Coaching practices for Actions Not Intentions
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Actions Not Intentions, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I genuinely intend to do the thing
- I genuinely mean to do it, but the day swallows it every time and “I’ll get to it” never actually turns into doing it
- I know what matters to me in the abstract, but it stays a nice idea
- I’ve identified the area I want to change and now I’m just sitting on a vague intention like "be more present with my kids"
- I’m about to walk into a hard conversation and I can feel I’m fired up
Practices that may help
- Set if-then implementation intentions for goal behaviors
Specify when, where, and how you’ll act — not just whether you intend to.
Hyperbolic Discounting — Why Future You Always Gets the Short End - Write when, where, and how plans for every behavioral goal
Specify exactly when, where, and how you will act — not just what you intend to do.
Action Planning - Committed action: making specific, values-linked behavioral commitments
Translate a value into a specific, observable action you commit to this week.
Values-Based Action (ACT), Made Practical - Turn the chosen domain into a committed action
Convert the domain insight into a concrete, timed, values-linked behavior — not a vague intention.
Values Bullseye, Made Practical - Action Planning
Action planning — specifying when, where, and how you will execute a goal-directed behavior — is one of the best-supported techniques for closing the intention-behavior gap. Orbell and Sheeran’s research, along with Peter Gollwitzer’s work on implementation intentions, shows that forming specific plans reliably increases behavior over vague intentions alone, with meta-analytic effect sizes in the small-to-medium range. - Right intention — clarifying motivation before action
Before a significant action or conversation, briefly ask: "Am I moving from renunciation, goodwill, or non-harming — or from craving, aversion, or delusion?"
The Noble Eightfold Path as a Practical Life Framework - End every AAR with one specific, time-bound next action
An AAR without a concrete next action produces insight without change.
After-Action Review: The US Army’s Tool for Continuous Learning - Prime your identity with environmental cues
Place objects, images, or phrases that represent your desired identity in the spaces where the relevant behavior happens.
Identity Priming, Made Practical - Close the loop: check values-alignment after acting
After a committed action, briefly confirm it expressed the value — or revise what you do next time.
Committed Action, Made Practical - Define yourself by actions, not intentions
You are not your intentions or your self-image — you are the accumulation of what you actually do.
Existentialism and Radical Choice
Related concerns
- Implementation Intention Movement
Specify exactly when, where, and how you will act — not just what you intend to do.
Write when, where, and how plans for every behavioral goal
- Implementation Intention Performance
Specify when, where, and how you’ll act — not just whether you intend to.
Set if-then implementation intentions for goal behaviors
- Purposeful Action
Specify exactly when, where, and how you will act — not just what you intend to do.
- Aar Implementation Intention
An AAR without a concrete next action produces insight without change.
End every AAR with one specific, time-bound next action
- Committed Action Practice
Committed action — a core ACT process developed by Steven Hayes — means taking concrete, repeated steps toward what you value even while discomfort is present, rather than waiting for the feeling of readiness. It is the behavioral spine of ACT, which has substantial randomized-trial support across anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and other conditions.
- Implementation Intention Reflection
Choose one concrete intention to carry into tomorrow before closing the review.
Close with a forward-looking resolve
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.