Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation

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A great deal of ink has been spilled on the subject of motivating and influencing others, but what happens when the person you most want to influence is you? set positive goals, as opposed to “do not do” goals; avoidance goals are chores that lead to thought suppression In the spirit of the new year and the "New Year, New You!" vibes that inevitably come along with the flipping of the calendar to January, it seemed like a good time to read a book about motivation. And Ayelet Fishbach seemed like the right person to consult on the topic. She's a psychologist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and has been well recognized for her research on human motivation. When you set a goal for yourself – especially if it’s one you don’t necessarily think is super fun to begin with, like work or exercise or vacuuming – you need to make sure you can find some fun aspect in it. Because if you’re having fun, then you’re intrinsically motivated, which in turn leads to success. There are, of course, exceptions. Like, what if you’ve been procrastinating on breaking up your relationship? It’s hard to find the fun in that. But keep in mind how it may make you feel in the long run. Maybe you’ll feel freer, maybe you’ll stop hurting yourself or your partner. So, in situations where it’s hard to find joy in a task, just remember why you want to do something and associate the positive outcomes with it in your mind. Rewards and punishments motivate action by creating immediate mini-goals to your main goal. Let’s go and grab a coffee at your favorite coffee spot for this little example. How much is your latte these days, or your flat white or whatever else you like? Does your inside voice tell you: this is too much?

Some of her suggestions felt like commonsense. For example, break goals into sub-goals. Break large projects into weekly assignments so you don't lose steam midway through. Set milestones, so you're always at the beginning of a new milestone or close to reaching the next one—minimize time that's just "in the middle".Fishbach argues that intrinsic motivation is decreased by extrinsic rewards because of how goals and activities are associated. At first, the goal of intrinsically motivated activities may be enjoyment or self-expression. When you add the reward, the activity becomes associated with getting the reward as well—a second goal. Fishbach argues that having multiple goals associated with an activity dilutes the importance of the activity in working toward the goal. She writes, I want to say I learned something from this book but it was just so heavy-handed with the numerous theories in the end that I doubt I will remember hardly anything coming month or two. And few pearls of wisdom I decided to commit to memory were pushed out by the heavy-handed serving of superfluous information later on. So I think if this book aimed to teach long-term it missed the goal on this. Trying to stay motivated and make serious progress in whatever you’re trying to achieve in life can sometimes feel like an impossible task. But it doesn’t have to be. There’s a simple fix – and it just so happens to be in your control. It all starts with changing your circumstances. Most importantly, you need to define your goals. You need to pay attention to maintaining momentum, stay focused when you’ve got a billion other things on your plate and get your friends and family involved. And when you make your behavior and environment work for rather than against you, your goal of getting that raise, or that strong healthy body, or that tax return form sorted, or that new language learned, will be yours in no time! Step number one is setting a goal. Second is monitoring progress, third is assessing and weighing it against the many other goals in your life, and fourth is leveraging social support.

You could use it to your advantage, by, say, working in a public place like a café. And if you’re a bit of a hermit with lots of aspirations, there’s still hope. Because even a proxy for another’s presence, like a picture of a loved one or (this one’s a little bit creepy) of staring eyes, can help you put in the extra effort and inspire you to be your best self. Final Summary This is called the “goal gradient effect” in motivation science. It just means that the more progress you’ve made, the more excited you are to continue. Basically, the glass-half-full motivator. P57 “If you only feel calm through meditation, you might struggle to keep your cool when you can’t fit meditation into your busy schedule. Flexibility, such as having more than one way to feel calm, can be important in reaching your goals.” There are many problems with this book. The short review is that if you’d like a long lecture from a dishonest, uncreative, Liberal, Jewish-Puritan, this is the book for you.

P100 “While most people are enthusiastic and conscientious at the beginning and at the end of goal pursuit, in the middle, both the motivation to get it done and the motivation to do it right tend to suffer.” goals must be valuable and within reach (be on the right side of sunk-cost fallacy); action increases commitment But not only could you be the one giving advice, you could also start to look for a possible role model – someone you could emulate on your way to achieving your goal. It could be anyone really – a friend, parent, teacher, or colleague. But your role model should know you exist. Why? Because a great role model is someone who doesn’t only set an example; they help set expectations for you. This book was received as an ARC from Little Brown Company - Little Brown Spark through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own. One way to sustain motivation is to pursue activities that feel like ends in themselves—activities you're intrinsically motivated to do for the sake of doing them, that are fun or enjoyable or exciting. For these activities, Fishbach says,

uncertain incentives (ex: gambling) are more helpful; incentives that modify the goal are unhelpful I had this professor once who I really looked up to and they kept giving me these tasks that I didn’t think I was qualified for. And when I said, “Hey, I don’t think I can do this. I’ll probably need your help,” they said, “Jasmin, I wouldn’t give you these tasks if I didn’t believe you’d be able to do them and to do them well. I don’t want to see you fail. But I think you can do much more.” To this day, having a role model who believed in my abilities more than I did was the best motivator I could’ve asked for. I worked my butt off for that professor. At its core, Get It Done is a guide to behavior change. If you want to achieve goals that, Fishbach assumes, you are not currently achieving, then you need to act differently. Some of the changes may involve internal circumstances, such as changing your mental image of a goal or your framing of the work you do, and some may involve external circumstances, such as adjusting which actions are available as options to you. And here’s some more actionable advice: Try to get rid of the middle problem with the “fresh start effect.”

About Ayelet Fishbach

Professor Fishbach's book is magnificent: I finished it this morning but I feel like returning to it to more fully grasp and absorb all of its amazing findings. The questions she poses to her readers at the end of each chapter will be my guide. One thing that I noticed right away is that her first endnote pertains to an experiment that involves offering an autographed copy of a book by Richard H. Thaler, another Chicago Booth professor, to her students as a prize for winning a contest, a prize that Professor Fishbach remarks that her students would treasure to win.

When framed correctly, goals can be powerful motivational tools. To set a goal that’ll pull you to the finish line, keep these three things in mind.

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Sure, the Baron’s story defies the laws of physics, but its symbolism is clear: self-motivation is the key to moving forward. Fishbach also suggests that incentives will undermine children's intrinsic motivation more so than adults', because children are still figuring out which things they're doing because they enjoy them versus because of some other incentive. That seems plausible enough.