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Finally, an Answer to Why We So Often Fail to Achieve Our Goals
And what to do about it.
It’s that time of year — again! — when many of us make resolutions to change in the New Year. What do you want to achieve? To meditate daily? To publish a book? To get into shape?
Whatever you want for yourself, you’re probably aware of the dismally low probability of your success. Only 8% of people accomplish their New Year’s resolutions. What’s going on? Why are we so terrible at achieving our goals?
Most people try to accomplish their goals by using willpower. With it, we force ourselves to sacrifice today to get what we want tomorrow.
But if that’s what most people do, could it also explain why most people fail?
According to author and psychologist, David DeSteno, willpower isn’t well-suited to helping us achieve our long-term goals. He’s found in his research that willpower predictably fails us, and fails us even more frequently when it really matters.
The problem is that we’ve been sold the idea — for decades — that willpower, grit, and perseverance can be reliably been controlled by the rational and logical parts of the brain. We’ve been convinced that when it comes to achieving our goals, emotions are the problem and our rationality is the solution. But what if that’s not true?
