Owning the plan: The role of autonomous if-then planning for goal progress and action crisis

Abstract

Autonomous motivation arising from a sense of truly valuing or enjoying one's pursuits (“wanting to do it”) is associated with goal progress and well-being. Likewise, setting an implementation intention in the form of an if-then plan can lead to improved goal outcomes. We introduce the concept of autonomous motivation for if-then plans and study its association with plan enactment, goal progress, and action crisis severity (goal conflict) in the context of a goal study (N = 379). Results suggest that autonomous goal motivation is positively related to autonomous if-then plan motivation. Moreover, analyses reveal a positive synergistic effect of autonomous if-then plan motivation and frequency of plan enactment on goal progress and action crises: Goal progress was boosted, and action crises were minimized with higher autonomous if-then plan motivation and greater frequency of plan enactment. Implications of these results for promoting goal striving are discussed.