To do or not to do: How to frame more ambitious goals so you stick to them

Making goal-inconsistent decisions indeed made people more ambitious when setting their goal levels. Image: Shutterstock

Have the Olympics inspired you to run a marathon, take up tennis, or work out more? 

Thanks to research, we are familiar with the positive impact of setting these goals on behavior and performance.  However, we know less about what makes people decide the level of their goals: For example, deciding whether to work out two or three times per week.

Professors Sonja Prokopec, Mirjam Tuk, and Bram Van den Bergh explored how to influence people to set more ambitious goals. They examined how people framed their goal-setting, and the resultant impact on their behavior.

They looked at two different ways of framing goals: goal-consistent decisions (considering how many goal-consistent activities to engage in) vs. goal-inconsistent activities (considering how many goal-consistent activities to forego). For example, when planning your weekly workouts, you might say “I will work out twice this week” (goal-consistent framing) or “I will rest five nights this week” (goal-inconsistent framing). 

While these amount to the same number of workouts, how you frame a goal can make all the difference. 

How it works

Over a course of seven studies, Prof. Prokopec and her colleagues looked at how people set goal levels in different situations, allowing them to test different aspects of their theory and using a mix of “real-world” and lab settings. 

They found that when people were making goal-consistent decisions, neither the relevance of the decision to their goal, nor the positive affirmation they received, impacted the goal level they set. 

Conversely, making goal-inconsistent decisions indeed made people more ambitious when setting their goal levels.

Why exactly does making a goal-inconsistent decision drive us to push ourselves further? Because that kind of decision can provoke negative feelings about ourselves, such as guilt, regret, or disappointment. To manage that guilty feeling, we might compensate by addressing the source of those feelings: If a person with the goal of running a half-marathon skipped a training run, they would be more likely to add another training session the following week to compensate. In other words, the desire to resolve negative feelings boosts our motivation for self-improvement, and encourages us to set more ambitious goal levels.

Also read: The goal should be to win the title, not just the next match: Lakshya Sen

Implications

Taken together, this series of seven studies gives insight into what makes people set higher goals for themselves. Making a decision that is inconsistent with your goals leads to negative emotions like regret and disappointment. This produces a desire for self-improvement, and leads us to redouble our efforts and set higher goal levels with the aim of getting rid of those pesky negative feelings.

This knowledge can equip individuals looking to achieve their goals with a better understanding of the factors influencing goal-setting and goal-achievement. It can also provide a guideline on how to frame your goals in a more achievable way, and how to use “failure” (goal-inconsistent decisions) as fuel. People may be tempted to give up after getting off track, and this information could help them rediscover their motivation and achieve their goals. 

Professionals, services aiming to help consumers achieve their goals (like gyms and weight watchers), or public health professionals can make use of this information. It could also help managers learn more about how to motivate their employees. By understanding how people set goal levels, we can nudge people toward their goals in a more effective way. 

Raising the bar

How can you use this information to set higher goal levels and stick to them? Keep in mind the following: 

1. When coming up with your goal, frame it in a goal-inconsistent manner, i.e. “I will spend 80% of my income this month” rather than “I will save 20% of my salary this month”. 
2. Plan for goal-inconsistent activities in pursuit of your goal, like a “cheat day”. 
3. Lean into negative feelings caused by making a goal-inconsistent decision and use them to fuel your goal achievement. 
4. If you are helping someone else to achieve their goals (a service provider, for example, or a manager), recognize the power of a simple intervention. Framing an action as “goal-inconsistent” (choosing how many workouts to skip) can help push people to set higher goals. 

Sonja Prokopec is a Professor of Marketing and the Associate Dean of Faculty at ESSEC Business School Asia-Pacific.

This article was adapted from ESSEC Knowledge.