Goals
Notes
Choose a Prority Goal and Make it Clear and Specific: trying to achieve many goals simultaneously often results in failure for all of them. Instead, it’s better to set one or two high-priority goals that you’ll be focusing on for the next few months.
These goals should be clear and specific. You should focus on verbs when defining your goal and set highly specific actions that will help you achieve your overarching goal.
Rather than having the goal “get healthy”, a better one could be to “run a 6 minute mile”. The mile goal can be broken down into “run 3 miles every day”.
Write it Down Every Day: something that’s commonly recommended is to write your goal on a post it note and stick it somewhere where you’ll see it (on a fridge, on a computer monitor, etc.). The issue with this approach is that it’ll quickly become a part of your environment and your visual system will adapt to it. You’ll start to filter the reminders out.
A better approach is to write your goal down every day. You can do this in a journal or on a post-it note, but it’s better to write it by hand compared to typing it. Writing by pen/pencil has been shown to engage neural circuitry in a way that’s different than typing with your thumbs.
Don't Tell the World: another fallacy with goals is that you should try to “increase accountability” by telling all your friends/family about the goal you’re trying to achieve.
Instead, the positive feedback that you get from others when you announce the goal can be counter-productive. It activates certain reward systems within the brain (boost of dopamine and other neurochemicals) that can quickly diminish the probability that you’ll engage in the behavior.
Instead, you should try to keep your goals private. Something that can help is having a specific accountability buddy, who will help you make sure that you’re progressing.
However, that person should not just provide mindless positive reinforcement. Instead, they should help you track your progress and help ensure that you’re on the right path.
Visualization: if you’re lacking in motivation to work on your goal, a useful technique can be to spend some time visualizing failure and the negative consequences of not reaching your goal. This can help release neurochemicals like epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine that help you become more motivated.
If you’re already highly motivated, then spending time visualizing the positive outcome of when you reach your goal can help you. This can help you maintain your motivation.
Random Rewards: one key finding in behavioral psychology is the idea of using unpredictable rewards. This is where you enforce a certain behavior by randomly rewarding yourself when you accomplish it. Casinos take advantage of this trait when designing slot machines and other gambling games. Whenever you successfully accomplish a task, then rewarding yourself in some small way can help motivate you to continue. However, you should set these rewards to be random. Every time you complete a 5 mile run, you might reward yourself with an oreo. Rather than giving yourself the oreo every time, flip a coin after each successful run. If the coin is heads, then you can take the oreo. If tails, then you don’t reward yourself.
Resources
Infographics
Podcasts
Goals Toolkit: How to Set & Achieve Your Goals - Huberman Lab
YouTube Videos
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