Subgoals

Setting goals as well as achieving them enhances your motivation skills. Ford presented a useful method towards successfully reaching your desired end result.

“Self- motivation can be best created and sustained by attainable subgoals that lead to future larger ones. Proximal subgoals provide immediate incentives and guidelines for performance, whereas distal goals are too far removed in time to effectively mobilize effort or to direct what one does in the here and now. Focus on the distant future makes it easy to temporize and to slacken efforts in the present.” (Ford 1992)

In anatomy, proximal means close, or near. On the contrary, distal means far. The writer of this quote suggests that you will have greater success with achieving a large goal if you establish mini subgoals within. “Proximal subgoals goals” are goals that are that lead up to what you are working for. You can use subgoals for school, work, and even your personal life. Once you become successful with completing subgoals, you will be intrinsically motivated to work harder to reach your distal goal. Subgoals make reaching your larger goal easier, as you do not feel overwhelmed. Accomplishing small tasks at a time is much more effective and sustainable than trying to achieve the bigger goal all at once.

A personal example of me using this tactic is when I had to write an intricate and lengthy research paper. I found that writing small sections each day encouraged me to complete the paper in full by the due date. Each section was a subgoal towards the final distal goal. I agree with the quote above because each paragraph that was finished was an incentive to being one step closer to the end of the paper, it also “guided my performance”.

Ford, M. E. (1992). Motivating humans: goals, emotions, and personal agency beliefs. Newbury Park, Calif: Sage.