“When we are pursuing a goal and consider how far we’ve already come, we feel a premature sense of accomplishment and begin to slack off.”  – How to Become a Great Finisher – Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D.

Everywhere I go I see everyone saying “Always focus on how far you’ve come rather than how far you have left to go”. Do you know what really happens when you do that? You start to slack off! Take a look at that article from the Harvard Business Review. She talks about research done and published on the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 94(2).

“Focusing on what you have yet to accomplish signals to you that there is lack a of progress and increases your motivation.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 94(2)

Google it just for fun… type in: “focus on how far you have to go” and see what pops up. The complete opposite! Why, when actual study published by psychologists who did the research say otherwise? I’m going to take a guess and say people are misinformed and/or want to believe what makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside. No one likes the truth.