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What is the biggest source of failed goals, dreams and ambitions?
Accumulated evidence indicates that there is a substantial gap between even strong intentions and subsequent action. Scott H. Young, among others argue that the great majority of our struggles in life come down to one simple problem: our actions don’t match our intentions. It’s called “The action-intention gap” which is the difference between how we would intend to do things and what actually happens. It’s the difference between a great idea and great execution. This is where most of our struggles, failures and frustrations originate.
One effective strategy to reduce this intention–behavior gap is the formation of implementation intentions that specify when, where, and how to act on a given goal in an if-then format (“If I encounter situation Y, then I will initiate action Z!”). “If situation A occurs, then I will do X behavior.” The situation then becomes a trigger for the behavior when it comes up in real life.It has been proposed that implementation intentions render the mental representation of the situation highly accessible and establish a strong associative link between the mental representations of the situation and the action.