Intention-update vs. Intention-failure: What's the difference? Psychology Today Blogs
Intention-update vs. Intention-failure: What's the difference?
By Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D. on March 17, 2009 - 4:47am in Don't Delay
Excerpts:
Not every changed intention is a failure of self-regulation. As one astute reader posted in a comment, we have to differentiate between updating an intention based on new information from simply failing to act on an intention. Let's take on this thorny philosophical issue
The problem with moods. In the case of procrastination, as I've written before, we often use mood as this new information and give in to feel good. This undermines our long-term pursuit of our goals. The ironic and sad thing here is that progress on our goals actually increases our happiness (in a way that staying in bed instead of running will not, I argue - unless, as I've said repeatedly, you're actually exhausted).
Another thing here is that we have the irrational belief that our mood state must match the task at hand. "I don't feel like it." "I'll feel more like it tomorrow." Actually, once you begin a task, you'll often find that your feelings follow your activity, much as attitudes follow behaviors.
What I hope you take away in terms of my distinction between a wise delay (intention-update) and procrastination (intention-failure) is that a key issue is that we have new information on which to base our update. I'm arguing that mood is a poor, even irrational, basis for this decision, as we "give in to feel good" - this involves a long term consequence based on some short term feelings.
Read full article: http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-delay/200903/intention-update-vs-intention-failure-whats-the-difference
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This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.
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