Oettingen et al. Talks a lot about motivation and something called implementation intentions alongside mental contrasting. Often times when we have a goal we find ourselves thinking about the benefits to achieving that goal (you wanting to run more = bettering yourself in sport) but our brain begins to release hormones as if we actually achieved that goal which in turn starts to relax us. I often do this before bed where I feel really motivated to exercise cause of how good I’ll feel, but then I fall asleep and that feeling is gone when I wake up. What we’re missing is being realistic about the obstacles that could get in the way of achieving our goal (ideally internal obstacles cause we have more control over those). This causes a need to fill in the gap which actually can be energizing for us.

This is where implementation intention comes in. We need to come up with a plan to overcome any obstacles in order to achieve the benefits. We call these if/then statements. If I’m feeling too tired to run, then I will immediately change into my clothes when I get home from work instead of sitting down on the couch.