How to Pursue Your Goals—Without Suffering (Angela Duckworth, PhD)
About this episode
Angela Duckworth discusses how to pursue goals effectively without suffering, emphasizing the impact of situational elements on our behavior.
“ It’s just incredibly hard to really resist these forces that are, you know, probably from evolution, that we adapt to our circumstances,” says psychologist Angela Duckworth, PhD. “But once you have that insight, then you realize that you do have to shape your circumstances before they shape you.” In her new book Situated, Duckworth (who wrote the #1 New York Times bestseller Grit) reveals the often hidden ways that situational elements affect us, and she maps out optimistic strategies for sometimes changing our environment and sometimes improving the situations in our lives. In our conversation, she also shares some funny and enlightening psychology findings that help explain why we can be so different across different settings, and why our expectations of ourselves are socially determined. And toward the end, she offers an alternative approach to effortfully pursuing our goals—which does not involve suffering, and which is actually more effective (go figure!). For the show notes, head to eliseloehnen.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
People in this episode
Host: Elise Loehnen
Guest: Angela Duckworth
Topics covered
- goal pursuit
- psychology
- environmental influence
- self-improvement
- effort
- situational elements
Keywords
- goals
- psychology
- situational influence
- self-improvement
- effort
- Angela Duckworth
- Grit
- Situated
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: New York Times
Books & works: Situated, Grit
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