The Science of Success

I don't think it has to be either/or. If you don't reward someone or yourself until a major task is completely finished you will lose a lot of people. Better to break a major task into smaller, specific, achievable subgoals, perhaps involving deadlines. This is how we train dogs: give them rewards for progress. And in sales, people need some income before a major sale is completed. Reward completion, but also reward milestones along the way.

I tend to agree with "Simplistic Solution." I've witnessed with clients and colleagues - and felt myself - that struggle when we become overwhelmed by how far we have to go. All we can see is the long haul in front of us, and we forget that we've already made progress towards closing the gap. When we pause for a moment to acknowledge our hard work, it tends to snap things back into perspective... at least, intuitively that's what should happen. If I went from A to Z without any reward for reaching B, C, D, etc, then I'd potentially burn out.

On the other hand, I can see that what we think SHOULD be true and what actually is can be completely different things (read "Buyology" for a glimpse into that phenomenon). There's a TED Talk by Derek Sivers in which he advocates for keeping your goals to yourself; sharing them with someone else triggers something in our brains that gives us a premature sense of accomplishment, and therefore we're less motivated to follow through. Again, this goes against conventional wisdom and what we've been told about writing down or verbalizing our goals.

Our motivations and beliefs about ourselves are so individual and complex that it seems there should be room for a both/and approach: acknowledge the wins as being smaller steps to the bigger prize.

If we believe it's about the journey, not the destination, then we can't skip over the lessons found in our wins and losses along the way.

Two things;

First, thanks Heidi for pointing out this distinction between to-date and to-go thinking. I've often felt really good looking at how far I've come only to notice that I don't feel like doing much afterwards. I just want to bask in the glow of my "incomplete" accomplishment.

Second, to Beth Buelow, the study that Derek Sivers referenced was quoted incorrectly by him. He failed to mention that the experiment had to do with self-defining goals such as becoming a lawyer, becoming a doctor, being a good parent etc. When you tell others about your self-defining goal or you surround yourself with the symbols of your self-defining goal you will feel like you've achieved a bit of it already and reduce your motivation.

This does not apply to goals that have to do with external achievements such as making a freethrow or a certain number of them or winning a race - both external achievements. In those instances telling others what you intend to accomplish often leads to increased motivation.

Two things;

First, thanks Heidi for pointing out this distinction between to-date and to-go thinking. I've often felt really good looking at how far I've come only to notice that I don't feel like doing much afterwards. I just want to bask in the glow of my "incomplete" accomplishment.

Second, to Beth Buelow, the study that Derek Sivers referenced was quoted incorrectly by him. He failed to mention that the experiment had to do with self-defining goals such as becoming a lawyer, becoming a doctor, being a good parent etc. When you tell others about your self-defining goal or you surround yourself with the symbols of your self-defining goal you will feel like you've achieved a bit of it already and reduce your motivation.

This does not apply to goals that have to do with external achievements such as making a freethrow or a certain number of them or winning a race - both external achievements. In those instances telling others what you intend to accomplish often leads to increased motivation.

Heidi,

One thing you did not mention in your article is that to-go or to-date thinking has different affects depending on a person's commmittment to their goals.

When committment is certain, to-go thinking leads to more motivation and to-date thinking reduces it.

When committment is uncertain, to-date thinking raises motivation.

This can be useful because if I want to work out daily but my committment is low, I might think of how far I've come to motivate myself.

But if I'm totally committed to gearing up for that next marathon I should think of how much training I still have left to do to be ready to fire myself up.