There's a new research that suggests about people failing at achieving their goals due to the backward approach towards them. We usually are motivated by rewards when we first decide on taking a goal. But, it is when we put our plans into actions, our focus slowly turns to how difficult the effort towards it is and how much we need to put in to achieve these goals that in turn dooms us to failure.
Scientists at Queen Mary University of London suggest that the key to achieve goals is by considering the effort that's needed when deciding what to do and then remember to focus enough on the rewards that comes in by putting effort.
Dr. Agata Ludwiczak, research fellow from Queen Mary University of London and lead author of the study says, “Common sense suggests the amount of effort we put into a task directly relates to the level of reward we expect in return. However, building psychological and economic evidence indicates that often high rewards are not enough to ensure people put in the effort they need to achieve their targets.”
She added, “We have found that there isn’t a direct relationship between the amount of reward that is at stake and the amount of effort people actually put in. This is because when we make choices about what effort to put in, we are motivated by the rewards we expect to get back. But at the point at which we come to actually do what we had said we would do, we focus on the level of effort we have to actually put in rather than the rewards we hoped we would get.”
Dr. Dr. Magda Osman, reader in Experimental Psychology at Queen Mary added, “If we aren’t careful our plans can be informed by unrealistic expectations because we pay too much attention to the rewards. Then when we face the reality of our choices, we realize the effort is too much and give up. For example, getting up early to exercise for a new healthy lifestyle might seem like a good choice when we decide on our new year’s resolutions, but once your alarm goes off on a cold January morning, the rewards aren’t enough to get you up and out of bed.”
