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Why do people find it hard to create good habits or do the right things to change their lives for the better?

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How did quarantine affect people and their habits

Why did it take a global pandemic for people to want to better themselves?

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The psychology behind a New Years resolution

Do these promises that we make to ourselves actually push us to accomplish our goals or do they discourage us?

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What are some good habits and why are they hard to implement into our daily lives?

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How do we as a society define self help

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Biggest Reasons Why We Hardly Achieve Our Goals

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Setting goals is a roller-coaster ride for many of us. The excitement that it generates when we ambitiously set our goals pushed us up to the sky, only to zoom back down to nowhere. Where does the problem lie?

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Front Psychol. 2020; 11: 559114.

Abstract

This study aimed to capture how the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis disrupted and affected individuals' goal pursuits and self-efficacy beliefs early during the lockdown phase of COVID-19. Participants impacted by lockdown regulations accessed an online questionnaire during a 10-day window from the end of March to early April 2020 and reported a significant personal goal toward which they had been working, and then completed quantitative and qualitative survey items tapping self-efficacy beliefs for goal achievement, subjective caring about the goal during disrupted world events, and current pursuit or abandonment of the goal. The findings from both quantitative and qualitative measures demonstrated a significant drop in self-efficacy beliefs from before to during the pandemic with a large effect based on whether people thought they could still achieve their goal under current conditions. Over two-thirds of the sample was unsure or did not believe they could still carry out their goal, and over a quarter either abandoned or were uncertain they could pursue the goal. Despite this, people continued to care about their goals. Reasons for abandonment and strategies for coping with goals within the lockdown and beyond are discussed.

Keywords: goals, self-efficacy, COVID-19, coping, social psychology, lockdown, projects

Introduction

Goals give meaning to life. People experience greater well-being and a higher sense of fulfillment when their days include activities structured by, and directed toward, personally significant aims ( Sheldon and Elliot, 1999; Emmons, 2003). Evidence from both personality/social and clinical science attests to this (e.g., Ho et al., 2010). Even individuals experiencing severe psychopathology anticipate personal well-being when envisioning a future in which they attain self-nominated personal goals ( Coughlan et al., 2017).

Many significant life goals have a quality that is well-captured by the concept of "projects" ( Little, 2007). Personal projects are interrelated sets of activities organized toward an overall aim (e.g., "prepare to apply to medical school," "find a new job so I can quit this current one"). Projects not only organize everyday actions but also foster a coherent sense of self; self-concept is reflected in and developed by the pursuit of valued personal projects ( Bruner, 1990; Little, 1993).

When people commit themselves to a meaningful project, they usually pursue it over a substantial period of time. For example, Langan-Fox (1991) assessed university students' personal goals at two time periods 5 months apart. As compared with an older-adult population, one might expect that such younger adults would experience instability of goals as they consider alternate personal and professional futures. Yet, among both female and male students, goal content was highly stable. Projects persist partly as a result of becoming elements of enduring "life stories," that is, narratively structured conceptions of one's life path and personal identity ( McAdams, 1996). Empirically, the themes contained in personal goals and life stories are strongly related ( McGregor et al., 2006).

Little (2011) emphasizes that goals are not just mental contents stored in the head. Personal strivings are fundamentally intertwined with the social contexts in which one lives. People often can sustain their pursuit of a personal goal in "the felicitous case" in which they work toward "projects that are meaningful, manageable, and supported by the eco-setting" ( Little, 2011, p. 80). But what happens in the infelicitous case, when the eco-setting withdraws its support?

One answer to this question may be found in the study of goal appraisals, that is, people ongoing evaluations of their goal-directed activity. When establishing and working toward goals, people engage in strategic evaluation of their progress, using goal appraisals and aspects of self-regulation ( Bembenutty et al., 2013). One major appraisal is coping capability, or appraisals of self-efficacy, ( Bandura, 1977, 1986), and the unexpected disruption presented by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic provides a particular set of globally felt conditions in which to consider people's understanding of their capabilities, through self-efficacy, and adherence to goals. The relation between self-efficacy appraisals and goal commitments can vary from one context to another, even in ordinary times. Often, self-efficacy contributes to goal setting; people are less likely to pursue goals when they doubt their capability for success ( Locke and Latham, 2006; Bardach et al., 2020). However, in some contexts, people persist on goal-directed activities even in the absence of high-efficacy expectations. This occurs, for example, when goal achievement is critical to avoiding substantial personal loss ( Shah and Higgins, 1997; Senko and Freund, 2015; for a meta-analytic review, see Huang, 2016) or when the goal-directed activity is an expression of personal values and the intuitive, "integrated" self ( Kuhl et al., 2015).

Basic research in personality, social, and developmental psychology establishes the causal impact of self-efficacy and goal processes on social behavior and well-being. For example, in longitudinal research, self-efficacy predicts psychosocial outcomes even after accounting for the role of personality traits ( Caprara et al., 2004), goal setting predicts achievement and interest in activities ( Scherrer et al., 2020), and personal goals impact subjective well-being ( Brunstein, 1993) which, in turn, is found to facilitate re-engagement with meaningful life goals ( Haase et al., 2020). With this basic research as our background, in the present study, we sought to portray the nature of goal pursuit and self-efficacy beliefs at a uniquely disruptive moment in recent world history, namely, the early period of the social "lockdown" necessitated by the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the early months of the year.

The worldwide disruption created by the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed people's lives physically and psychologically ( Jiang, 2020; Qiu et al., 2020; Remuzzi and Remuzzi, 2020), with several studies outlining the negative psychological impact that forced quarantine can have on the population ( Brooks et al., 2020), citing reductions in positive emotions, sleep disturbances, and increased feelings of anger and anxiety ( Cava et al., 2005; Roy et al., 2020). The reduction in social contact and steps taken to deal with the psychological impact of this ( Bzdok and Dunbar, 2020) has added a potentially significant disruption to the populations' previous goal pursuits. Goals may now yield to new challenges such as limited access to food, financial worries, sudden need for employment, the care of isolated family members, or reductions to health ( Cipolletta and Ortu, 2020; Fraenkel and Cho, 2020; Wilms et al., 2020). In addition to its vast biomedical and economic costs, there likely was a psychological cost associated with the disruption of valued personal projects by imposed social and mobility restrictions. What was the nature and magnitude of that goal disruption? How did people cope with their altered life circumstances? These are questions addressed in the present report.

Materials and Methods

The Present Research

We conducted a mixed-methods survey of goals, self-efficacy beliefs, and potential goal disruptions in the early period of the lockdown in the COVID-19 crisis. Three aspects of the survey are of note. The first is its conceptual basis, which was a social-cognitive orientation ( Bandura, 1986), in which self-reflection on one's capabilities, the setting of goals, and self-regulatory efforts are central to emotion, motivation, and achievement (also see Sarrazin et al., 1996; Caprara et al., 2011; Zimmerman et al., 2017). Survey items focused on three classes of thoughts and feelings about self-identified projects that are consistent with this perspective: (1) self-efficacy beliefs for goal achievement ( Bandura, 1997); (2) subjective caring about the goal in light of disrupted world events (a variable associated with self-evaluative reactions to those that are central to social-cognitive analyses of self-regulation; Bandura and Cervone, 1983; Cervone et al., 1991); and (3) commitment to goals, that is, whether people saw themselves as still pursuing the projects that, prior to the pandemic, had been central to their everyday lives.

A second feature is the type of survey items we included; our use of both quantitative and qualitative measures is unique within the self-efficacy literature, which has almost exclusively relied on quantitative self-ratings of people's self-efficacy appraisals. Given the utter novelty of the COVID-19 outbreak, we judged the inclusion of open-ended qualitative measures necessary for learning about people's beliefs and experience in the midst of this pandemic. Self-efficacy researchers have continued to develop and validate questionnaires to better capture the construct within a specific domain ( Bandura, 2006; Bong, 2006; Ritchie and Williamon, 2011; Axboe et al., 2016); however, the need for a qualitative approach that moves beyond the traditional questionnaire has been suggested ( Ritchie, in press), but no studies to date have investigated the possible comparability of qualitative and quantitative methods.

Allowing participants to speak, in their own terms, about their goals, experiences, and coping strategies enabled us to explore both the phenomenology of engagement, motivation, and processes of personal agency while navigating iterative and unforeseen challenges toward achievement. Given the mixed-methods data source, we report quantitative analyses, human-based coding of narrative text, and computational natural language processing of syntax and sentiment in that text.

The third aspect of the survey was practical. Early in a pandemic, people have a lot to do other than filling out surveys. We focused our survey exclusively on the set of variables (described above) of maximal interest, in an effort to maintain clarity while eliciting full free-text responses that captured a sense of the person, their outlook, and their investment in the goal. We also deliberately constrained the time frame of survey administration to relatively narrow time window early in the COVID-19 lockdown period when lifestyle changes were newly imposed and still unfolding. Previously, "normal" life was still within recent experience, allowing a snapshot of comparative outlooks. Had we allowed the data collection period to extend, there was a risk that people would begin to develop a catalog of adaptive behaviors in light of these new conditions. Our goal was to gain insight into people's efforts to sustain their projects at the onset of this dramatically challenging moment in history.

Participants

The participants ( n = 161) were aged 19-80 years, M = 45.70 (SD = 14.86), and lived in the United Kingdom ( n = 101), the United States ( n = 31), and 11 other countries ( n = 23) across five continents. Six individuals chose not to declare their location. On an 11-point bipolar measure of gender identity, 56 participants identified themselves as strongly male (1-3), 94 strongly female (9-11), nine identified with the middle (4-8), and two individuals did not identify on this scale. Participants were notified of the study via online academic and social media networks and voluntarily completed a "Pivotal Moments and Goals" (PMG) questionnaire, administered via Qualtrics1, between March 27th and April 6th, 2020. This 10-day window allowed a snapshot of views early in the COVID-19 pandemic-a period of rapid social change in which people comprehended the significance of the crisis and governments instituted lockdowns (the British Prime Minister doing so on March 23rd) ( Government United Kingdom, 2020) and travel bans (the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a strong travel advisory for New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey on March 28th) ( CDC, 2020).

Materials

Goal Description

After a consent statement which noted the study's ethical approval (from the University of Chichester, Approval No. 1920-25), the PMG acknowledged a (consensually recognized) pivotal moment caused by global events and stated our interest in how the social changes triggered by this event may have impacted people's personal goals. Participants were asked to contemplate an important project they had prioritized prior to the event and to describe it in a provided text box.

Retrospective Self-Efficacy Beliefs

Participants next rated their confidence that they could do the goal prior to COVID-19 events on a 1-100 sliding scale ( Bandura, 1977). As a qualitative measure of prior self-efficacy beliefs, participants were asked to describe this confidence in words in two to three sentences. Responses to this and subsequent open-ended items were typed into on-screen text boxes.

The quantitative self-efficacy questionnaire adheres to common practice in the self-efficacy literature, in which self-efficacy beliefs (perceived capabilities to carry out courses of action and achieve aims) are assessed on 100-point scales and without provision of the construct name in questionnaires ( Bandura, 2006; Bong, 2006). Qualitative self-efficacy reports are employed rarely ( Williams, 1990), yet follow naturally from the fact that self-reflective thinking is primarily formulated through the tools of natural language ( Cervone and Lott, 2007). The free prose responses gathered here supplement numerical ratings, allowing a richer, self-guided assessment of self-efficacy and step outside the limitations of traditional empirical questionnaires.

Contemporaneous Self-Efficacy Beliefs

Current self-efficacy beliefs for goal pursuit were assessed in three steps: a multiple-choice item asking if "you can do this now" (yes, no, unsure); a 1-100 scale rating of confidence that you "can still do this"; and a two to three sentence description of this current confidence.

Before answering subsequent questions, participants were instructed to pause to consider their ideas before responding.

Caring

Participants were next asked to indicate whether they still care about the goal (yes, no, unsure) and to describe "how and why you care" in two to three sentences.

Contemporaneous Goal Pursuit

Participants were asked in a multiple-choice format (yes, no, genuinely undecided) whether they were still pursuing their stated goals. They next completed an open-ended report based on this multiple-choice response in which they were asked to indicate either (1) if no, why no; (2) if yes, if anything has changed in goal pursuit; or (3) if uncertain, "Can you say something about this?"

Demographic information (age, gender identity, and country of residence) was collected last so as not to distract people from essential questions. Importantly, all respondents understood that data would be published via open source repositories; thus, responses to demographic questions were optional, allowing respondents to preserve as much privacy as they wished.

Exploratory Data Analysis Methods

All freely written responses were analyzed with AWS Amazon Comprehend2 to confirm English as the language used and then analyze the syntax and its sentiment (positive, neutral, negative, and mixed) ( Ribeiro et al., 2016). After an initial review of text-based responses, it came to light that 10 cases incorrectly completed the questionnaire, and these were removed from the sample. These participants either used negatively framed responses which produced negatively coded sentiment analysis (e.g., "I had no reason to think I couldn't do it unless I went under a bus") or misunderstood the directive of the questions (e.g., failed to choose a goal from before world events unfolded).

The sentiment analysis uses logistic regression to assign probability that the text sentient is positive, neutral, negative, or mixed. For example, the first two text questions describe confidence to carry out goals; therefore, negative sentiment scores reflect the probability the text describes this confidence negatively. Thus, 1 minus the negative score provides a number representing total probability showing the text sentiment is not negative (e.g., 1 minus a negative value of 0.2 becomes 0.8). These numbers were calculated and correlated with the corresponding self-efficacy scores to ensure the text reflected the participant's numerical confidence rating.

Goals and the reasons for pursuing or abandoning goals were qualitatively coded separately by two researchers.

Results

Goals, Self-Efficacy, Caring, and Goal Pursuit

Goal Description

For descriptive purposes, we first classified the content of participants' self-described goals into categories that were derived rationally by the investigators subsequent to the reading of all goal content. Goals could be classified into one of six categories, with varying observed frequency of response: educational ( n = 39, 24.22%), professional ( n = 36, 22.36%), change place of residence ( n = 12, 7.45%), house repair ( n = 6, 3.73%), travel ( n = 38, 23.60%), and a range of projects involving personal development ( n = 30, 18.63%).

Retrospective and Contemporaneous Self-Efficacy Beliefs

Retrospective and contemporaneous self-efficacy beliefs differed markedly. On the 100-point strength of the self-efficacy rating scale, participants reported high pre-COVID-19 self-efficacy scores, M = 84.6 (SD = 20.8, SE = 1.64), but much lower contemporaneous, post-outbreak self-efficacy, M = 45.6 (SD = 34.7, SE = 2.73). Retrospective and contemporaneous strength of self-efficacy differed highly significantly, t(160) = 11.6, p < 0.001.

Complementary results resulted from the analysis of the responses to the multiple-choice item asking, "Can you still do this [goal] now?" On this item, 31.68% of people responded yes, 35.40% unsure, and 32.92% no. These three subgroups of participants differed highly significantly in their 100-point scale rating self-efficacy beliefs, as would be expected, F(2, 158) = 53.6, p < 0.001, and η p ² = 0.404 ( Cohen, 1988). See Figure 1 for the change in mean pre-COVID-19 and current self-efficacy scores.

Strong correlations were demonstrated between the pre-COVID-19 self-efficacy scores and verbally reported confidence sentiment scores ( r = 0.376, p < 0.001) and between the current self-efficacy and corresponding verbal confidence sentiment scores ( r = 0.415, p < 0.001), demonstrating these verbal descriptions to be a representative measure of self-efficacy.

Results of a one-way repeated-measures ANOVA using the verbal confidence sentiment scores from the text describing current self-efficacy mirrored results achieved with the current numerical self-efficacy measure, with a highly significant result showing a very large effect with significant differences between groups [ F(2, 158) = 14.0, p < 0.001, η p ² = 0.151].

Caring About the Goal

In contrast to the considerable variability in pre- and contemporaneous self-efficacy beliefs, there was relative uniformity in caring about the goal. On the measure of caring, 89.44% of people reported yes that they still cared, 4.35% were unsure, and 6.21% no longer cared about their goal.

Contemporaneous Goal Pursuit

A major question was whether people were continuing to pursue their goal despite the restrictions imposed as a result of COVID-19. Notwithstanding the significance of the goals and high levels of caring, 43 participants (26.70%) indicated that they either were no longer pursuing their goal ( n = 24) or were undecided about whether they could pursue it ( n = 19). Of the 118 reporting continued pursuit of their goal, 116 confirmed they still did care and only two reported uncertainty about caring. These two had extenuating personal circumstances that rendered the goal doable but no longer of value. For example, one person reporting uncertainty about caring was planning a course that was canceled, yet they still intended to carry out the planning.

Qualitative coding of textual goal responses revealed reasons both why participants abandoned or maintained the pursuit of their goals. (For the purposes of simplifying this descriptive analysis of textual responses, we combined into a single category the participants who were not pursuing and were undecided about whether they were still pursuing their goal). Those who were no longer actively pursuing their goals ( n = 43) cited external, often physical factors ( n = 18, 41.86%); general uncertainty and difficulty in making long-term plans ( n = 12, 27.91%); and a shift in priorities where they had to readjust due to caring or health responsibilities ( n = 11, 25.58%). Two responses were unique in their reasons and did not categorize.

Those who maintained their goals ( n = 118), despite the increased uncertainty because of lockdown and drop in self-efficacy beliefs, presented a range of perspectives and strategies. Some saw COVID-19 as not changing or impacting their goal ( n = 27, 22.88%), whereas a larger group demonstrated either problem-focused coping ( n = 47, 39.83%) or emotion-focused coping ( n = 18, 15.25%) ( Folkman and Lazarus, 1980). Others stated they intended to continue with the goal but exhibited a "holding pattern" ( n = 16, 13.56%), essentially hitting pause during COVID-19. Two of these "holding" people also demonstrated aspects of problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies, for example:

"Yes, by monitoring the situation and wait for news about when we can start planning trips again so we can go. Obviously it won't be at the same time as my partner's birthday but at least we will go away and do what we had in mind."

In order to better understand the qualitative responses of those who continued pursuing their goals, we established a rationally based taxonomy to analyze the text responses based on a syntax analysis. Four groups of strategic behaviors, as shown in Table 1 , demonstrated active pursuit, engagement, and adaption in relation to goal pursuit in response to the altered conditions imposed by lockdown.

TABLE 1

Planning Engaging with others Enhanced personal awareness/engagement Strategic thinking

Relations Between Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Goal Pursuits

Our cross-sectional design of course does not allow an analysis of potential causal relations between self-efficacy beliefs and goal pursuits. We analyzed the relation between these variables for descriptive purposes, as a way of characterizing patterns of thinking about personal projects that people experienced during the early lockdown period of COVID-19.

Goal Pursuits and Self-Efficacy Beliefs

There is more than one way to describe the relations among goal pursuits and self-efficacy beliefs. One is to examine self-efficacy beliefs among three groups of participants, namely, those who were undecided about whether they were still pursuing their goal, were no longer pursuing their goal, and were pursuing their goal (i.e., the subgroups of participants who responded in these ways to the multiple-choice format question about contemporaneous goal pursuit). For these three groups, we analyzed two self-efficacy variables: (1) the magnitude of change (generally a decline) in strength of self-efficacy from pre- to during the COVID-19 lockdown and (2) AWS sentiment analysis scores obtained by coding the verbal responses from the free-response contemporaneous self-efficacy item. Both variables were standardized for ease of presentation of results.

Figure 2 displays self-efficacy beliefs among participants with each of the three goal pursuit statuses; specifically, it displays both (a) changes in quantitative self-efficacy ratings (retrospective versus contemporaneous) and (b) qualitative analysis, namely, the sentiment analysis of contemporaneous self-efficacy verbalizations. The groups differed significantly on both the quantitative [ F(2, 39.6) = 11.0, p < 0.001] and the qualitative indices [ F(2, 35.2) = 5.32, p < 0.01]. However, that pattern of differences varied from one to another. On the quantitative self-ratings, particularly large declines in self-efficacy were observed among two subgroups: those who had abandoned and who were undecided about their project pursuit. However, in the sentiment analysis, the most negative scores were displayed by the undecided participants. Some undecided participants expressed multiple negative thoughts when verbalizing beliefs about their ability to pursue their goal, for example, "I'm not sure it's what I want anymore because I am having a complete rethink about what is important in life. I felt in February that I had slightly overcommitted for this next year, and this has made me reconsider the extent to which I want to keep working. Maybe I have actually retired."

A second, complementary way of examining relations between self-efficacy beliefs and goal pursuit is to explore goal pursuit status as a function of participants' responses to the multiple-choice self-efficacy survey items "Can you still do this?" and "Are you pursuing the task now?" Results revealed a conflict: more than double the people who answered positively to the question "Do you think you can still do this, now that current events have unfolded?" ( n = 51) confirmed that they were still pursuing their goal ( n = 118). Table 2 relates these contemporaneous self-efficacy judgments and goal pursuit responses. As shown, almost all participants who retained confidence in their ability to achieve their goal reported that they were still pursuing it. Yet, interestingly, a great many participants who expressed a lack of confidence had not abandoned their goal. Factors that include, yet go beyond, reflections on self-efficacy may have influenced the continued pursuit of personal projects.

TABLE 2

Still pursuing goal

Can you still do this [goal] now? Yes Unsure No Total

Responses from those who reported with certainty either abandonment (no) or continuation (yes) to pursuing their goals, where the goals were not travel-related, and all that had similarly low self-efficacy scores (≤40) are presented in Tables 3 , ​,4. 4 . Avoiding travel-related goals, which were essentially banned during this lockdown period, allowed for examination of goals that could have the possibility of strategic coping in relation to goal pursuit. The cutoff of 40 for self-efficacy scores encompassed all of those abandoning goals with low self-efficacy; those continuing to pursue their goals with similarly low self-efficacy are also represented in the table. Those who abandoned their goals and reported zero self-efficacy verbally close down the possibility of pursuing a goal. This language demonstrated a lack of strategic thinking, and in line with the self-efficacy theory ( Zimmerman et al., 2017), these people quit when faced with the challenge of lockdown. In essence, they were unable or unwilling to engage in strategic behavior to find another way. However, those who confirmed they continued actively pursuing their goal, yet reported zero self-efficacy, often phrased their reasons with the future tense using words like "going to." They acknowledged the possibility of pursuit exists, even if they were uncertain how this would occur.

TABLE 3

Category Score Reason abandoned Category Score Reason pursuing

TABLE 4

Category Score Reason abandoned Category Score Reason pursued

Those who abandoned their goals yet had some self-efficacy still do not allow for the possibility of achieving the goal despite quantifying their self-efficacy beliefs. There is no use of active verbs, and they frequently use forms of "no" or "not" (e.g., "not possible"), whereas those pursuing goals with a very low self-efficacy score convey a sense of enduring, continuity, and even urgency by using "still" and "need" alongside active verbs. Those actively pursuing goals, even with low self-efficacy scores, demonstrate a noticeable sense of possibility that embraces now and the future.

Discussion

Our results provide a unique "snapshot" of how the COVID-19 crisis disrupted individuals' pursuits of personal projects in the early period of the lockdown. Self-efficacy ratings for goal pursuit plummeted. Analysis of verbal self-efficacy reports mirrored the numerical results, showing significant differences between pre-COVID-19 and current self-efficacy beliefs for achieving valued projects. Almost all participants still cared about their goal, yet more than a quarter of the sample either had abandoned it or reported uncertainty about further goal pursuit. Given that sustained pursuit of projects enhances well-being ( Little, 1993, 2007), our results highlight a potential psychological toll of the biological pandemic.

The results also, more positively, reveal ways in which people coped successfully with the constraints of the lockdown. Many participants were still working toward their goal, and among these, many reported creative problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies that sustained goal pursuit. Our qualitative methods yielded a "library" of participant-provided pandemic-related coping strategies.3 In future work, this library of strategies could be provided to others as one element of an intervention to enhance citizens' well-being in the face of major social disruption (cf. Skoufias, 2003).

Although diverse in many ways, our sample was economically privileged from a global perspective. Many pursued professional and leisure projects inaccessible to lower-income persons. An implication is that our data reveal beliefs about goals people considered meaningful, even aspirational, as opposed to strictly being need-based. Also, at this early stage in the pandemic, reported strategies for understanding and approaching goals did not yet reflect crisis-type coping behavior ( Ben-Zur and Zeidner, 1995). Instead, we saw the amplification of perceived limitations to achievement, and the interaction between self-efficacy beliefs and action becomes at least convoluted, and sometimes conflicted.

The initial lockdown phase of this crisis presented unexpected, tangible obstacles for people and challenged the stability of their beliefs toward goals. The imposed restrictions upset the predictable fabric of everyday engagement, and some people were not in an obvious position to enact their reported pre-COVID-19 high self-efficacy and good intentions toward their goals ( Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006). Overwhelmingly, people still cared about these tasks, but many did not have an available repertoire of appropriate strategies. The pandemic conditions highlighted the need for adaptability to maintain and accomplish goals, and reliance on existing everyday routines may be inefficient and simply impractical under these uncertain conditions.

Creative engagement is a vehicle through which strategic development can flourish, and existing within the established confines of habit neither fosters creativity nor is an option for successfully navigating current challenges. Actively seeking to develop strategic approaches through new learning, developing the "practice of practice" ( Antonacopoulou, 2006, p. 5), and the creation and adoption of disruptive innovation take vision and time ( Yu and Hang, 2010). It is therefore not surprising that some people, unable to see a direct way forward, effectively put their goals on hold or abandoned tasks completely. In principle, those who abandoned their goals could adopt similar emotional and physical coping strategies used by others. Developing new strategies and perspectives is an enduring challenge for all.

The assessment of self-efficacy in this research, gathering both the quantitative (numeric) and qualitative (dialogic free text) responses, is genuinely novel in the field of self-efficacy research. Our results demonstrated that both methods produced comparable, statistically significant results, and this is a pioneering contribution to the approach of self-efficacy measurement in psychological research. The present research extended the standard questionnaire-based approach to self-efficacy research, with the novel methodological approach of including free-text descriptions of self-efficacy beliefs alongside traditional scalar measures. Anchoring these text responses to both the numerical score and sentient analyses demonstrated that these free descriptions also produced significant results. This initial step to innovate methods opens the door for further research to explore the syntax of self-efficacy. Future research should aim to understand self-efficacy beliefs in terms of verbal expression, internal thought representation, and the expressed interrelationships between declared externalizations of self-efficacy to enacted beliefs (through tasks) to deepen the understanding of belief and achievement.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found here: Open Science Framework https://osf.io/64y2p/.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by University of Chichester Research Ethics Committee. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

LR: contributes to the concept, design, definition of intellectual content, data analysis, manuscript preparation, and manuscript editing. DC: contributes to the literature search, definition of intellectual content, manuscript preparation, and manuscript editing. BS: contributes to the design, data analysis, and manuscript editing. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Goals and Self-Efficacy Beliefs During the Initial COVID-19 Lockdown: A Mixed Methods Analysis

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This study aimed to capture how the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis disrupted and affected individuals' goal pursuits and self-efficacy beliefs early during the lockdown phase of COVID-19. Participants impacted by lockdown regulations ...

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Did you know that our actions have a direct impact on our physical and mental wellness? This happens as every emotion results in our brain producing certain hormones and these hormones are responsible for our moods, temperament, and overall physical and emotional well being. Today, I want to simply talk about four hormones that are the answer to questions like 'How to increase productivity?' or 'How to improve memory?' or 'How to improve memory retention?' or 'How to enhance your mood and energize yourself?

These are the famous-four happy hormones:

Let's begin with Serotonin - the feel good hormone. It helps positively regulate our mood, our digestion and our sleep pattern. Did you know your gut bacteria is involved in the production of this hormone? Serotonin along with Melatonin controls the circadian rhythm of your body. By that I mean, the 24 hour internal clock responsible for sleep. So Serotonin helps regulate your mood naturally. When your serotonin levels are at a normal level, you should feel more focused, emotionally stable, happier, and calmer. This obviously impacts your performance at work and in general. It's a chain reaction. This hormone impacts your entire body. It enables brain cells and other nervous system cells to communicate with each other, enabling you to be more present, creative and focused at work. When you tie it with goal setting, sky's the limit in what you set to achieve. Serotonin also helps with sleeping, eating, and digestion. However, if the brain has too little serotonin, it may lead to depression.

The second one is the hormone called oxytocin - the hormone that promotes bonding and trust. It's also referred to as the cuddle hormone because a simple hug to your loved one helps your brain produce oxytocin. That is why if you want to share your happiness or if you wish to express sympathy, a good hug actually helps. If you are feeling a bit low, the same hug helps lift you up. The best example that comes to my mind is the bond between a mother and a newborn child and how a hug automatically induces trust. Essentially, this hormone brings about a healing effect, easing pain and improving the immune system. As a result, it promotes mental well being to a great extent. It goes without saying that when your mental health is well taken care of, you are better equipped at anticipating and dealing with a changing environment. And as we all know, change is the only constant. In our personal and professional lives, dealing with change can be cumbersome, but if you are mentally fit, you can easily handle any challenge thrown at you.

Next is the hormone called dopamine - the third in the series of happy hormones and one that loves to work with a reward system. Hence, any kind of achievement - big or small - is translated into the creation of dopamine in your body.

So when you are pursuing a goal, start with baby steps and look for small wins. As the happy hormone dopamine kicks in, your body starts craving for more, and the brain motivates you and supports you in doing better for further wins. However, the downside of dopamine is that it is addictive. For instance we're all addicted to our mobile phones, to social media. You post your picture on Instagram or Facebook and as soon as you get likes and appreciative comments it kicks off the dopamine in your system eventually wanting more and more. This is an addiction that must be maneuvered well, else it can prove to be detrimental in more ways than one.

Also dopamine is said to enhance productivity. Use these tips to boost the level of dopamine in your body and you'll see how effectively you can achieve your goals.

Finally, we come to Endorphins. When you exercise, cardio activities like walking, running, dancing, swimming release endorphins into your system. These are known to give you the high you feel after a good workout session and also known to block physical pain. It basically keeps you in a happy space. Being physically active thus has a boosting effect on your moods, to help you maintain positivity, which inturn can help in reducing anxiety and depression. So exercise and physical activities promote great mental well-being. You will always notice that before your workout laziness may creep in, but once you push yourself to do it, you feel elated and energetic afterward. It gives you a positive feeling and being in a positive state of mind goes a long way in supporting you to meet your goals, to dealing with change and the stress that come with the challenges of life. I strongly believe that the area of your focus brings you results in exactly that direction, be it the positive or the negative aspects of life.

If you still feel downhearted and overwhelmed with the never ending challenges that come with being a professional in a working environment that is constantly changing, visit my blog for valuable reads on how to promote wellness in the workplace, dealing with change in the workplace, anticipating and dealing with a changing environment and ultimately creating a fulfilling professional journey.

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Did you know that our actions have a direct impact on our physical and mental wellness? This happens as every emotion results in our brain producing certain hor

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We're all products of our habits.

Our daily routines, the little things we do, the choices we make-they're all shaping who we are.

They're steering us towards a future, whether we're conscious of it or not.

But what if you had a roadmap to guide these habits?

What if you could strategically navigate towards a better you?

As a company who delivers wellbeing workshops on creating life changing habits we have a great understanding of how to successfully implement and stick with new habits.

In this blog, we'll explore 20 life-changing habits that can redefine your life, steering it towards success, fulfillment, and happiness.

So, let's embark on this transformative journey together!

20 Habits That Can Change Your Life

1.Practice Mindfulness

The world around us is always in motion-fast and restless.

Amidst this whirlwind of activities, practicing mindfulness can be a sanctuary and should be added to our list of habits.

Mindfulness is the process of deliberately focusing on the present moment without judgment.

It's a simple yet powerful practice that fosters peace of mind, reduces stress, and enhances emotional resilience.

How to start: Starting a mindfulness practice is as simple as taking out five minutes from your day.

Choose a quiet spot, sit comfortably, and close your eyes.

Focus on your breath. Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions without any judgement.

Just five minutes a day can set the foundation for a more mindful life.

2. Daily Journaling

Writing might seem like a chore to some, but the benefits of daily journaling extend far beyond better writing skills.

Journaling is a gateway to self-exploration.

It allows you to track your personal growth, understand your emotions better, and even boost your memory.

Additionally, it also helps in enhancing self-discipline and communication skills.

How to start: All you need is a pen and a notebook. Dedicate a few minutes each day to jot down your thoughts, ideas, or emotions.

You can write about your day, reflect on a memory, or plan your future actions. There are no rules-it's your personal space.

3. Cold Showers

Yes, cold showers!

It may sound daunting, but the benefits of this habit are plentiful.

Taking cold showers has been linked to increased alertness, enhanced mood, improved skin and hair health, and even boosted immunity.

Why not challenge yourself and commit to 30 days of cold showers.

As the Iceman Wim Hof says "A cold shower a day keeps the doctor away"

How to start: Start by concluding your regular warm shower with a blast of cold water for 15 seconds.

Over time, you can increase the duration.

If you're looking for a beginners guide, this eBook on 30 days of cold showers could be your perfect companion.

4. Regular Exercise

We've all heard about the benefits of regular exercise.

Yet, it's often a habit that's neglected.

Exercise can drastically improve your health, increase your energy levels, enhance your mood, and even add years to your life.

How to start: You don't need a gym membership to start exercising.

Begin with a 15-minute walk or simple at-home exercises.

Gradually, you can add more activities to your routine, ensuring it's something you enjoy and can maintain in the long term.

5. Healthy Eating

The old adage "you are what you eat" holds significant truth.

Our diet impacts our physical and mental health profoundly.

Incorporating more fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains into your diet can lead to increased energy, better mood, and improved overall health.

How to start: Transitioning to a healthy diet doesn't have to be a sudden overhaul.

Begin by incorporating a fruit or vegetable into every meal.

Try experimenting with different recipes to keep your meals exciting.

As time goes on, you can gradually shift towards more nutritious choices.

6. Cultivate Gratitude

Gratitude is more than just saying "thank you"-it's a mindset, a way of seeing and appreciating the good in our lives.

By focusing on the positives, we shift our attention away from negatives, which can have a profound impact on our wellbeing.

Regularly practicing gratitude can improve our mental health, enhance empathy, reduce aggression, and even improve sleep.

Gratitude helps us realise that even in tough times, there's always something to be thankful for.

This shift in perspective can enhance resilience, create inner peace, and increase life satisfaction.

How to start: Incorporate gratitude into your daily routine.

It could be as simple as acknowledging a beautiful sunrise, a good cup of coffee, or a kind act from a stranger.

Consider keeping a gratitude journal-each night, write down three things you're grateful for.

They don't have to be big, even seemingly small blessings count.

Make it a habit to express gratitude to others.

Not only will it make them feel appreciated, but it will also reinforce your sense of gratitude.

Over time, practicing gratitude can help you see the world in a more positive light, making you more resilient and content.

By cultivating gratitude, you're choosing to focus on the abundance in your life rather than on scarcity. It's a simple habit, but its impact on your life can be profound

7. Reading

In the age of digital media, the habit of reading might seem outdated.

But the benefits of reading regularly are manifold - improved knowledge, better concentration, enhanced creativity, and even reduced stress.

How to start: Choose a book that interests you and dedicate a few minutes each day to read.

Even a page a day can open up a world of wisdom.

Watching book review podcasts like The Power of Pages can help to motivate and inspire you to read.

8. Maintain a Sleep Schedule

In our hectic world, sleep can often be pushed aside.

However, adequate and regular sleep is as crucial to our health and wellbeing as a balanced diet and regular exercise.

Sleep deprivation can lead to impaired cognitive function, mood swings, weakened immunity, and long-term health problems like heart disease and diabetes.

On the other hand, a regular sleep schedule can enhance memory, increase alertness, reduce stress, and even boost your mood.

How to start: Try to establish a regular sleep schedule where you go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, including weekends.

Create a relaxing pre-bed routine-this could include activities such as reading, taking a warm bath, or practicing gentle yoga.

Limit exposure to screens before bedtime, and create a sleep-friendly environment in your room-dark, quiet, and cool. Remember, consistency is key.

9. Learn Something New

The pursuit of knowledge doesn't stop at school-it's a lifelong journey.

Lifelong learning not only contributes to personal growth and self-improvement but also keeps your mind sharp.

It opens up new perspectives, boosts creativity, increases adaptability, and contributes to a sense of accomplishment.

How to start: Identify a topic or skill that you're curious about-it could be anything from a foreign language, a musical instrument, digital marketing, painting, or even astronomy.

Set aside some dedicated time each week to delve into this new learning.

You could enroll in an online course, read books, listen to podcasts, or join a local class or club.

The key is to engage in active learning-learning that stimulates your mind and challenges you.

10. Socialise

Humans are social creatures by nature.

Good social relationships can contribute to improved mental and physical health, increased happiness, and even longevity.

Quality social interactions can provide emotional support, increase feelings of belonging, and help reduce stress.

Conversely, social isolation can lead to loneliness and have a negative impact on health and wellbeing.

How to start: Make an effort to start this habit by connecting with someone in your life every day.

This could be a phone call to a family member, a coffee catch-up with a friend, or even a heartfelt conversation with a loved one.

Consider joining clubs or groups where you can meet people with shared interests.

You could also explore volunteering opportunities in your community-it's a great way to give back and build social connections.

Remember, it's the quality of your social interactions, not the quantity, that matters most.

11. Practice Deep Breathing

In our daily grind, it's easy to forget the power of something as simple as our breath.

Deep breathing is an immediate route to calmness, providing an instant stress-busting effect.

It's a tranquilizer for the nervous system, sending signals to your brain to slow down, leading to improved focus and a state of peace.

Implementing deep breathing habits is often overlooked.

How to start: Whenever you're feeling overwhelmed or stressed, pause and turn your attention to your breath.

Draw in a deep breath, hold for a few seconds, and then slowly exhale.

Aim to do this for a couple of minutes, gradually increasing the duration over time.

You can also incorporate deep breathing into your daily routine, perhaps in the morning or before bed, to start and end your day calmly.

12. Limit Screen Time

Our screens have become constant companions, but they can also act as barriers to human connection and self-care.

Overexposure to screens can lead to a range of issues, from physical strain to psychological stress.

Overusing screens is a bad habit that many of us have adopted.

By managing our screen time, we allow ourselves more time to engage with the world around us actively.

How to start: Implement designated screen-free periods in your daily routine, perhaps during meals or the last hour before bed.

Consider apps that track your screen time and help you set limits.

Aim for balance-technology has its benefits, but it's crucial to disconnect and step back into the real world regularly.

13. Set Clear Goals

Setting clear, achievable goals is like crafting your road map for the future.

It gives you direction, provides motivation, and serves as a barometer for your progress.

Goals encourage self-discipline, keep you focused and increase your sense of self-confidence as you tick off your achievements.

How to start: Spend some time reflecting on what you want in different areas of your life-personal growth, career, relationships, health, etc.

Formulate these into SMART goals - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Write them down and review them regularly to keep your path to success clear and focused.

14. Practice Self-Care

Amid our responsibilities and commitments, it's easy to overlook the importance of self-care.

However, taking care of our physical, emotional, and mental health is vital.

Self-care fosters resilience against stress, enhances self-esteem, and nurtures a healthy relationship with oneself.

It's an important habit to implement.

How to start: Carve out a little time each day just for you-it could be as simple as sipping a cup of tea in silence, taking a leisurely bath, reading a book, or going for a walk.

This is not about indulgence; it's about nourishing yourself to face life's challenges with a well-rounded, healthy perspective.

Why not check out our blog " 10 Loveable Self-Care Activities for Team Meetings "

15. Learn to Say No

While it's great to be helpful and accommodating, constantly saying 'yes' can lead to stress, burnout, and even resentment.

Learning to say 'no' when needed is crucial for maintaining a healthy balance in life.

It allows you to respect your boundaries and makes room for your priorities.

How to start: The next time you're asked to do something, pause and evaluate.

Does it align with your priorities?

Will it impose on your self-care or overwhelm your schedule?

If so, it's perfectly fine to politely decline. Remember, saying 'no' to others often means saying 'yes' to yourself.

16. Spend Time in Nature

Habits that involve nature have a unique way of calming our minds, uplifting our spirits, and recharging our bodies.

Time spent in natural environments has been linked to lower stress levels, improved mood, and enhanced cognitive function. Plus, it's an enjoyable way to keep active.

How to start: Start this habit by dedicating a portion of your week to outdoor activities.

It could be a relaxing walk in a park, a weekend hike, gardening, or even a picnic by the lake.

The aim is to immerse yourself in nature, breathe in fresh air, and disconnect from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

The more you engage with the natural world, the more you'll appreciate its calming, rejuvenating effects.

17. Unplug Regularly

We're living in a digital era where our lives are entwined with technology.

While it has its benefits, it can also lead to mental clutter, stress, and burnout.

Unplugging regularly allows us to break free from the constant influx of information and stimuli, helping us relax, rejuvenate, and reconnect with ourselves.

How to start: Begin by setting 'digital-free' periods each day. It could be during meal times or an hour before bed.

Try unplugging for longer periods over the weekend. Use this time for activities that refresh your mind and spirit, like reading, painting, or spending time with loved ones.

Embrace the quiet, enjoy the solitude, and experience the richness of the non-digital world.

18. Cultivate a Positive Mindset

Our mindset shapes our perspectives and reactions to life events.

Cultivating a positive mindset doesn't mean ignoring life's problems-it means approaching them with a more positive and productive attitude.

A positive mindset can boost resilience, improve health, and enhance overall life satisfaction.

Approaching positivity as a daily habit helps you to maintain a positive outlook on life.

How to start: Every day, aim to identify the good in your life, no matter how small.

Practice positive self-talk and challenge any negative thoughts that arise.

Surround yourself with positive influences-people, books, music, anything that uplifts your spirits.

A positive mindset isn't built overnight, but with consistency and patience, it can become your second nature.

19. Prioritise Personal Growth

Personal growth is an ongoing journey of self-discovery and improvement.

It's one of the best habits you can implement for yourself.

It involves improving self-awareness, developing talents, building potential, and leading a fulfilling life.

Prioritising personal growth allows you to live consciously, purposefully, and authentically.

How to start: Set personal growth goals, such as learning a new skill, reading more, practicing mindfulness, or even working on your emotional intelligence.

Engage in activities that challenge you and take you out of your comfort zone.

Seek feedback from others and be open to new ideas and perspectives.

Remember, personal growth is a journey, not a destination-enjoy the process of becoming the best version of yourself.

20. Make Your Bed

Simple habits like this might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but starting your day by making your bed can set a positive tone for the rest of the day.

It's a small accomplishment that provides a sense of pride and order, leading to increased productivity.

This habit not only instils discipline but also gives you a sense of control over your life.

Plus, there's nothing quite like coming home to a neat, made bed after a long day.

How to start: Incorporate bed-making into your morning routine, preferably right after you get up.

Make it a mindful process-straighten the sheets, fluff the pillows, arrange the comforter.

Enjoy the sense of accomplishment you feel upon completing the task.

If you live with others, you could encourage them to adopt this habit too, contributing to a tidy and harmonious living environment.

With time, this simple daily habit can ripple into other areas of your life, encouraging cleanliness, order, and discipline.

Remember, creating life-changing habits is all about small, consistent steps toward a healthier, happier, more fulfilling life.

Start with one habit, master it, and then move onto the next.

Before you know it, these habits will become second nature, steadily transforming your life for the better.

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Redefine Yourself: 20 Habits That Can Change Your Life - Loving Life

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