There is a wealth of research on how people turn goal intentions into results within the field of psychology. The research is not at all about pathology but about things like how to increase the likelihood of people exercising, following up on health check-ups, etc. I believe that coaching could benefit by looking at how to integrate this research into our theory and practice.

Things to look for are “implementation intentions” as well as the names Peter Gollwitzer and Gabrielle Oettingen. A number of papers are listed here:

http://de.scientificcommons.org/peter_m_gollwitzer

Here is a brief introduction to some of the concepts:

http://www3.niddk.nih.gov/fund/other/decision2008/Summaries/SheeranSummary.pdf

In a nutshell, one of the basic ideas is that by forming a more detailed plan of when and how we (or our clients) will do something (e.g., “when I go out to eat and the waiter lists the specials, I will only order a special if it sounds healthy, otherwise I’ll order a salad”) we increase the likelihood that we will follow through with an intention.

I’m curious about whether people have been exposed to any of this research and to other ideas about turning goals and intentions into action in your various studies and self-learning.