“It’s about behavior change that should be maintained over the long term.” These superordinate goals are less focused on concrete behaviors and more on how you want to be in the world. Issue 075 Issue 077 Issue 052

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Issue 062 Issue 060 Let’s say you are trying to smooth out what has been a bumpy relationship with a friend; you begin by thinking, “If she’s open to talking, then I’ll talk to her about how we might resolve our differences.”  Needless to say, if she appears not to be open to talking, you will reframe and wait for a better moment.Sticking to a single plan is a terrible idea so keep using “If/then” thinking. Issue 020 A new diet, exercise plan, lifestyle… and maybe if you’re lucky, a […]Continue Reading Issue 034 Nautilus publishes a new chapter of feature stories on its monthly theme, every Thursday.Read about the Nautilus stories and blogs we've been thinking about over the past week.“There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”There are hundreds of studies, blog posts, and personal development books that promise to help us achieve our goals.
The real problem with New Year's resolutions.
The old year doesn’t have to phase into the new year one unless you want it to and the best way to do that is to become the driver of the car that is you.Research shows that just thinking about setting a goal isn’t as good as writing your goals down; by writing, you’re using a different part of the brain. “We don’t realize how good we are at coping with negative events,” says Elizabeth Dunn, a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia. New year… New you? It’s been thirty years since John Norcross and Dominic Vangarelli conducted a study of what happens to all that New Year’s resolution-making and discovered—surprise, surprise! Superordinate goals are also more flexible than subordinate ones, because they can apply to more than one situation. The reason? Two years later, only 19% had actually succeeded.Let mosey on down the road and see why that is precisely.Most of our resolutions aren’t things we actually want to do deep down in our hearts but things we feel we ought to do. At one week’s time, 77% of those questioned were still hanging in but only 55% were left standing at the end of a month.

Issue 023 I would love nothing more than to be able to write a book in six months, for example, but if I were to set that as my goal—knowing that I’m not a first-draft writer and that my prose always needs tinkering with—I would fail miserably. Issue 013 Issue 078 The audience problem highlights a longstanding worry about robot consciousness—that outward behavior, however sophisticated, would never be enough to… It takes time to achieve important goals, especially changes in behavior. Maybe the problem isn’t me making New Year’s Resolutions, but rather the reason why I’m doing it. Issue 002

Issue 006 Share this page to your soical networks by clicking the buttons above. Issue 011 Your boyfriend is always complaining that you’re not game to try something new so you decide you’re going to do a personality do-over and become the woman who’s willing to try stand-up, sky-diving, or something else that really interests you not at all. Gérard DuBoisSCIENCE MATTERSMore than ever. Issue 058 Issue 018 Issue 064 If you’re like me, by this point in the year, many of your New Year’s resolutions may have already fallen by the wayside. “It’s not just about one single behavior over a limited time,” she says. Your ability to quit and pivot is absolutely key to success.Commitment is a part of goal-setting but you can’t be so wedded to Plan A that you lose the ability to be flexible and accommodate a change in strategy. Issue 069 It seems obvious enough that if you’ve set the goal of being promoted at work but you also want to spend more time at home with your family, you’re setting yourself up for failure in one arena or the other.Think about the time and effort you will have to invest in achieving your goal and whether, in fact, that’s going to contribute to your ability to thrive in the short-term or will create other problems.Research shows that using “If/then” thinking encourages us to be more flexible and creative when it comes to problem solving; it’s what Peter Gollwitzer has called “implementation intention.” Basically, your mindset is “If X happens, then I’ll do Y.” This has you thinking proactively and forces you to pay attention to situational cues; it can be used in almost every situation too. Issue 046 Science gave us the light bulb.Science gave us the tractor.Science gave us the vaccine.Science showed us… Nautilus is a different kind of science magazine.