they are often less motivated, and the danger of not seeing the forest for the trees more, they are better able to get through path full of obstacles. When the necessary actions are difficult, it is worth forgetting about the big picture and focusing on the particulars.

So, both ways of thinking - through the big picture ("why") and practical details ("what") - have their advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, the best strategy is to adapt your mindset to the desired goal. Sometimes this happens automatically. It is important to make sure that you are using the optimal type of thinking, and change it if necessary. To feel motivated and increase self-control, think in terms of “why”. Consider the higher meaning of your actions. If, after seeing the cakes, you do not want to break the diet, remember why you are trying to lose weight. When subordinates are sluggish, remind them what good results are for (both for the company and for themselves).

But to move towards a difficult or unfamiliar goal, it is best to think in terms of “what”. If you have to learn a new skill, think of it as a series of concrete steps. Decided to go skiing for the first time? Remember to keep your knees bent and your ski toes together. It is not yet the time to dream about how you will delight others with speed and grace, otherwise you daydream - and fly into a tree.

To learn how to apply these types of thinking to the goals you have already set, complete the following activity. (Note that there are regular written exercises throughout the book. They should help you learn to apply new strategies to improve your performance. If you are learning something unfamiliar, a great way to turn the innovation into a habit is to write down your actions step by step. You might want to start (This is a special exercise notebook from this book. After such training, the brain will learn a new strategy and begin to apply it automatically, so you do not have to tinker with written assignments. But at first it is useful to write everything down.)

How to think in terms of "why"

1. Write down an action you have been having a hard time with lately because you lack motivation or are tempted. It could be anything from skipping dessert or having to answer important emails every day.

2. Now write down why you need to take this action. What is its meaning For you? What goal does it help achieve? What benefit will you get from it?

The next time you try this action, think about the “why” you just figured out. Do this constantly until it becomes a habit (and this will definitely happen: with repeated repetitions, you automatically begin to perform any simple action. You just need patience).

How to think in terms of "what"

1. Write down an action that you would like to take despite the fact that it seems difficult and unusual. For example, you dream of creating your own website, but you lack the knowledge, or you are thinking about changing your profession.

2. Now write down what should be your first step. What exactly do you need to do to achieve your goal?

As you think about this goal, consider the next specific step and focus on it. This will quickly become a habit too.

Now or later

To find the balance of why and what thoughts that will help you achieve your goal, it is useful to be able to determine when your unconscious arises. prejudice against one of these versions. Then you can correct your way of thinking in time. I wrote above that when a task becomes habitual, most people begin to think in terms of “why”. Another powerful factor in choosing the type of action and goal thinking (abstract “why” or concrete “what”) is time: the time frame in which you will be able to complete your plan. When will you start the new diet - tomorrow or next month? And when do you plan to go on vacation - in a week or next year? According to recent studies, most people tend to think about plans for distant the future is abstract, focusing on the "why". And plans for soon are usually more specific and focused on what must be done in order to achieve the goal.

Psychologists Yaakov Troup and Nira Lieberman made this discovery when they asked a group of students to choose the best descriptions for a range of everyday activities. One group was asked to imagine doing each activity in the near future (“tomorrow”), while the other group was asked to imagine each activity in the longer term (“next month”). When imagining how they would “move to a new apartment” tomorrow, the students preferred the wording “packing and carrying boxes” (a description focusing on “what”). But when talking about “moving in a month”, they chose a more abstract way of describing it: “start a new life” (from the “why” position) (5).

It turns out that these differences are important for the decision-making process and can create different types of problems. Thinking "why", we pay more attention to what in psychology is called information about desirability. In other words, whether this action or the achievement of a goal will lead to positive results. How interesting or useful will it be? This is what we are trying to evaluate by considering the possible action in distant the future. If I after few years If I go to medical school, will I eventually become a successful person? If I six months later will I speak at the conference, will it be useful for my career and will I meet old friends there? If I invite next Christmas husband's parents, will my children be happy? If you answer “yes”, you are more likely to accept this goal (for example, go to college) or take this action (for example, invite your spouse’s relatives to the holidays).

More specific thinking - "what" - makes us think more seriously about feasibility: can you really execute the necessary actions. What is the probability of success? What obstacles stand in the way of success? This is what we think about the longest when considering any action in nearest the future. What are the chances of getting into medical school in next year, given my grades? Who will look after the children if I go to a conference next week? Where will I place all relatives if they show up tomorrow?

Have you ever wondered why you so often promise to do something that at first looks like a great idea, but as the deadline approaches, it seems worse and worse? "And why did you have to agree!" we groan. “Why did I decide that I could enter a medical school with a triple in biology?” Or: “Why did it seem to me that ten more people would fit in our house?” Panic sets in: when we set ourselves the goal of becoming a doctor or inviting my husband's family to the house, we didn’t really think about whether we could do everything right. We reasoned in terms of "why", not "what". I can console you - most people constantly find themselves in such situations. After all, we tend to think about future actions in terms of causes, according to which we want to accomplish them, thinking a little about how we will fulfill them. Therefore, we set goals that can theoretically bring great benefits, but their implementation turns into a real nightmare.

When it comes to events close in time, we fall into the other extreme. You probably had to refuse an unexpectedly opened opportunity to do something interesting, useful, considering that it would be too troublesome. I once turned down a free trip to India, thinking I wouldn't be able to prepare for it in a few weeks (do I need vaccinations? can I get a new passport? what about the visa? who will look after my dog?). I didn’t go, although I knew that with a little effort, I probably would have managed to do everything. Very much regretting this decision, I later nevertheless went to India, but I had to spend thousands of dollars in the process. (Here's how the "what" mindset can fail.) Many people don't tend to be spontaneous or take advantage of an unexpected opportunity in the near future. We focus too much on “what” and not enough on “why”: getting bogged down in small things, we discard opportunities that would more than compensate for the effort expended (or, in the case of me, would help to save money).

Lieberman and Troup illustrated the trade-off between what and why through a series of interesting studies. During one of them, students of Tel Aviv University were offered tasks to choose from. One was boring but easy (materials on the history of psychology in Hebrew, their native language), and the other was interesting but difficult (materials on romantic love in English, which is foreign to them). The researchers also found different terms delivery: a week was allotted to complete the task, and it was necessary to answer either the next week (in nearest future) or nine weeks later (in distant future). The students who turned in the next week's assignment generally chose the easy but boring option, that is, they were willing to sacrifice fun for the sake of not having to work too hard. And those who were allowed to respond after nine weeks opted for a mostly more difficult but exciting task. Of course, this option deserves respect, but some of the subjects regretted their decision when two months later they had to sit down at the English-Hebrew dictionaries. So, thinking about your desired actions in distant future, we are sacrificing practical considerations for potential gain. And when we think about our actions in nearest future, we choose a pragmatic approach at the expense of pleasure. In other words, when we look to the future, we think like researchers, and in everyday affairs, like accountants.

Speaking of accounting, it turned out that such biases arise even when making decisions regarding money. There are two aspects to consider when playing any game of chance: returns and odds. Feedback is information about desirability: why you play what you can win. Chances are feasibility: then, what can happen, the probability of winning. When students were given the choice of participating in a lottery where there was a high chance of winning $4 or one where there was a small chance of winning $10, the participants whose draw was to take place on the same day, preferred mostly a more reliable option - a sure win with low returns. And those who were to play after two months, usually chose a lower chance of winning with a higher return. The results of a study of the preferences of participants in the clothing lottery turned out to be the same: when the draw was supposed to take place on the same day, they were choosing a lottery ticket with a chance to win a Brita water filter pitcher (an unpopular prize, so the chances of getting it are high). But when the draw was to take place only after two months, the majority preferred to win a new stereo system (a very valuable prize, and the chances of winning were much lower). In any scenario where there is risk and reward (if you think about it, you can call it anything), it is important to evaluate both types of information as objectively as possible. You definitely need to know how time can affect your thinking (i.e. whether your decision is in the near or distant future). In this way, you can correct the bias that arises and make the best possible decision.

The differences caused by “why” and “what” thinking are true not only in situations of choice. In another study, Lieberman and Troup asked participants to estimate how much time they would spend on some work-related activity or leisure activities either “next week” or “within a week, but in a year.” Thinking about the distant future, the participants estimated the time spent on average as 82 hours, and for the near future they called 68 hours. That is, they tended to think that next year they would be able to use an average of 14 hours more, than now. Of course, this is hardly feasible, but it explains why many people are not able to cope with all their plans, although at first it seemed to them that there would be enough time.

In addition, when it came to the next week, the number of hours allotted for work by participants was inversely proportional to leisure time. In other words, people understood that time could be wasted or for one or for other activities. It is noteworthy that this did not include planning for the distant future: participants considered each activity independently and thought about how much time they would like to spend on it; nor did they recognize that they would necessarily have to sacrifice one of their activities.

Thinking about your goals in terms of “what” is a great way to be more realistic about your time and avoid procrastination. In one project, Lieberman, Trope, Sean McCree, and Steven Sherman asked students to complete a short questionnaire and email it to researchers no later than three weeks in order to receive a cash prize (6). Before receiving the questionnaire, each participant completed a task that was supposed to make him think in terms of “why” or “what”. To stimulate “why” thinking, subjects were asked to take a list of ten actions (for example, “open a bank account” or “make an entry in a diary”) and come up with causes by which a person can fulfill them. And in order to activate the “what” thinking, students were given the same list and asked to describe, as every action would be performed. The researchers then recorded how long it took the participants to achieve their goal (how long they completed the questionnaire and sent the email). It is noteworthy that those who were stimulated to think “what” sent their questionnaires on average almost ten days earlier than those who thought "why" (in another version of the study, this difference was closer to fourteen days). So, by thinking about your goal in terms of “what,” you focus on the specific step that needs to be taken; it helps you move faster. But paying too much attention reason on which you want to do something, you may not be in a hurry to perform the action itself.

Psychologists are often asked variations on the question, “Which should I do, A or B?” What is better - to give vent to emotions or distract from what is bothering you? Focus on your mistakes or forget about the past? Most often, we are forced to answer: "When how." And if you ask me how to think better - more abstractly or focusing on details - I will say that it all depends on the situation. In this case, the type of your target. Thinking about the goal in terms of the big picture (“why”) is especially good for increasing motivation and strength, directing your attention to possible benefits, and encouraging self-control and perseverance. Particular (“what”) thinking is useful when you need to do something difficult or unusual on the way to a goal: you focus on the practical details of getting the job done, and this helps to avoid procrastination. You will achieve more by choosing the type of goal thinking that will help you overcome specific obstacles more effectively. (If you are setting a goal for another person, then you need to choose a goal statement that best suits his tasks.)

The Power (and Danger) of Positive Thinking

You have probably heard that it is important to think positively when you are striving for a goal. Believe in yourself, in the reality of achieving your plan - and you will come to success. This simple idea is proclaimed from the pages of so many self-improvement books that it could fill a huge bookcase. It is also popular among psychologists-researchers.

The world loves optimists, and that's a good thing: optimism is a habitual state for most people. By examining optimistic beliefs, psychologists have found that almost everyone is sure that they are much more likely to have a favorable development of events (make a successful career, buy their own house, earn a lot of money, live more than 90 years) than others. We have no doubt: a divorce, a heart attack, alcoholism or buying a defective car threatens us smaller than the rest. In general, this is good. But there are important caveats. Be careful with positive thinking, make sure you apply it right.

After all, you can look positively at the future in different ways. Imagine that your goal is to lose weight. There are at least two ways to think positively about her:

1. You say to yourself, “I am able to lose weight and I am confident that I will achieve my goal.” That is, you can think positively about your chances of success.

2. You tell yourself, “I can easily give up donuts and potato chips and stick to my new workout routine.” In other words, you can think positively about easily overcome obstacles on the way to success.

When the authors of most self-improvement books write about the importance of a positive mindset for achieving goals, they combine both types of positive thinking. You are invited to believe that you will win, and with ease. Unfortunately, the combination of these two kinds of thinking - huge mistake. After all, one of them is very effective, and the other should become taboo for you, because it leads to failure.

Let's start with the first type: think positively about your chances of success. Probably best known in the study of motivation is the "expected value theory". To put it briefly, the motivation of any human action depends on: 1) the probability of success ( expected) and 2) the benefit he thinks he will get ( value). Of course, the stronger your motivation, the higher the likelihood of achieving the goal. So these are not just appeals from books on popular psychology, designed to activate illusory optimism. Faith in success really increases its likelihood. (This rule has an important exception for certain types of targets, which I'll cover in detail in Chapter 4. But the rule is true for most targets, so let's keep it simple for now.)

Examples of psychological research on this topic can be listed endlessly. One of my favorites concerns the features of sports. Tara Parker-Pope, a New York Times health columnist, recently reported that a study of how people use home exercise equipment was published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine (7). It is difficult to find an adult who, at least occasionally, has not dreamed that if he has a treadmill or exercise bike at home, he will regularly use them. (I bought a stepper, and my husband still teases me with it. But I won't pay attention to it until he gets rid of his dumbbells, which I always trip over.) Whose home equipment really works, and does not collect dust ? It turns out that study participants who firmly believed in their success, almost three times more likely to continue using the machines a year later than those who doubted themselves. (I confess: when buying a simulator, I knew in my heart that I was unlikely to last for a long time. I did not have a firm belief in a high probability of success. I hate steppers.)

So, confidence in success is useful, but no less useful. imagine how easy it is for you to succeed, easily avoiding temptations and overcoming obstacles (this is the second kind of positive thinking). It would seem that everything is logical. In fact, this is absolutely false. Psychologist Gabrielle Oettingen has carefully studied the motivational effects of confidence in one's success and confidence in lung success. She found that these beliefs affect achievement in different ways (8). For example, in one study, obese women who wanted to lose weight were enrolled in a comprehensive weight loss program. At the beginning of the program, Oettingen asked the participants to describe what they expect from successful weight loss. Having already read the information about positive expectations, you are unlikely to be surprised by the result: women who believed that they would successfully lose weight lost an average of 11.8 kilograms more than those who foresaw failure.

Oettingen also found out what women think about losing weight: how they present yourself a process. For example, she asked if they could overcome the temptation of a box of delicious donuts. Participants who found the path to weight loss easy lost an average of 10.8 kilograms smaller than those who prepared for a difficult struggle with temptations. Oettingen and her colleagues found the same pattern in studies with different groups of participants: students looking for high-paying jobs, single people looking for long-term love relationships, and older patients recovering from hip replacement surgery. It turns out that successful people, whoever they are and whatever they aspire to, are not only confident in future success, but just as firmly We are convinced that we will have to work hard for it.

Why is it important to believe in the inevitability of difficulties in order to achieve the goal? The fact is that such negative emotions as anxiety are unpleasant, but useful - mainly because they can be a powerful stimulus. They can motivate us to make extra efforts or to plan measures to solve future problems. In his book Stumbling on Happiness, psychologist Dan Gilbert observed, “Sometimes we imagine bleak futures just to scare ourselves” (9). We do this because it is beneficial.

Oettingen's research shows that people who are convinced of the difficulty of moving towards goals make plans more carefully and are more active in their pursuit of success. They are sure that they will have to work hard, and they do it. For example, study participants who were convinced that after college it would be easy for them to get a good job sent out fewer resumes. Those who had no doubt that they would fall madly in love with a person who would love him back were less likely to tell their love object about their feelings. Students who thought they could easily pass the exam spent much less time preparing. Patients who thought they could move effortlessly with a new hip joint did not perform the specific exercises very well. That is, people who believe that reaching the goal is a trifle, are simply not ready for what awaits them. And when a dream that brought so much pleasure does not come true, it becomes a shock for them.

What is the best way to act so that the matter is not limited to dreams? It appears that the optimal strategy for goal setting is positively think about how things will turn out when you achieve success, but at the same time realistic talk about the steps that need to be taken. Oettingen calls it mental contrast: first you need to imagine achieving the goal, and then think about the obstacles standing in the way. Want to get a profitable job? First of all, imagine how you accept an offer from a successful company, and then think about what (more precisely, who) stands between you and this event. And these are other suitable candidates for jobs. You'll want to send out more resumes right away, right? It's called "feel" need for action” is a psychological state that is fundamentally important for achieving the goal. Of course, it's nice to dream about how great it is to get a great job or fall in love with a wonderful person whom you have noticed for a long time. But dreams alone won't take you far. Mental contrasting turns dreams into reality, directing attention to the actions necessary for this.

It is worth noting that mental contrasting helps to achieve a goal only if you really believe that you can do it. (We are again confronted with the importance of believing in achieving a goal.) If you are not convinced of success, mental contrasting will lead you to step back from the target. In fact, it will help to abandon a pipe fantasy. And this is another advantage of this strategy. Having considered and desired, and obstacles on the way to it, you will understand the situation and be able to make a reasonable decision: when the chances of success are high, this will increase your commitment to the goal and the likelihood of achieving it. And if hopes are illusory, you will probably do something else.

While letting go of fantasy can be frustrating, it is necessary for your well-being. Only realizing that the goal unattainable, we are able to do what we really available. For example, only by admitting to ourselves that you cannot save a relationship that has exhausted itself, and by breaking it, we open the way for a happy meeting with another person. realizing unrealizability dreams of medical school, you may consider other career options for which you have the right qualities.

Back to the topic of goals that you consider achievable: Oettingen and her colleagues (myself included) have proven in numerous experiments that when people who are confident of success are asked to use the strategy of mental contrasting when setting goals, they usually perform better than equally convinced participants who anticipate only happy -end. Studies were conducted among representatives of various population groups: 25-year-old young people learning a foreign language, 15-year-old schoolchildren studying for an exam during the summer holidays, adults trying to find a partner, and nurses striving to communicate more effectively with patients. In all of these cases, mental contrasting led to increased diligence, more careful planning, increased energy, and overall goal achievement rates (10).

When the effectiveness of mental contrasting was studied in the human resources department of a hospital, managers who applied the strategy reported after two weeks that they were able to manage time and make decisions more easily. They even stated that they had completed more projects. Interestingly, they delegated more projects to other managers compared to the group that was not taught this strategy. In other words, they figured out which projects they could handle themselves and which ones someone else could handle better. Managers acted smarter, more efficiently, and because of this they got more pleasure from work. What did they have to do to get it? Take a few minutes to learn a simple method that can be used for any purpose.

Setting Goals with Mental Contrasting

1. Take a notebook (sheet of paper) and write down your desire (problem). For example, an action that you ponder or already doing(take a vacation in the Caribbean, move to Los Angeles and become a screenwriter, or lose five kilograms).

2. Now think about the happy ending of the situation associated with this desire (problem). Write down one positive aspect of such a happy ending (for example, how great it would be to relax on the beach without checking email).

3. Then consider the obstacles standing between you and your dream (for example, my passion for cheese stands between me now and the thinner me that I should be in the happy ending of this situation).

4. Now write down another positive aspect.

5. And one more obstacle.

6. And again a positive aspect.

7. And again an obstacle.

What do you think are the chances of success? Do you need to pursue this goal? By balancing possible benefits with obstacles, you can better understand the likelihood of success and your willingness to resolutely pursue it.

In this chapter, we looked at the importance of setting specific and challenging goals for increasing motivation. We figured out how formulating these goals for yourself or for others can affect your chances of succeeding. We also learned how to use the beneficial aspects of positive thinking (and realistic thinking) with regard to goals. If you stop reading this book now, you can still achieve what you want with greater success.

But don't stop reading! Indeed, in the next chapter, we will look at the goals you are already striving for. Where did they come from? How did it happen that you preferred them to others, no less attractive? Perhaps the answers will surprise you. And if you want to choose goals reasonable– in order to be guaranteed to become happier and more successful – first, figure out what you are doing right and what needs to be corrected.

what can you do

At the end of each chapter, I summarize its main topics so that you have a brief description of the steps you can take to achieve your goals more successfully.

– Concreteness. When setting a goal, try to make it as good as possible. more specifically. The goal of "lose 10 pounds" is better than "lose some weight" because it gives you a clear idea of what success should look like. Knowing exactly what you want keeps you motivated until you reach your goal. Avoid goals like “do your best”: they are too vague and therefore poorly motivating.

– Difficulty. It is important to determine difficult but realistic goals. You need to challenge yourself and set the bar high to feel truly motivated while avoiding unattainable goals. Remember, if you set the bar too low, you may reach your goal, but you're unlikely to go any further, because most people become lazy after completing the initial task. There is no person who initially sought to lose two kilograms, but eventually lost ten.

– Think "why" or "what". Goals can be thought of either abstractly ( why I do it), or more specifically ( what I do). For example, decluttering wardrobes can be phrased as "organize space" ("why") or "throw away clothes I no longer wear" ("what"). Think of your goals in terms of “why” when you want to feel energized, stay motivated, or avoid temptations. Think of your goals in terms of “what” when you have a difficult, unusual or long-term task to master.

– Consider both value and feasibility. Remember that we all tend to take a “why” attitude when thinking about goals for the distant future. As a result, we focus on more desirable or valuable aspects (such as how great it would be to go to Disneyland) and underestimate the achievability of the goal (“Where can I get money for a trip to Disneyland?”). We tend to look at the near future in terms of the "what" and as a result place too much emphasis on the practical side of things, with little regard for enjoyment.

– Think positively, but without underestimating the difficulties. When setting a goal, be sure to think about your chances of success. Believing in your abilities helps a lot to create and maintain motivation. But the difficulties in achieving the goal should not be underestimated. Most achieving goals take time, planning, effort and perseverance. Assuming that everything will be easy, you will be unprepared for the difficulties ahead; this can cause failure.

– Set goals with mental contrast. When considering a new goal, be sure to consider not only the consequences of its successful achievement, but also the obstacles that stand in the way. This process of mental contrasting will tell you if you should strive for it, activate your motivational systems, and maximize your commitment to the goal.

Where do your goals come from?

Not all goals are the same. If two people strive to achieve seemingly the same thing (for example, a successful career), then for them this is often absolutely different tasks. The reason is a different idea of what success is: for some it is a sense of security, for others it is confirmation of one's own abilities, fame or personal growth. And these are just a few of the options. Some types of goals seem to lead to a long-term increase in well-being, while others cause only short-term changes in it. When you are struggling with great challenges or tackling a task that requires tremendous effort, some goals lead you to diligence and perseverance, while others make you feel helpless and depressed.

To achieve anything, it is not enough to know how to achieve your goals; it's more important to strive for the types of goals that will help you reach your full potential and enjoy the process. In the following chapters, I will explain how the goals differ and why this happens, which ones are best suited to you and how you can change your (or someone else's) goals. But first it is useful to understand the origin of the goals you have. has already. By knowing why you chose them in the past, you can analyze those goals more objectively and be able to approach your choice differently in the future.

You might not be surprised to know that beliefs affect the choice of targets. You would probably take seriously the desire to improve your math skills if you were sure that it possibly; otherwise it's not worth trying. Depending on our beliefs, we present the goal either as something accessible or as a waste of time and effort. Therefore, I will take a closer look at some of the common beliefs that significantly affect our goals. And you will understand how they could determine your preferences. You will also learn that some of these beliefs are wrong.

Perhaps you didn't know that another significant factor influencing the choice of goal is the environment, and it almost always affects our subconscious. In other words, you are actively pursuing goals every day. sometimes you don't even know that they exist.; they have arisen as a result of signals and external stimuli around you, including the actions of other people. By understanding how all this affects you, you can learn to limit their influence and use them to shape the goals of your subordinates, students and children.

How Beliefs Determine Achievement

Beliefs related to intelligence

Your ideas about the strengths and weaknesses of your character play an important role in determining the goals that you set for yourself. If I am convinced that I am good at mathematics and science, then it is logical to strive to become an engineer. And when a person is sure of his poor coordination and slowness, he should hardly dream of getting into the university basketball team. Beliefs about our own knowledge influence our beliefs about what is possible and what we could achieve.

Moreover, it is not only the opinion about one's own capabilities or their absence that matters. Apparently, more important is the belief in the ability or inability of their get. In other words: do you think intelligence (character, sportsmanship) is immutable given or he amenable to change? Does a person always remain at a certain intellectual level or can he increase it? For these categories in psychology there is a term - "implicit theories". These are personal beliefs about what the mind is (character, moral character, or any other characteristic). They are called implicit, that is, implicit, because people do not always think about them consciously. And although we sometimes do not even realize that we hold these theories, they have a huge impact on our everyday choices.

Let's start with implicit theories of intelligence. Take a few minutes to complete the following exercise.

Intelligence: what is it?

Answer the questions provided below. Try to be honest about it. (They are somewhat repetitive, but be patient.)

1. You have a certain level of intelligence, and you cannot significantly change it.

2. Intelligence is a property that you cannot significantly change.

3. The level of one's own intelligence cannot be significantly changed.

Now add up your points (1).

How does a person become smart? If you are convinced that the mind is an innate property that is determined mainly by genes or develops in childhood, and remains almost constant in adulthood, then you are an adherent predetermined theory. (If you scored ten points or more, then this theory is for you.) Its essence is that people have a certain level of intelligence and nothing can be done with it (that is, intelligence is an unchanging given). A person is either smart or not.

If you are sure that the mind is a property that develops over time through experience and training, and it can be improved with effort, then you are a supporter of increment theory. (If you scored nine points or less, then you believe in this theory.) Its essence is the belief that the mind is a changeable property, that is, people can become smarter at any time in their lives.

Implicit theories can be more specific, referring to one feature of a person. For example, most Americans believe that mathematical ability is an almost unchanging component, that is, mathematics can be given to a person either well or badly. But in matters of intelligence, almost all people seem to be divided into two groups: supporters of the theory of set and the theory of increment. It is possible that you, like everyone else, never thought about which group you belong to until you answered the questions above. But whichever theory seems right to you, it must have had a profound effect on your life and your choice of goals on a subconscious level.

Much of the work on understanding implicit theories has been done by psychologist Carol Dweck of Stanford University. In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, she details the many ways in which our beliefs about our own ability (or not abilities) to develop determine every aspect of life. Through dozens of studies, Dweck and her students have shown that people who are confident that their personal characteristics (for example, intelligence) are unchanged are sensitive to the opinions of others. They want constant confirmation that they are smart (or at least not stupid) (2). They crave to feel smart. If you think about it, it makes sense.

If my intellectual level is constant, then it is very important for me that it be high because I can't lift it. And remember that a high level of intelligence is not only a source of pride and a way to flatter your ego, but also a necessary condition for becoming a successful person and getting what you want from life. So, if you are an adherent of the theory of given intelligence, then your main goal is to prove to yourself and others that you in fact very smart.

Not surprisingly, set theorists choose options and set goals that have a specific purpose: to confirm their intellectual level. As a rule, these people avoid too difficult goals, preferring more reliable options. I know this from personal experience, since before graduate school I was a staunch supporter of the theory of assignment. I shared the common view that addiction to certain subjects is genetically determined. Like most Americans, I believed in what psychologists call the “inverse effort rule”: if you have to work hard on quality, then you have low quality. Effort makes up for lack of skill. So I tried to choose subjects that were easy for me, which made me feel smart.

When I was 12 years old, I persuaded my parents to buy me a piano and learned to play for about a year. But then I realized that in order to reach a decent level, you have to work very hard. And I made the decision to quit. Since then, I have regretted it more than once, because I realized that I deprived myself of a lot of pleasure, although I did not play very well. Proponents of the theory of given intelligence often rob themselves: they put too much effort into proving their abilities, and they neglect the opportunities to enrich life with new experiences.

Adherents of the theory of augmentation of intelligence usually do not make such a mistake. When a person is sure that any abilities can be gradually improved, his main efforts are directed not to proving how smart he is, but to improving the intellect. Difficult tasks do not frighten him, because they provide an opportunity to acquire new skills. Mistakes do not mean that he is stupid, but help to learn useful lessons. I admire my mother, who, as an adult, independently acquired many skills that no one instilled in her as a child. She learned to draw with charcoal, create decorative things with exquisite patterns, design and sew clothes for herself, became almost a professional gardener, refinishes furniture. Mum on one's own built a wall around her garden with stones that she had dug in her garden. But she none of this didn't do it when I was a kid. Sometimes mom makes mistakes, especially when she is learning something completely new. At first, she took on too complex decorative items, and the seams turned out to be imperfect. Not all planted plants took root, and part of the stone wall sometimes collapsed. Failures, of course, upset my mother, but she learned from them and never doubted her abilities: “In the end, I will learn!” And all because in matters of drawing, sewing, gardening, furniture finishing and building stone walls, my mother is a supporter of the increment theory.

In search of evidence that implicit theories do drive our choices, Dweck asked 12-14-year-olds and college students to describe the learning goals they aspire to. Participants in the study, who believed that their IQ did not change, agreed with the following statements: “Although I am embarrassed to admit it, I would rather get good grades in some subject than extensive knowledge” and “If I knew that I would do poorly task, you probably wouldn't take it on even if it helped you learn a lot." And schoolchildren and students, convinced that their intellectual level could be improved, preferred such statements: “It is much more important for me to learn something during class than to get high marks.”

Dweck and her colleagues conducted another study, this time with students from the University of Hong Kong. The results demonstrated how these beliefs can influence important decisions. Classes at the university are conducted in English, although some newly enrolled students do not speak English well enough. Dweck suggested that those who needed to improve their English enroll in special courses. Only students who were convinced that they could become smarter showed interest (proponents of the increment theory): 73% of them wanted to study. Those who were confident in the immutability of their intellect (adherents of the theory of assignment) decided not to participate in this: only 13% of them agreed to attend the courses. Most of them believed that a corrective course would not help. Equally important is their belief that by taking courses they would expose their own incompetence (3).

Can a leopard change its spots?

Implicit theories are not just about the intellect; they can refer to anything. Perhaps you believe in the immutability of your personality: it has already developed, and nothing can be changed at your age. Or do you think that personality can be developed and start from scratch. Even children are guided by these beliefs, especially in matters of character. For example, Dweck and her colleagues conducted a study involving a large group of children aged 10–12. They were asked about their goals in friendship. The subjects, convinced that it was impossible to change their personality, more than others sought popularity and avoided rejection. On Valentine's Day, they made "valentines" for children who were most liked by their peers, hoping to win their affection. Those for whom the main thing was to avoid rejection made "valentines" only for children, from whom they would probably receive a card in return. But adolescents, confident that they could improve as a person, chose goals in which the development of relationships played a more important role. These study participants reported giving "valentines" to those they wanted to get to know better, thus paving the way for friendship (4).

We find the same patterns in situations not related to studies. For example, when choosing partners or spouses. People who are convinced of the immutability of their personality report that they are looking for a person who will consider them "ideal", thereby causing a feeling of pride in themselves. They choose partners who will think: “How lucky I am with this person!” At the same time, they end the relationship if disputes or active criticism begin in them. And people who believe in the ability to change their personality prefer those who are able to stimulate their development, and more often consider the “black streak” in a relationship as an opportunity to get to know themselves and their partner better.

Psychologist Jennifer Beer has proven that shy people have various theories about their shyness, and these theories affect how they communicate with others (5). During the study, Beer offered shy people the choice of two options for meeting the other person (and said the meetings would be filmed). The first option is to date a very charming person from whom they can learn valuable communication skills. The participants were told that this proposal had a significant drawback: they were likely to appear awkward in the videotape compared to the charming interlocutor. The second option is to meet more a shy person whose communication skills are still smaller. In this case, they would not have learned anything, but on the video they would look good against the background of the interlocutor.

Participants who believed they “could reduce their shyness if they wanted to” (i.e., considered it a modifiable quality) generally preferred the opportunity to learn something, even if it made them look ridiculous. Those who believed that “shyness is a property that I cannot significantly change” (that is, believed that it is unchanged) preferred the opportunity to look better than the interlocutor. When we are convinced that we cannot change some of our quality, we strive to appear before others in the best possible light. Paradoxically, it is these goals that are actively hinder change: do not allow us to learn and grow.

How to get off the ground

Are you often cautious when pursuing goals that are right for you? Are there any skills you no longer hope to master? Or knowledge that you think you don't have? If the list turned out to be long, then you undoubtedly adhere to the theory of setness. The belief that you will not be able to significantly change has affected the course of your life much more than you realize. There would be nothing wrong with this if the theory of givenness were correct. But she is wrong.

Let's take a closer look at the example of intelligence (although the same arguments apply to personality characteristics). I am not trying to convince you that genes do not play any role in the level of intelligence. Of course, smart parents often raise smart children. But, as psychologist Richard Nisbett points out in What Is Intelligence and How to Develop It, smart parents give children more than just a set of chromosomes. They create an atmosphere at home where there is an opportunity to learn something, communicate a lot with children. Often such parents earn well and can give their children the opportunity to receive a quality education. Apparently smart parents give kids more chances develop intellect {6}.

If you don't believe me, look at what happens when children who have not received enough knowledge in the family get a chance for a good education: they getting smarter. To give an example: the extraordinary success of innovative schools working under the KIPP program (Knowledge Is Power Program, “Knowledge Is Power”). At the KIPP school in the South Bronx, like most schools of this kind, poor representatives of national minorities mainly study; many of them are not supported at home in matters of education and career guidance. KIPP provides them with conditions for learning, instills hard work and respect for discipline. Lessons last from 7:30 to 17:00, and on Saturdays and summer there are additional classes. Teachers seek good behavior from students, visit them at home and allow them to contact them by phone at any time. Children devote a lot of time to learning, and teachers give them the necessary support, which they are deprived of, which is not uncommon in poor families.

This care and willingness to spend their time paid off with a vengeance. More than 80% of students at KIPP schools perform at or above their age in math and reading; and it's almost twice higher than the average school in New York. According to KIPP, at the end of the eighth (high school) grade, their students perform better than 74% of students in reading and math exams. countrywide. This is an outstanding achievement when you consider that a KIPP student typically starts at 28% of the average. There is no doubt that by taking advantage of the opportunity, students at KIPP schools are indeed getting smarter.

Carol Dweck has done another study that demonstrates how students can become smarter in favorable environments: in this case, when they teach in detail theory of intelligence increment. Dweck divided seventh graders from several New York City public schools into two groups, a control group and an experimental group, which applied the "you can get smarter" theory. For eight weeks, the students attended weekly half-hour meetings with a research team member. In these classes, children got acquainted with the physiology of the brain and learned how it learns information and develops; the researcher presented this material using scientific texts, exercises and discussions. He also emphasized that the intellect is flexible and can be molded through experience and hard work. And the students in the control group studied other aspects of the brain over the same period of time, such as the mechanisms of memory. But their lessons did not include discussion of the nature of intelligence. As a result, seventh-graders from the control group had worse grades in mathematics (unfortunately, this is a common phenomenon when moving from elementary to secondary school), and students from the experimental group demonstrated improvement performance in mathematics after passing the described theory-based course. In other words, in order to increase your intellectual level, you must first believe that you will become smarter. possibly: our beliefs are able to open (or close) this door (7).

Nisbett writes: "The degree of heritability of the intelligence quotient does not impose any restrictions on the possible degree of variability" (8). In other words, even if your genes partly determine original level of intelligence (or personality), this does not mean that they determine its final level. A number of studies have found that people who have the opportunity to develop their skills and acquire knowledge and have the right motivation do become smarter. Whether intelligence is measured by IQ, standardized tests, or GPA, it is clear that intelligence is subject to change, and huge experience matters. And if until now you believed that you can not become smarter (you are not good at math, writing thoughts, working with a computer, playing a musical instrument or informal communication), then isn't it time to discard the theory of assignment? She has done you a disservice.

When you act automatically

As a rule, most people believe that goal setting is a highly conscious process. We weigh the pros and cons, evaluate the chances of success, and if we aim for something, then we act seriously. This is a deliberate process in which there is nothing accidental. Yes, some (but not all) of the goals we strive for are the result of specific intentions. But, in truth, they are a minority. After all you are completely unaware the vast majority of the daily goals you pursue.

There are good reasons for such phenomena of the human psyche. First, consciousness is very limited. It is able to cope with only a small number of tasks at the same time, otherwise interruptions begin in its work. Another thing - unconscious. His ability to process information is enormous. Figuratively speaking, in terms of the amount of information stored, your unconscious can be compared to a NASA supercomputer, and your consciousness can be compared to a piece of paper for notes.

Therefore, we are especially effective when the unconscious can be delegated as many operations as possible to be performed. And usually, performing some action, we bring it to automatism: the more often, the faster it passes under the control of the unconscious. Many adults have found themselves in this situation: returning home by car after work, they suddenly realize that they don’t remember how they got here. All the way, the consciousness was occupied with something else, and then - once! – and you are at home. Fortunately, your unconscious turned out to be a good driver and even stopped at a red light. And even though you didn't even have the thought, "I want to go home," the unconscious knew that this was your goal and guided you to it.

But as did it know where you were going before you even thought you wanted to go home? This goal was activated in the psyche by external stimuli in the environment around you. The setting sun, the end of the working day, the interior of the car tells your unconscious that it's time to go home. External stimuli that are combined with a certain goal over and over again can eventually activate that goal without you even realizing it until you get home. Sometimes you are never and you don't realize that you were pursuing that very goal.

What aspects of the environment can activate the unconscious desire for a goal? Right now we are just beginning to understand all the potential sources of activation, but the short answer is that the pursuit of a goal can be activated. anything.

For example, words or images can do this, related for this purpose. As part of their study, psychologists John Bargh and Peter Gollwitzer observed people in the resource dilemma game (9). In this case, the players were "fishing" in a computerized version of the village pond. To maximize their profits and win, each participant wanted to catch as many as possible. But, as in life, after a certain amount of catch, the fish resources are depleted and all the players from the "village" begin to starve. Therefore, they need to help each other; after catching a fish, the player is faced with a choice: keep it (to maximize personal profit) or release it back into the pond (for the benefit of the village and their own long-term interests).

Before the game began, Barg and Gollwitzer asked some participants to make sentences out of a jumble of words: "helping," "support," "mutual assistance," "fair," and "sharing." It is noteworthy that, judging by the results, the very reading of these words activated mutual assistance. These participants released 25% more fish into the pond than players who did not read the words that activate the mutual aid goal. Moreover, the players who read these words released the same number of fish as the participants in front of whom they put conscious goal is to help each other! Just think: a deliberately chosen target can bring the same results as a target activated unconsciously. This is a relatively new discovery in the science of motivation, but we see it all the time. The main thing is that there is a goal, but how it arose is not so important.

In another study, Barg and Gollwitzer gave students a task similar to the Scrabble game: to collect words from letters laid out in random order. Each participant composed the words alone, in a room with an intercom (and a video camera, which the participants did not know about). Two minutes later, the command to stop working on the task sounded. But before starting work, half of the participants were asked to work on another puzzle - "chaos of words", where words related to the achievement of the goal were hidden, for example, "win", "succeed", "strive", "overcome" and, of course, "achieve". Barg and Gollwitzer found that 57% of participants who had an unconscious goal of accomplishment activated continued to work on their Scrabble task even after that, when they heard the command to stop (and among the participants for whom this goal was not activated, only 22% continued to work).

Remember the “motivational” posters you see every now and then, where words like “teamwork” and “determination” flaunt in large print against the backdrop of mountains and rivers. Perhaps now these posters do not seem meaningless to you. Most people, when they see them, think: “It’s like I’ll be motivated by the fact that a poster with the word “success” looms in front of my eyes all day. Who needs this poster? It turns out that your unconscious needs it, and it has already set to work.

For the target to be unconsciously activated, it is not necessary to read the words related to it. According to some studies, the presence of funds that can be used to achieve this goal. If a person walks past a gym, it can activate the "desire to exercise" goal. A plate of fruits and vegetables can activate the "healthy eating" goal. (I have deliberately walked past a jewelry store with my husband shortly before a birthday or wedding anniversary, and this method justified itself.)

They can even activate the target other people, especially loved ones who want you to strive for a certain goal (and you know about this desire). Psychologist James Shah conducted interviews with students to determine how much each student's father valued high achievement (10). Shah found that when subjects were subconsciously (unconsciously) exposed to the name of their father before performing a series of complex tasks, those who associated their father with the thought of high achievements worked harder, their results were higher. And the closer the participant's relationship with his father turned out to be, the stronger this effect was.

But after the end of the work, the study participants even did not suspect that they made special efforts to complete the tasks. This goal - to achieve success - was activated by thoughts of fathers, and the students pursued it completely unconsciously. Interestingly, involuntary thoughts about a loved one who disapproves some purpose, may also hinder desire for her: you are unlikely to want to get drunk or leave dirty dishes in the sink if you involuntarily remember your mother wagging her finger or sighing in disappointment. But in certain circumstances it can backfire. According to recent research, if people are prone to rebelliousness, then unconsciously activated thoughts about a father who loves achievements can lead to lesser diligence and deterioration results. Obviously, if a person is a rebel, even his unconscious does not like it when they try to command him.

It is noteworthy that the goals of people with whom you even we are not acquainted. In psychology, there is a term for this “target contagion” because, apparently, at an unconscious level, goals do contaminate (11). If you see how a person pursues a goal, then the likelihood increases that you yourself will begin to strive for it. For example, in one of the first studies on target infection, a group of Dutch people read a story about a student, Johan, who planned to spend the holidays with friends. In one version of the story, Johan had previously gone to his village for a month to work on the farm. This information implied (although it was not clearly stated) that Johan's goal was to earn money for the holidays. In another version of the story, Johan was going to volunteer for a month at a local cultural center. After reading one of the versions of the story, each participant got the opportunity to get money by completing the task on the computer as quickly as possible: the sooner he finished it, the more he earned. Participants who read about Johan, whose goal was to earn money, completed the task 10% faster than readers of the story about Johan the Volunteer! And in this case, the participants who earned more did not suspect that the story about Johan influenced their behavior. But Johan's goal - to earn extra money - turned out to be contagious, and people who learned about it actively tried to get money, without even realizing the reason for their additional efforts.

In another study, a group of male participants read a story about Bas, who met up with his former college girlfriend Natasha at a local pub. That evening they shared news from their lives, drank and danced. In one version of the story, Bas and Natasha part ways at the end of the evening. In another, Bas walks her home and asks, "Can I come in?" This is a very transparent allusion to his purpose (although it is not explicitly formulated) - a fleeting connection. After reading one of the versions of the story, each of the participants in the study was placed in a situation where they could offer help to the attractive student Ellen. It will hardly surprise you if I say that the men who read about the Base Seducer spent much more time helping the beautiful and gentle Ellen.

You are probably already worried: do we always adopt goals from others? No, there are limits to the contagiousness of any target. For example, Johan's goal (to earn extra money) turned out to be contagious only for those who experienced a lack of funds, but for participants who believed that they had enough money, it did not affect in any way. In order for your unconscious to adopt someone else's goal, it must seem desired.

And if someone else's goal is something reprehensible? Can they bad goals to become contagious? What if I get too carried away with The Sopranos? Will it turn me into a criminal? If my girlfriend cheats on her husband, will I unconsciously adopt this goal? Of course not. Nothing can activate a goal if you feel like striving for it not right no matter how desirable it may seem. A study was conducted using a different version of the story about Bass: in it, he not only longed for a fleeting connection, but at the same time joyfully awaited the "birth of his child." The results have changed dramatically. The men who read this version condemned the man who was already in a relationship for seeking casual sex, and his goal was no longer so contagious. As a result, these participants were not very eager to help poor Ellen.

The influence that the environment can have on you is limited. The good news is that the environment cannot activate in you the goal of becoming a murderer, robbing a bank, or cheating on a spouse (unless you originally aspired to this). In general, unconsciously operating goals are either those that we have already consciously accepted (they just continue to work on an unconscious level), or those that seem positive to us.

Let your unconscious work for you

So, you have learned what external stimuli can activate the unconscious desire for goals. Now it's time to take a closer look and find out what the environment can activate. you situation. And, more importantly, calmly figure out what is in it lacks. If there are goals you are striving for (lose weight, quit smoking, call your mom regularly, renovate your home), is there anything around that will help your unconscious activate them? Remember: anything can become a goal activator, the main thing is that its meaning should be obvious to you. Leave healthy snacks in prominent places. Put a fitness magazine on the kitchen table. Write your to-do list in big letters and arrange it so you can see it every day. Put a framed photo of your mom next to your phone. It doesn’t matter what external stimuli you use, the main thing is to fill the environment around you with them, and you can count on your unconscious to start helping you achieve what you want.

End of introductory segment.

The main television award of the USA. Note. transl.

Ounce - 28.6 g. Approx. transl.

"Annals of Behavioral Medicine". Note. transl.

Nisbett R. What is intelligence and how to develop it. The role of education and traditions. – M.: Alpina non-fiction, 2013.

A puzzle consisting of letters enclosed in a frame, among which are hidden words written in different directions. Note. transl.

Current page: 1 (total book has 19 pages) [accessible reading excerpt: 5 pages]

Heidi Grant Halvorson
Psychology of achievements. How to achieve your goals

Dedicated to husband Jonathan Halvorson,

to our children Annika and Maximilian

and my mother Sigrid Grant

Published with permission from Hudson Street Press, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and literary agency Andrew Nurnberg.

Published in Russian for the first time

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holders.

Legal support of the publishing house is provided by the law firm "Vegas-Lex"

Foreword

Heidi Halvorson knows just about everything there is to know about setting and achieving goals. In this book, she shares her knowledge.

I am proud to have been one of Halvorson's mentors and have been delighted to hear of her accomplishments, which speak to the author's insight. By reading the book, you will understand what I mean.

Introduction

Successful people and the paradox of self-control

Let's remember the stars who make no secret of trying to become slimmer: among them are the winners of the Grammy (Janet Jackson, Wynonna Judd), Oscar and Emmy awards. 1
The main television award of the USA. Note. transl.

(Oprah Winfrey, Roseanne Barr, Kirstie Alley, Rosie O'Donnell, Elizabeth Taylor). You have probably seen pictures of these women on the covers of popular magazines more than once. Sometimes a celebrity proudly shows off a slim figure - the result of a healthy diet and training. And it happens that the photo shows the consequences of returning to addictions, accompanied by unflattering comments. (Do you know why I only listed famous women? Successful men also struggle with being overweight, but women are more likely to speak openly about this problem.)

For the past few years, I have quit smoking intermittently. And now my wife has demanded that I not give in to this habit despite the stress of the campaign.

Self-control: what is it?

TV presenter Oprah Winfrey wrote in a magazine O that she gained weight again. At the end of the article, she noted (2):

This year I realized that the solution to my weight problem is not to eat less or exercise more ... My life lacks balance: too much work and not enough fun, no time to relax. My well is dry.

I think that the idea expressed in the last sentence is especially relevant. If you draw too often from the well of self-control, it is sure to dry up.

What can you do

Muraven and Slesareva, continuing the experiment, offered students different levels of payment for each ounce. 2
Ounce - 28.6 g. Approx. transl.

A vinegar drink that they can swallow. When the subjects were paid relatively little money for drinking Kool-Aid (a cent per ounce), those who were eligible to laugh at Robin Williams drank twice as much as the participants forced to stifle smiles. It is clear that the second group has indeed exhausted its reserves of self-control. But among students who were paid more (25 cents an ounce), this effect disappeared. Even those who couldn't laugh drank quite a lot of this nasty drink.

Heidi Grant Halvorson

Psychology of achievements. How to achieve your goals

Dedicated to husband Jonathan Halvorson,

to our children Annika and Maximilian

and my mother Sigrid Grant

Published with permission from Hudson Street Press, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and literary agency Andrew Nurnberg.

Published in Russian for the first time

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holders.

Legal support of the publishing house is provided by the law firm "Vegas-Lex"

Foreword

Heidi Halvorson knows just about everything there is to know about setting and achieving goals. In this book, she shares her knowledge.

I am proud to have been one of Halvorson's mentors and have been delighted to hear of her accomplishments, which speak to the author's insight. By reading the book, you will understand what I mean.

Introduction

Heidi Grant Halvorson

Psychology of achievements. How to achieve your goals

Dedicated to husband Jonathan Halvorson,

to our children Annika and Maximilian

and my mother Sigrid Grant

Published with permission from Hudson Street Press, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and literary agency Andrew Nurnberg.

Published in Russian for the first time

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holders.

Legal support of the publishing house is provided by the law firm "Vegas-Lex"

Foreword

Heidi Halvorson knows just about everything there is to know about setting and achieving goals. In this book, she shares her knowledge.

I am proud to have been one of Halvorson's mentors and have been delighted to hear of her accomplishments, which speak to the author's insight. By reading the book, you will understand what I mean.

Introduction

Successful people and the paradox of self-control

Portal for the student. Self-training

Foreword

Introduction

Successful people and the paradox of self-control

Self-control: what is it?

What can you do

Theme for this book

You don't need to "make the most effort"

General picture or details?

How do you feel about your actions?

How to think in terms of "why"

How to think in terms of "what"

Now or later

The Power (and Danger) of Positive Thinking

Setting Goals with Mental Contrasting

what can you do

How Beliefs Determine Achievement

Beliefs related to intelligence

Intelligence: what is it?

Can a leopard change its spots?

How to get off the ground

When you act automatically

Let your unconscious work for you

Heidi Grant Halvorson Psychology of achievements. How to achieve your goals

Foreword

Introduction

Successful people and the paradox of self-control

Self-control: what is it?

What can you do

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Heidi Grant Halvorson
Psychology of achievements. How to achieve your goals