Believing You Can Do It
self-efficacy and thought patterns
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Today I’m talking about self-efficacy, which is an individual's belief in their capability to take actions in order to complete a goal.
Psychologist Albert Bandura conceptualized of self-efficacy in his 1977 article, “Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change” (here’s a PDF of the article).
In addition to believing in our capability to do things we intend to do, self-efficacy also relates to the ways we engage with difficult tasks (do we view them as insurmountable or as something we can figure out how to complete?) and our perspective on whether we can make choices and have control over the outcome of our choices.
Bandura identified four key contributors to self-efficacy, listed out in a comprehensive piece at Simply Psychology as:
Performance Outcomes (Mastery Experiences): Successful mastery of tasks is the most powerful source of self-efficacy information. Experiencing success strengthens beliefs in one’s capabilities, while repeated failures tend to undermine them.
Vicarious Experiences: Observing others (models) perform tasks successfully can raise observers’ beliefs in their own ability to perform the same tasks, especially if they perceive the model as similar to themselves.
Verbal Persuasion: Being told by others that one possesses the capabilities to succeed can enhance self-efficacy. However, the persuasiveness of this source depends on the credibility, expertise, and trustworthiness of the persuader.
Physiological and Emotional Arousal: Physiological states, such as anxiety or stress, can influence perceived self-efficacy. High arousal in threatening situations is often interpreted as an indicator of vulnerability, which can lower self-efficacy. Conversely, managing and reducing stress can enhance efficacy beliefs.
Out of these four components of self-efficacy, the one I’m most intrigued by in regulating our emotional states and how our thoughts and feelings affect our belief in our ability to do the things we want to do. I want to share two tools that can help to reframe our expectations and our perspectives when it comes to our productivity.
Goals Versus Stretch Goals
When you set a goal for yourself, pause to check in. Is your goal actionable and achievable, meaning you know what actions to take, the order to complete them in, and it’s feasible for you to complete these tasks with your personal resources (time, energy, focus, etc.)?
If your goal feels daunting, check if you can scale down your approach and identify a smaller, more achievable version of that goal. This new goal becomes your actual goal, and your original goal shifts to become a “stretch goal,” which you can choose to complete (or not!) once you achieve your more accessible, completely appropriate goal.
For example, you might want to write 10 pages of a chapter in one day, but when you check in with how much time you have to write and how you feel (tired, a little distracted, an achey back), you realize that setting a goal to write 2.5 pages is much more realistic. If you hit the 2.5 pages, awesome! You achieved your goal and you can shift away from the writing for the day. If you find that after you hit 2.5 pages you’re on a roll and you want to see how many extra ones you can write, go for it! But know that you already hit your goal, and anything beyond that is a nice-to-have-but-not-necessary bonus.
Byron Katie’s “The Work”
Thinking about the last component of self-efficacy—our emotional state—reminded me of Byron Katie’s “The Work,” a tool that asks us to investigate and turn around our stressful beliefs by answering four specific questions. Katie uses The Work to help people reevaluate their judgments about others, but I find it helpful for reconceiving beliefs in our relationships to ourselves. The Work’s four questions will guide you from limiting beliefs to faith in something more positive.
To do The Work, choose a limiting belief that is upsetting you or holding you back. This should be in the form of a statement. Here’s an example: “It’s too hard to publish a book about my grad school research.”
Then, ask yourself question one: “Is it true?” Your answer will be “Yes” or “No.” According to Katie, “In many cases, the statement appears to be true. Of course it does. Your concepts are based on a lifetime of uninvestigated beliefs.”
If your answer is No, you can skip to question three. If it is Yes, go to question two: “Can you absolutely know that it’s true?” Katie suggests that we should “Take this opportunity to look again […]and see what reveals itself to you.” When I reevaluate my limiting belief about writing a book, my answer is no, I cannot absolutely know that it’s true, because I haven’t yet written a draft or tried to publish it, so I don’t know how challenging it will be.
Question three is “How do you react, what happens when you believe that thought?” Reflect on the images you see and the emotions and sensations you feel when you believe that the thought is real. Think of how people behave when you believe that thought. In Katie’s words, “With this question […] you can see that when you believe the thought, there is an uneasy feeling, a disturbance that can range from mild discomfort to fear or panic.” When I answer question three for my example limiting belief, I feel disappointed and like I want to give up before I try.
Now that you’ve allowed your limiting belief to play out in your imagination, it’s time to raise yourself out of its depths through question four: “Who would you be without that thought?” Reimagine the situation and allow yourself to experience it without the limiting belief about yourself. When I answer question four for my example limiting belief, I feel freed up to be playful in my writing and to try to write. I also feel a renewed excitement about my project.
Hopefully question four will ease the discomfort you may have experienced in question three’s thought experiment. You might feel peaceful, compassionate, or even weepy when you give yourself permission to choose a frame of mind different from your limiting belief. Use this moment to set a new belief about yourself. Mine would be “I am intelligent, creative, and the world is my oyster. I can share my writing about Lisa Ben in many ways and enjoy the process along the way.”
Addressing the thoughts and feelings behind our approach to productivity is not a one-time event. Rather, I hope these invitations are ones you can return to whenever you notice your self-efficacy meter is running on empty.
I’ve always said that, while tools and frameworks are helpful, understanding ourselves is the key to maintaining a truly sustainable productivity practice. How might everything change if you believed whole-heartedly in your ability to reach your goals?
Curiosities
One of my favorite teachers, Cody Cook-Parrott, is running Witnessing Practice: From Contemplative Journaling to Self Publishing on July 19th. Cody has a ton of experience with self publishing books, zines, and a very successful weekly newsletter. It’s sure to be a great class and I’m excited to attend.
I’m reading Gabrielle Bernstein’s new book Self Help (I laughed out loud when I picked it up from the library, because the cover has the words SELF HELP in huge letters. Hi librarian, just working on my mental health over here!). It’s a solid introduction to Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy. Bernstein isn’t a therapist, but the psychologist who created IFS, Richard Schwartz, wrote the forward for the book, and Bernstein’s been using IFS for a long time, so I feel comfortable reading her take. I’ve been doing IFS in therapy for over a decade, and this book does a great job of making something complicated pretty accessible.
Take care and talk soon,
Dr. Kate
Email: kate@katehenry.com
Website: katehenry.com
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