ABSTRACT
When striving toward goals (e.g., lose 5 pounds, increase savings), people often run into problems getting started, staying the course, or both. Even with strong goal intentions, initiating and persisting in goal striving are problematic (Armitage and Conner, 2001). Goal intentions are translated into goal-striving behaviors via self-regulatory processes that mediate the intention-behavior relationship. Planning one’s goal pursuit in an “if-then” format (e.g., if I eat lunch in the cafeteria, I will order a salad) conserves self-regulatory strength and resources (e.g., Martijn et al., 2008), enhances goal attainment (e.g., Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006), and is helpful in both initiating (Brandstätter, Lengfelder, and Gollwitzer, 2001; Chasteen, Park, and Schwarz, 2001) and persisting (Achtziger, Gollwitzer, and Sheeran, 2008; Bayer, Gollwitzer, and Achtziger, 2010) in goal-striving behaviors.
