Are You Having Trouble Scoring? The Neuroscience-Backed Guide to Set and Achieve Goals
5 Sept 2023
Two weeks ago, I set objectives, strategy, and tactics for my key life domains: mind, body, and business.
What I underestimated is how hard it is to create goals I really want to pursue, let alone making them tangible.
While I believe life is about the journey - we also need destinations, otherwise there are no journeys.
To reach any destination, you need a clear target - a goal - which can then be translated into systems you do every day.
In this light, goal-setting becomes one of the most critical tasks you can undertake.
Are you willing to pay the price?
Tim Ferris recently shared this life hack on Instagram:
Success comes down to a simple choice:
Decide exactly what you want.
Determine the price you have to pay.
Choose if you're willing to pay it.
Everybody wants the movie-star abs, but few are willing to diet and exercise every day.
So you'll want to choose your goals carefully. Research indicates that if you pick many goals at the same time, you're likely to fail at all of them, whereas picking just one significantly improves your chances of achieving it.
In the words of productivity guru David Allen: 'you can do anything but not everything'.
What might help is asking yourself: 'Do I really want this or am I feeling resistance?'. If you feel resistance, look into where it's coming from.
2. How can you best set up your goals?
Once you have your objectives and are willing to pay the price, make sure to set up your strategy and tactics.
But first, let's talk about how you can set up your goals for success.
Interestingly, neuroscience shows we use the same brain pathways for all kinds of goals - whether they're related to health, business, or spirit.
Research also shows goals don't need to be SMART, but should at least be Specific and Measurable.
Finally, the research also suggests the optimal duration for a goal is 12 weeks. For instance, my 'body' goal this autumn is to improve my cardio endurance.
To get more specific, you can break down your goals into:
Quarterly goals: Aim high, embrace discomfort.
Monthly goals: Keep you on track.
Weekly goals: Create a daily or weekly system to make progress. Tactics come into play here too.
For example:
Quarterly goal: Run a half-marathon in under two hours.
Monthly goal: In the first month, run 10km in under an hour
Weekly goal: Run every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday morning for 30-90 minutes.
3. How do you stay on track?
Being regularly in flow states, as we discussed last week, is perfect for making progress towards your goals.
This weekend, I further sharpened my axe and listened to the latest episode of Huberman Lab about goal-setting, which provides specific tools to increasing your chances of success.
Here are my three favorite tools:
Avoid telling people your goals prematurely. It releases dopamine, making your brain think you're already succeeding and lowering your motivation.
Reward yourself intermittently for hitting milestones. This can be as simple as flipping a coin for a movie night.
Note: Don't make achieving your goal the only reward, celebrate your milestones along the way.
This is why in StoicOS and RuneScapeOS for Notion, I leverage random rewards when levelling up and completing a quest.Use both positive and negative visualization:
If you are motivated to do the necessary to achieve your goal, spend 1-5 minutes visualizing the outcome. This will give you a motivational boost.
If you're not motivated however to do what's needed (dreading the hard workout), spend 1-5 minutes visualizing failure (how lousy you'll feel if you don't exercise).
Watch the full episode here for all 14 tools.
I'd love to hear your thoughts! Tweet at me @Sandrerooo.
Fun Fact of the Week
My Airpods Pro are one of the few things I would buy back without a second thought if I lost them.
This is a wild graph:
Quote of the Week
"Desires must be simple and definite. They defeat their own purpose should they be too many, too confusing, or beyond a man's training to accomplish."
From The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
Have a great week!
Sandrero