Forget what and how

It doesn’t matter what you do, it matters Why you do it.
Simon Sinek
1973 –

If you’re still setting your goals for the year, I suggest you avoid making big, life changing resolutions, because historically, most of them aren’t kept. But if you insist on making resolutions, then at least forget about the what and the how. Instead focus on the why.

Why focus on the why? Well, Delaware University Professor Julia Belyavsky Bayuk ran an interesting experiment that demonstrates a surprising point: focusing on the what and how can actually work against you in achieving your goals.

For the experiment, Professor Bayuk and her colleagues recruited some college students and divided them into two groups. One group, the ‘what and how’ group, was instructed to focus on developing a plan for increasing the amount of money they were saving. The other group, the ‘why’ group, was told to think about the big picture benefits of saving more money. As the students were leaving the experiment, Ms. Bayuk tempted each student by offering them some candy for seventy-five cents. Ironically, the group that had a specific plan for saving money were the ones most likely to blow their budget and buy the candy.

Focusing on what and how can actually end up holding you back, because you won’t be prepared when unexpected obstacles pop up (as they always do in real life). The students who had a specific savings plan weren’t prepared for the unexpected opportunity to buy some candy. On the other hand, the students who had focused on the why found it much easier to stick to their long term goals.

The lesson is pretty clear: we increase our chances of achieving our goals if we stay focused on our motivation — the why. Keep reminding yourself: “What’s my goal? Why is it important to me?”

Focus on why your resolution is important rather than on what you’ll do and how you’ll achieve it. You’ll be giving yourself a much better chance of actually keeping your resolutions.

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
Friedrich Nietzsche
1844 – 1900