Which is a more effective way to achieve your New Year’s goal – devising a detailed plan on how you will reach it or focusing on why you want to reach it? According to researcher and assistant professor, Julia Bayuk, the why is more important than the how.
Those who create detailed plans to achieve their New Year’s resolutions will have a harder time reaching their goals than those who simply think about their goal and remind themselves why they want to reach it, Bayuk says.
“Planning can actually make you more narrow minded,” Bayuk explained. “I might be so focused on this plan that when there’s other opportunities to achieve the same goal, I might not take advantage of them.”
She uses an example of a dieter who plans to restrict her calorie intake and passes up the chance to join a friend at the gym or for a walk. In one of the tests that Bayuk and her collaborators conducted, participants all wanted to achieve the goal of saving money.
Some were told to formulate a saving plan while others were told not to plan, but to think of all the reasons why they wanted to save money. Later, the participants were given the chance to buy snacks. The non-planners were much better at avoiding the temptation than the planners were.
Bayuk says that anyone with a New Year’s Resolution should forget about traditional, planning-based mindsets and instead focus on why. She suggests strategically placing notes around your house reminding yourself why your resolution matters.
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