People who make commitments in advance (of the kind, if you pass X, then I will do Y), are much more likely to act to achieve their goals than people who lack those mental projects.
That is, if we have to make a list of good resolutions for the new year, we will surely abandon them soon because they are just that: objectives. There is no plan in advance .
Implementation purposes
For example, I want to drink less alcohol, but I have to plan that if the waiter asks me if I want something else, then I will have to ask for sparkling water.
Psychologist Peter Gollwitzer calls this mental planning in goal pursuit "implementation purposes." They do not have to be very elaborate plans, they can be of the type: when I leave work today, I am going to go straight to the gym. As Chip Heath abounds in it in his book Magical Moments:
The probability of success is impressive. Setting implementation goals more than doubled the number of students who turned in certain assignments on time; It doubled the number of women who performed breast self-examinations in given months, and halved the recovery time of patients with hip or knee replacements.
So, with each new New Year’s resolution, nothing like a tree of implementation purposes so that, when in doubt or careless, we know what to do at all times.