This video is sponsored by Skillshare. I'm sure you've experienced this phenomenon
before. It was late in the evening, and something
clicked in your head. You might have had a breakdown or you might
have had an epiphany. Either way, you had this realization that
you needed to make some sort of a change in your life. Suddenly you knew what you needed to do, and
you even had the motivation to do it. You realized that you should learn a new tangible
skill. You became aware that you needed to start
exercising more often. And you even made the decision that you would
stop being late to appointments, and that you were going to complete projects on time. But since it was late and you had to go to
bed, you told yourself you were going to start this new journey, tomorrow. However, when you woke up the next morning,
you didn't wake up as the new person you felt like you were the night before. You woke up as the same old you, with no motivation
to make the changes you planned to make. And in the following days and weeks, no additional
exercise was done, there was no progress in your learning, and you still didn't get things
done on time. You have again, fallen back into your set
ways, and failed to do what you said you were going to do. But don't worry. You're not alone in this. People set intentions and fail at them all
the time. Just look at New Year's resolutionists. And I'm no exception here. I don't manage to do everything I tell myself
I'm going to do, either. But I have found a way to substantially increase
my odds of following through on my desired behavior. Instead of relying on motivation, which comes
and goes, I started applying what psychologists call: Implementation intentions. Back in 2002, the British Journal of Health
Psychology published an interesting research paper. In this study, they took 248 participants
and randomly assigned them into 3 different groups. The first group was the control group. They were only asked to track how often they
exercised over the next two weeks. The second group was also told to track their
exercise, but in addition they were given a motivational message, along with pamphlets
on heart health and why exercise is beneficial. That was the motivated group. The third group was given the same motivational
message as the second group, but they were also told to do one thing differently. And that was to write down, when, where and
how they were going to exercise. The results were quite insightful. In the first group, 38% of participants exercised
at least once per week. In the second group, 35% of them exercised. It appears that the provided motivation basically
had no effect on their actions. It was as if it washed off as soon as they
left the research facility. But in the third group, the group that was asked to be specific
about when, where and how they were going to exercise, 91% of the participants managed
to work out over the two week period. What the third group did differently was they
used implementation intentions. Also known as "if-then" plan. Normally when we have a goal, we think about
it this way: "I want to achieve X." For example: "I want to exercise 3 times per
week." The implementation intention is just a small
adjustment to this. It transforms into: "If situation Y happens, then I will do X". So for example: "If it's 5pm on a Monday,
Wednesday or Friday, then I'll drive to the gym and work out for 1 hour." The objective stays exactly the same. The goal is still to exercise 3 times per
week, but notice how it got a lot more practical. And that's the basic idea behind implementation
intentions. It takes just a few minutes to write down,
but it increases your chances of doing what you want to do, exponentially. And the reason why it's so effective is, because
you take out all the guess work in advance. When we're not completely sure how to do something,
or when to do it, we tend to lean towards the easier option, which is usually simply
not to do it. Let's say you come home from an exhausting
day at work. But you promised yourself you were going to
exercise more. Now you have two options, go to the gym or
watch some TV shows. Since you didn't specify when you were actually
going to go to the gym, you tell yourself you're going to do it tomorrow, or some other
time when it's more convenient. Therefore you go for the easier option, which
is to watch TV. The gym workout gets skipped yet again, and
this sort of rationalization is used to postpone behaviors indefinitely. But when you commit in advance, to when, how
and where you're going to do it, then you start leaning towards the behavior you committed
to. So if it's 5pm on a Monday, then you're going
to the gym. You're not left wondering if you should exercise
that day. You've already committed to it. And if it's 7pm on a Tuesday, you're also
not wondering if now is a convenient time to go. You've already determined that you don't exercise
at that day and time. This way of doing things has been proven to
be extremely effective, in over 100 different studies. So it's pretty conclusive. If you want to do something, you should use
implementation intentions. But what will increase your chances even further,
is incorporating coping plans. Coping plans are a specific strategy you follow,
whenever you encounter an obstacle. They act as a plan B. They also follow almost
the exact same pattern, and they look like this: "If obstacle Y occurs, then I will do
X to overcome it." This forces you to think about the potential
difficulties you'll eventually have to face. And when they do occur, you're ready for them. Let's go back to our exercise example. It's 5pm on a Monday and your implementation
intention says you need to go to the gym. However, your boss asked you to work overtime
till 6pm today. Your implementation intention has just encountered
an obstacle and you can't follow through on it. But because you were smart, and you anticipated
potential overtime in advance, you already had a plan B ready. Here's the two coping plans you came up with,
for this exact situation: "If I have to work till 6pm, then I'll go to the gym at 6:30
pm." But, "If I have to work past 6:30 pm, then
I'll go to the gym the next day." Again, you're not left wondering if you should
go to the gym, if you should skip it altogether, or if you should go some other day. You've already figured it out in advance. So in this case, you know that today you're
going to the gym at 6:30. Simple and straightforward. Just to show you how powerful coping plans
actually are, let me introduce you to another research paper. Participants of this study were all patients
with heart problems. They were just finishing up their rehab, during
which they were doing regular physical exercise, as part of the treatment. But after their rehab was over, the researchers
decided to split the participants into three groups. Each group was given different instructions
on how to proceed with their exercise. This graph shows us how many minutes per week,
participants from each group spent cycling during the rehab. Note that these numbers are
from before they were divided into three groups. So during the rehab all participants exercised
for roughly the same amount. Now this is what their numbers looked like,
two months after they were given their instructions. The first group was the control group and
was just tracking their exercise after rehab. The second group was tracking their exercise,
but they also used implementation intentions. The third group used implementation intentions,
but were also told to think about which obstacles could interfere with their exercise plan. They had to come up with an answer on how
to successfully cope and deal with such problems. Basically they created coping plans. This clearly shows us that mere motivation
isn't enough for us to take action. Remember, all participants were motivated
and had a compelling reason to exercise. They all wanted to be healthier, due to their
problems. But ultimately it was the implementation intentions
and coping plans, that made them follow through. Sure, motivation can make things easier. But if you always wait for motivation to strike,
whenever you decide to do something, then you probably won't get as much done. There will be days when you're tired, your
back hurts, you're not in the mood, etc. These kind of days are normal and you shouldn't
beat yourself up if you can't push through. However, when you don't do something you tell
yourself you're going to do, you end up feeling guilty. And this guilt then ruins other parts of your
day, such as leisure time. Let's say that you should be studying for
an exam, but you're not in the mood, so you go watch a Netflix series instead. What will probably end up happening is, you're
not going to enjoy watching it as much as you normally would. Instead, your conscience will begin eating
you up, for not doing what you should be doing. So to avoid beating yourself mentally, simply
do the thing you said you were going to do. Just in a smaller amount. So for example, your
coping plan might be: "If I'm not in the mood to study, then I'll only try to learn 1 page." Or, "If I'm too tired to study, then I'll only read through the notes." I know that it might sound pointless to even
begin something if you're not going to go all in. But there are two good reasons for why this
is effective. Firstly: We overcome the initial obstacle
of starting. It is much harder to begin something, than
it is to continue doing it. I use this exact tactic to practice my piano, when I don't
feel like practicing. I simply tell myself I'm going to play 1 piece
that I already know. And often it transitions into full on practice. After all, I'm sitting at the piano, and I'm
already playing it, so it's easy to continue. Secondly: Even if you only go through your
notes, or only practice for 5 minutes, you've still done more than you otherwise would. Doing a little bit of something, is still
better than doing nothing. And perhaps more importantly, you've followed
your coping plan successfully. There is no guilt, even if you decide to watch
a TV series afterwards. In a perfect world, we would all do, what
we tell ourselves we're going to do. But sadly that's simply not how it is. However, I hope you now have a better idea
on how to actually make it easier for yourself, to do the things you want to do. Life will throw obstacles your way, no matter
what. But are you going to wait for motivation to
strike, before you try to overcome them? Or are you going to incorporate implementation
intentions, along with coping plans? Don't be like most people who throw in the
towel, just because there's a hurdle on their path. Be a part of the group that actually does
what they set out to do, in a smart way. Now if you're looking for something worthwhile
to spend your time on, then I highly recommend you check out Skillshare. If you're not familiar, Skillshare is an online
learning platform for people looking to get ahead in life. It's kinda like Netflix, but it's specifically
designed for learning. So if you're a lifelong learner, like me,
then Skillshare is the right place for you. It can help you develop a new skill, or further
improve an existing one. They offer thousands of classes on entrepreneurship,
productivity and creative endeavours, for just about anyone, on any level. One of the classes I suggest you check out,
is from Michael Karnjanaprakorn, where he teaches how to plan for, and create your very
own ideal week. Now if you don't feel like watching the whole
class in one go, you can always use a coping plan to help you get through. So for example: "if you're feeling lazy, then
just watch the first two lessons." You can access Skillshare's constantly growing
library with an annual subscription that costs less than $10 per month. And because Skillshare is sponsoring this
video, the first 1000 people who click the link down below, will receive 2 months of
Skillshare's premium membership for free. So join me and thousands of others on Skillshare
today. As always, thanks for watching, and I hope
this video helped you become better than yesterday.
