You Don't Have a Goal Today

What you have is not a goal but a number of coexisting goals—some short-term, some long-term, some that reinforce another, and some that conflict with another.  Everyone has an implicit or explicit hierarchy of goals to which they aspire and that affects them.  On any given day you might want to arrive at work earlier, stay in bed a little later, go to the gym first thing in the morning, or paint the bedroom first thing in the morning.

So which goal or goals win out, especially when healthful lifestyle goals are in play?  Mark Connor and his colleagues (2016) found that a health goal of high priority usually does take precedence over competing goals.  That is, under ordinary circumstances, strong health intentions are fairly reliable predictors of our health-oriented behaviors.  On the other hand, what happens when a healthful goal is not particularly high on your hierarchy of needs and wants, such as when you would rather sit on your step listening to music rather than run down your street sweating?

Goals are not all or none, and they are not constant and consistent.  Goals fluctuate.  Equally important, you are not an automaton who always is at her/his best.  Even when you have a strong intention, you can be compromised in some way.  I have written previously about “depletion” – a state of diminished capacity that can result from any number of physical or mental factors.  If you slept poorly or had an argument recently, you might be much less able to enact even strong intentions, settling for ones usually lower on your hierarchy.

During those times of diminished energy, specific features of your habit and of your environment become critical (Neal, D. et al., 2012).  Since they tend to strengthen over time, habits with longevity are most likely to be enacted during depleted episodes, even when you consciously intend to reach a different goal at the moment.   Moreover, the environment can exert a decisive influence as well.  Let’s suppose that you are "too tired" to go to the gym on a given day, despite really wanting to do so.  If your spouse is more motivated to go, he/she might easily serve as the environmental stimulus that you need to overcome your fatigue, snap on your sneaks, and head for the exercise facility.  So, you had both an implicit or explicit goal to work out and to rest instead.  You resolved the conflict in favor of working out because you deliberately or inadvertently had created an environment supporting the healthful goal of physical fitness.  If you had been embedded within a non-exercise-supportive environment, you would not have worked-out on the day of your depletion.

To summarize, we all have simultaneous goals that support or interfere with each other.  And our energy levels fluctuate.  Therefore, especially when our resolve is challenged, we need to develop strong pro-health intentions and to cultivate health-facilitating environments. 

References

Conner, Mark; Abraham, Charles; Prestwich, Andrew; Hutter, Russell; Hallam, Jennifer; Sykes-Muskett, Bianca; Morris, Benjamin; Hurling, Robert.  Impact of Goal Priority and Goal Conflict on the Intention–Health-Behavior Relationship: Tests on Physical Activity and Other Health Behaviors.  Health Psychology, May 16, 2016, No Pagination Specified. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/hea0000340.

Neal, David T.; Wood, Wendy; Labrecque, Jennifer S.; Lally, Phillippa.  How do habits guide behavior? Perceived and actual triggers of habits in daily life.  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol 48(2), Mar 2012, 492-498.  doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.10.011.