Beyond Perceptions: How Motivation Shapes Our Goals with Prof. Emily Balcetis

“The idea that quitting something is a failure is a significant barrier. Instead, seeing it as an opportunity for reflection and learning can be valuable. Quitting a job, ending a relationship, or shifting goals doesn’t have to be a failure; it can be a chance to start fresh with the knowledge you’ve gained.” Prof. Emily Balcetis

Prof. Emily Balcetis , an award-winning social psychologist and author of Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World, views motivation as the difference between where we are and where we want to be, warning that limiting stereotypes or narrow definitions of success impact our motivation and ability to reach goals. When addressing the challenge of sustaining motivation, Prof. Balcetis suggests balancing short-term and long-term perspectives, allowing for incremental progress while maintaining a vision for the overall objective.?

Stephen Matini: How did you develop an interest in perception?

Prof. Emily Balcetis: It was because when I was in graduate school, I went to study with a fabulous, fantastic, wonderful mentor. After the first year, I really wanted to spend the summer in Europe.?

As a graduate student with no money, I needed to figure out how to afford it. I looked for academic conferences happening in Europe and found one in vision science. I decided to quickly study something related to vision so I could gather data, put together a poster, submit it to the conference, and get my graduate school to offset $500 of the trip cost.

I did all of that and then told my advisor, "Oh, by the way, I did all this work, and I’m going to Europe for two months." That’s not how grad school typically works, but he was lovely and said, "Okay, fine, but maybe we should start working on these projects together."?

That’s how my interest in social psychology and motivation science, which I had gone to graduate school to study, intersected with visual experience. To be honest, it all started as a way to afford a trip to Europe when I was really poor.

SM: How do you make the concept of motivation clear and understandable for organizations?

Prof. EB: I believe the concept of motivation is quite simple. The foundational definitions vary, but they share a commonality in their simplicity. One definition is that motivation is the discrepancy between where you are and where you want to be. This gap is the driving force behind motivation.

Another perspective I often rely on in my work is a multiplicative function. Motivation can be expressed as motivation equals value times expectancy. "Value" refers to what you want, and "expectancy" is your belief in the possibility of achieving it.?

For example, you might really want to become a billionaire, but if you don't believe it’s possible, your motivation to achieve it is zero. Even if you have a strong desire, if you lack a sense of self-efficacy or means to accomplish it, your motivation remains low.

So, the concept of motivation itself isn’t particularly challenging to understand. The real challenge lies in knowing what to do with it, how to harness it, and how to sustain it.?

SM: Has your own motivation changed over the years?

Prof. EB: Everything about life is different; my life has changed significantly. When I started this work, like I mentioned, during that first summer after graduate school, I was 24 years old, in my early 20s. Now, I am much older, married, and have two kids. Everything about motivation has changed. In what way? I suppose what I value has shifted. Since motivation is value times expectancy, the "value" part has shifted. I don’t think it’s an unusual story—it's about seeking balance and striving for a fuller life beyond just earning a salary.

SM: Do you find it easier to stay motivated now than you used to?

Prof. EB: I feel lucky in that I’ve always been fortunate to do what I really love. When I was an undergraduate, I studied music and earned a degree in music performance. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to develop as a musician. At the same time, I was studying research in psychology. When life events pushed music out as a career path for me, I continued to play.

In fact, just this morning, I was at my two-year-old daughter’s preschool, playing “Baby Shark,” “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” and “Wheels on the Bus” on my flute for them. That was a highlight of my morning.?

I got to do music and loved it, and when I couldn’t pursue a professional music career, I found passion in psychology and psychology research. I continue to do that here. I recognize how privileged I am to say that I’ve always been able to do what I love.

It’s not to say that every day is wonderful and without challenges. However, at the core, motivation isn’t the problem for me because I’ve always had the resources and freedom to engage in what I love. I really enjoy writing, which is a significant part of my job. Many people struggle with going from a blank page to writing a book or scientific article. It can be overwhelming to face that blank page, but I’ve never experienced that difficulty.

My motivation has stayed high. The real challenge for me, and I think for many, is what to do with that motivation. How do you maintain high motivation? How do you balance multiple goals when resources like time are limited? How do you sustain motivation when you can’t fully engage in the things you’re passionate about? That’s where I personally reflect and struggle the most.

SM: How does focusing on small, daily efforts, as opposed to long-term entrepreneurial goals, relate to motivation in your research?

Prof. EB: The phrase “just focus on today” or “just get through today” comes up often. For example, it’s a common slogan in Alcoholics Anonymous. This approach can help because thinking about maintaining a change for the rest of your life can be overwhelming. If you let your mind go there, the goal can seem impossible. Focusing on today helps because it prevents the goal from feeling so overwhelming that it becomes perceived as impossible, which can lower one’s sense of efficacy and motivation.

Some people find value in focusing on today because it allows them to live in the moment and avoid the stress of multitasking. This approach is a mindfulness technique and can be effective. However, multitasking has its own benefits and drawbacks, which we can discuss if you’re interested. It’s about being intentional with multitasking and knowing when it’s useful.

Focusing on today can help manage the negative consequences of multitasking, but it also has costs. For example, in terms of health, making daily choices that prioritize immediate satisfaction might conflict with long-term goals. Choosing different foods or exercising more today might be harder if you’re only thinking about short-term satisfaction, even though these sacrifices are necessary for long-term health.

In our research, my team and I studied the effectiveness of focusing on today versus taking a broader view of time. We had participants focus on a long-term goal, one they wouldn’t accomplish in a day or even a month. For one week, they focused on what they could do each day to make progress on that goal, recording how much time they spent working on it.

In a different week, they took a broader view. On Sunday, they planned out their week by listing concrete tasks that would advance their goal, scheduling them for each day. At the end of each day, they reported how much time they spent working on the goal.

We found that both approaches were helpful. However, the broader weekly planning led to spending an average of two and a half more hours on goal-relevant tasks than the day-by-day approach. About 66% of participants found the weekly planning strategy beneficial for improving how they spent their time.

Whether to focus on the day or take a broader approach is a matter of strategy and tool selection. Just as a hammer is useful for certain tasks but not others, different time-management strategies work for different situations. If one approach isn’t working, it’s worth trying a different strategy.

SM: Given your experience with balancing narrow and wide focuses, should I take a broader view of my podcast’s long-term goals or focus more narrowly on immediate tasks?

Prof. EB: When you started, the goal might have been simply to see if you could do this thing and connect with people. You’ve achieved that goal—yes, you can do this thing, and yes, you are connecting with people.

Now it’s time to think about what the next goal should be. It’s about resetting your objectives. I often talk about being our own mental accountant. Just as an accountant doesn’t simply observe your finances and say, "Things are moving up and down; here’s your financial summary," they take stock of what you’re working towards and assess whether you’re on track to meet those goals.

The accountants I work with suggest checking in at least once a year to review your goals and assess your progress. We do that with financial goals, so why not apply the same approach to our personal goals? At least once a year, we should evaluate what we’re working towards and how we’re progressing. Maybe that’s where you are right now with this podcast—considering what the next goal should be in relation to this work.

SM: When you need to regroup and reflect, what specific strategies do you use?

Prof. EB: While working with my coach, we discussed how I was spending my time and whether that was how I wanted to spend it. Everyone needs more time, so it’s important to take inventory of how you use it.

I’ve been working on a project for years, and right now, the return on investment just doesn’t seem to be there. Does this mean I’ve failed? Personally, I don’t think so. I’ve done everything possible with this project, and now it’s time to reassess why I started it in the first place. Instead of asking how I can keep iterating on this project, I ask why I was doing it initially.

By asking "why" repeatedly, you can uncover your core values. Why was I working on this project? Why did it no longer feel gratifying? When you reach the root of why you started, you might realize that the project is no longer the right vehicle for your goals.

For me, this process clarified that I hadn’t failed; rather, I had reached the end of that particular trail. It helped me understand that moving on to a different path was not about abandoning my goal but about finding a new trail to advance towards where I truly want to be. This realization made the idea of quitting something easier to accept because it’s not about failing but about finding a better way forward.

SM: How do perception and leadership styles combine?

Prof. EB: I think they are quite intertwined because leaders have to want it; they have to want to be leaders. But how do they get there? How do people come to want to be leaders? How do they think, "I can do this"??

The belief that you can do something is an integral part of motivation. If you don’t think you can, motivation is zero. So what leads some people to believe, "I can do this, and I value it; I want to do this"? There are many reasons, but one we’ve discovered, especially in our work with both adults and children, is this: when I ask people to imagine what a leader looks like, they often picture someone who is older, male, and white.?

This represents a lot of the population but not all of it. This is the predominant image people have in their minds, even among those who don’t identify as older, white, or male. When the mental image of a leader doesn’t align with one’s own self-view—because the demographics or qualities differ—motivation can decrease.?

If people think the traits associated with leadership are agentic, loud, controlling, and assertive—traits that don’t align with their own self-definitions or aspirations—they may feel less motivated. They might think, "This doesn’t seem like a place for me; it doesn’t seem like something I could succeed in or want to succeed in.”

We know that effective leaders come in all shapes and sizes. While there are indeed effective leaders who are older white men, there are also successful leaders who don’t fit these demographic profiles. Leadership can manifest in many different ways. The problem is that we have a constrained mental representation of what a leader looks like and how a leader acts, which can suppress people’s motivation to enter and excel in that space.

Our work aims to expand this mental representation so that people’s images of leadership are more inclusive and diverse. By broadening the set of visuals, traits, and qualities associated with leadership, we make room for more people from various backgrounds to see themselves in that role.

SM: Does the mental representation people have of a leader depend on the important figures they’ve encountered in their lives?

Prof. EB: Yes, absolutely. There is a disparity in who assumes leadership positions, and the role models we see or the way the space is filled is not representative of all populations. What we see on TV or on social media, even if those people aren’t actually in power, also doesn’t represent the entire population. This can contribute to a narrow mental representation and definition of what constitutes a leader.

However, you can break this connection through role models. Even seeing one or two people who you connect strongly with can be enough to expand your mental representation. That’s why role models are so important. Our work in schools, in particular, shows that the diversity of teacher demographics within a school significantly impacts students’ beliefs about who can be a leader.

For example, when we give kids a box of crayons and a piece of paper and ask them to draw what a leader looks like, the drawings vary significantly among Black teenagers, depending on whether they are in schools with many white teachers or more non-white teachers. In schools with more diverse teachers, the students’ drawings reflect a broader understanding of who can and should be a leader.

SM: Out of everything we've discussed, is there anything that our readers should pay attention to?

Prof. EB: I think one important point is dealing with the challenge of feeling like you're not making progress despite working hard. The concept of sunk costs often comes into play, where you continue to invest in something that may not be working out, whether it's a relationship, a project, or striving for a promotion that isn’t providing growth opportunities.

It can be really hard to let go of things that aren't bringing you joy or helping you achieve your goals. People often hesitate to leave relationships or jobs that aren’t satisfying because it feels like a failure. There are many reasons for this, such as needing a job or having responsibilities that prevent them from leaving. But the stigma around failure makes it even harder.

The idea that quitting something is a failure is a significant barrier. Instead, seeing it as an opportunity for reflection and learning can be valuable. Quitting a job, ending a relationship, or shifting goals doesn’t have to be a failure; it can be a chance to start fresh with the knowledge you’ve gained.

I would love the opportunity to start parts of my life over with all the expertise I have now. That would be incredible. Rather than viewing it as failure or quitting, which are stigmatizing, reframing it as a chance for renewal and growth can help people make difficult decisions and potentially find greater happiness than their current pursuits offer.

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Please check Prof. Emily Balcetis book, Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World , and use the affiliate links to support Pity Party Over at no additional cost to you.

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