[[Forming Habits]]] tags:: #on/habit | #on/behavior | #on/cue | #on/goals people:: #people/bardura, #people/caroledweck, #people/petergollwitzer dates:: 2022-03-27 Lon Setnik, MD *Specific plans for future critical situations increase the likelihood of achievement.* Implementations exist as statements of future action based on specific cues: - When I ..., I will >>> Create a series of Environmental Cues so that you can exist in the [[default mode]] when the critical choices occur increases your likelihood of implementation. This allows you to "pass the control of one's behavior to the environment" when you most need it. Implementation Intentions connect to the best practices of [[Forming Habits]]. They also connect to the ideas that we should focus our [[Mindset]] not on the performance or achievement of the goal, but instead the [[Learning]] around what allowed us or what got in the way of achieving our goal. It's kind of like [[Self-Regulated Learning]], being able to monitor your progress towards goals with managing your relationship with the environment and the cues you face. In this case it also appears to be due to performing a mental simulation of a future experience. Mental simulations, related to Klein's [[Naturalistic decision-making]] Implementations intentions are statements of future intent based on a specific cue. The more specific the cue and the action, the more likely to be implemented. They should be challenging and achievable. [[Forming Habits]] science would tell us you should also create a [[Shine]], a strong reward for when you find the process that allows you to implement your goal. This helps increase the likelihood that you can make the behavior stick. This matters because our instinct is to set vaguely specific "do your best" goals, but these rarely are successfully implemented or achieved. Strong goals, such as become more healthy, are only achieved when linked to specific implementation intentions. Facilitators of change help us to identify and experiment around the cues that are important to us: cues can be in our environment, in our emotional state, and in other people, and in our thoughts. Probably the first place to experiment, according to [[Tiny Habits]], is in [[environmental cues]], which tend to be the most reliable. Implementation intentions are also helpful for overcoming habitual but un-helpful biases. In this case, it can be helpful for overcoming [[cognitive frames]], for example an implementation intention in this setting might be, "when I find myself thinking ..., I will replace that thinking with >>>" Current implementation intentions I would like to work on include: - When I find myself in a new group, I will focus on role clarity first. - When I introduce someone I know, I will focus on how they have helped me and how they make me feel instead of what they do. - When I return to my house after a night shift, I will go to my bedroom and read instead of going to the kitchen and doom-scrolling. ### What would the opposite argument be? We should just be able to say what we want to achieve and get there. My motivation should be enough. If I really want something, I'll be able to achieve it. Unfortunately, these are all myths. We are bad at influencing future behavior with motivation alone. Another challenge is that it can be difficult to identify certain specific cues. For example, in [[ACRMF8]] we have seen that it is hard for people to create a clear cue for the state of "I am in an emergency." The downsides might be narrowing our future behavior to a reduced set of options. This may make us unintentionally less able to deal with novel situations. We also may get fixated on our predicted solution, instead of being open to other possibly better solutions to the situation. ## Sources: Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation Intentions: Strong Effects of Simple Plans. _American Psychologist_, 11.