Alright. Today we are going to talk about one of the most important subjects some one can think of. How to set goals and achieve goals. Goal setting is not unique for human beings. A bee will go out to make honey. some animals go to find plants to eat or find new place to live. Some fish or birds travel Thousands of km to the south or vise versa.
But goal setting to make progress in life and elevate one, is a uniquely human concept. it requires being conscious about time and the concept of sacrifice. it took us thousands of years so we could realize that we can sacrifice abstractly. For instance Aztecs had human sacrifices to achieve their goals. History shows that in one occasion, they killed and sacrifice 80000 people. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice_in_Aztec_culture#:~:text=Some%20post%2Dconquest%20sources%20report,Warfare%2C%20to%20be%20an%20exaggeration. ) It took us a long time so we can comprehend the concept we can give up something so we can achieve goals in the future.
This Goal settings, is what defines us, as humans. Our daily tasks are oriented around sets of goals. We, mostly at least, believe being still or goalless, bring us suffering. when we do nothing, a voice, in our head( not a literal voice I hope :D) calls us to get going. Goals give us purpose, distinguish us from one to another. Goals, elevate us from being animal like that just sleeps and eats and mate. our reptilian brain, requires us to eat, sleep and mate, but our human rational part of our brain ( Neocortex) the gives us the ability to, insight, predict, have conscious and rationalization.
We all want to set goals and achieve them. We must learn how to do it. correctly and scientifically. The correct way. Today we are going to set goals scientifically. we are going to talk about how to:
set goals
assess goals
Goal execution
There is one circuits in your brain involved in goal setting. that one circuit is responsible for all goal settings. earlier we talked about Neuroplasticity ( the ability of brain to change and learn https://www.silver-shine.ca/post/how-to-learn-faster ) and how it is responsible for all forms of learning( music, math , language and ... ) . In that article we talked about how to use errors and mistakes, makes us frustrated and that frustration is a big step toward learning. This will help you along the way of your goal pursuits. For optimal learning you should follow 85-15 ratio. you want to get 85% of the subject right and 15% wrong. ( https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12552-4 ) this means the difficulty level should be this way that yo get about 85% of the subject correctly.
The biology behind goal setting
There is one basic system shared between animals and human for setting goals but humans are unique in terms of orienting our mind toward immediate or long term goals. That common neuro circuit is responsible for orienting our action around that goal. We human beings are also unique for being able to have multiple goals.
One of the area that is involved in goal setting is called Amygdala . This is the area associated with fear. a lots of our goal settings are because of avoiding punishment. so this fear is involved in this neuro circuit of goal setting.
the other area is called Ventra Striatum. This area is part of a bigger area which initiate Go or No-Go. taking action or preventing actions.
Prefrontal Cortex, the rational part of our brain that is for planning for different time scale ( now or tomorrow or future) and another part of called orbitofrontal cortex which has different functions but one of them is associating emotions with the current state of progress.
Amygdala = Fear
Ventra striatum = Go or no-Go
Cortex ( prefrontal cortex = planning for different time/ orbitofrontal cortex = involving emotion with the state of progress) emotions involvement for different state of progress
these parts are involved in any goal setting whether it is building a company, or it is learning to code or learning how to play piano.
Two things happens in goal pursuits.
whether or not something is worth pursuing ( value of the goal) This plays aa big role in goal setting and achieving goals. What determines the value of the goal is Dopamine ( yeah Dopamine again) we talk about this amazing molecule and we will talk about it in full later)
Which action to take or not to take ( go or no-go)
The psychology of setting goals
This is a big topic. The amount of information around goal setting is almost endless. If you dive into information you will se acronyms and short words in capital letters. like S.M.A.R.T. when i was preparing for my personal training certificate, They said goals should be S.M.A.R.T
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relatable , Time sensitive, ( Canfitpro Book) .Or SMARTER. You Should Add Ethical and Rewarding to the end. Or ABC method. But you don't need to memorize all these information.
In essence all they say is :
Specified Goal ( must be defined )
Assessment ( Are things going well or poorly)
Execution ( go or no-go)
Peripersonal Space Vs Extrapersonal space
Peripersonal Space: is the space withing reach of our hand. we don't need to get up and go to get something. We don't have to be motivated to to get things. Peripersonal space is about how we feel about ourself right now and how we think.
in contrast, Extrapersonal space is the space in the next room outside or out of reach and we need motivation to go get something. The chemical involved in thinking and getting to action and moving toward something is Dopamine.
If we want to be good at setting goals and assessing goals, We have to be able to go back and forth between Peripersonal space and Extrapersonal space. What it means is we evaluate our progress in Peripersonal space ; how we feel right now about something or a particular goal in the future, However, orienting our actions is related to Extrapersonal space, something which is not right now.
you need to learn Know:
Multi-tasking is good; it turns out multi tasking can be effective in perusing goals, When we multi-task there is an increase in epinephrine ( adrenaline) Doing multitasking before before jumping into a goal oriented action. gets us into the mood of taking action. So Multi tasking( cleaning the room, Washing the dishes or etc. will prepare us for taking action toward our specified goal)
Decreasing what you see: Visual focus and decrease visual window would increase your focus and make you take action toward the set goal. narrowing what you see will put you in the zone of focus, make you alert . looking at a specific point for 30 to 60 seconds and force yourself to stay focus on that specific point, will get you in the mood of taking action. it makes your brain make certain chemicals to take action. most of your cognition follows your visual perception. It is simple fact: you can put on a VR headset in the safest room and show you , what you fear of, despite the fact that you are in the safest place you will get into the state of fear.
When you focus on a point for 30-60 seconds, you are engaging in extra personal space as we mentioned before, Extrapersonal space is related to taking action. When you focus on a point for 30-60 seconds you are engaging in Extrapersonal space and you will be in the mood of taking actions toward your specific goal. You can read this amazing work Dr Emily Balcetis did :(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0065260121000149?via%3Dihub )
It shows how people experienced less effort to finish a task , when they were asked to focus on a line or a point outside their reach before taking action, compared to another group that just jumped into taking action for the similar task.
In one experiment, they asked the participants to wear ankle weights, the participants were asked to run a distance, one group to stay focus on a point in front of them, the entire time, the other group to look around while running. the first group :
ran 23% Faster
experienced 17% less effort.
remember : Just By changing where you look, your performance is different
TOOL 1 : Narrow You visual Widow and attention for 60 seconds and hold you attention
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The reward system works well on immediate goals, not so well on long term ones.
The farther a goal is in the future, the less rewarding it seems at the moment.
In The Balcetis Lab they performed another experiment on saving money for long-term savings. They studied people's tendency to save money for later in life. One group were asked to imagine themselves in 30-40 years and invest a certain amount of money, however, however, the other group viewed pictures of themselves which were made by computer to see themselves in 30-40 years in the future, Results: The second group invested far more money for the future compared to the first group.
What you can do is to make a picture of yourself, and look at it it will increase the likelihood of you taking more action, for the future . No wonder when you go to shop for new clothes and you see yourself in the mirror and you get angry at yourself and get motivated to go for a run to lose some weight.
Personal note : If you have athletic goals. go and try new clothes in stores' fitting room. it will make you motivated :D at least that's what I do.
Can Mental Visualization of big goals Be helpful.
I don't think there is anyone that has not heard yet, To visualize the sweet end goal. you often hear : imagine you are going to have this great body or great house or great car or this great business. Or imagine that you are going to have the perfect family or perfect relationship. Is visualization of big goals helpful.
Well i hate to break it to you but you need to be very careful with this. it can be helpful if implemented correctly and at the proper time. But if done incorrectly, it will ruin the entire progress.
It turns out visualization of the big wins, is effective in the starting the pursuit, but it is a counter productive in maintaining action. The excitement of the big wins will increase the blood pressure but it will vanish very soon. over time it will go away completely. When we talked about the biology behind goal setting, There was noting about the big win or good feeling :) It was about :
Amygdala ( FEAR)
Go or No-Go ( Taking action)
planning action ( prefrontal cortex) and emotional engagement and progress assessment ( orbitofrontal cortex )
As you see there is nothing about happy part of our brain. What you see is Fear. yes fear.
a much better way is : Visualization of fear. Visualization of fear and failure is a much better way to get into action and keep taking action. You often might hear, Imagine the success of fake it till you make it, which I don't know what it even means.
Studies show that if you routinely, imagine and visualize failure and what it comes with it, you double the chance of making to the end point and reaching the goal.
Think about how things can fail. there is a reason that Amygdala( the fear center) is involved with goal setting and reaching goals. Visualize the way you would fail, Visualize consequences of the failure and defeat. use the fear center in your service
TOOL 2) Visualizing failure and fear of consequences of failing is the best ongoing motivator. Visualizing the win is only good to get started!
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Goal Setting
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Balcetis Labs shows with different levels of difficulty of a goal ( easy, moderate, hard), the probability of achieving of that goal goes up and down.
It turns out , in spite of the types of the goals( fitness, career, nutrition , learning goal, etc.) If the goals is too easy, our body doesn't get that increase in motivation and blood pressure to achieve that goal, Also, if the goal is too hard and seems unrealistic and out of reach, it is the same story, the body doesn't get into the state of action ( despite the mental motivation).
But, When The goal is Moderate, out of reach but not far away, our body get a goo doubling systolic blood pressure, it would engage in an ongoing set of actions in pursuit of that goal.
Goal should be challenging but not too challenging
Goal should not be easy to achieve.
How many goals should we set for ourselves?
Trying to pursuit too many goals is counterproductive. you should limit your yearly goals. having too many goals becomes a goal, your goal is achieving too many goals then, the the goal gets too difficult and as I mentioned out of reach goals are unlikely to b achieved.
1-2 major goals is enough for a year, As David Goggins said: when your mental garage is cluttered , you cannot be disciplines and motivated. It is True, you should not get distracted by other goals. What do grocery stores do ? They put so many items between what you want to shop. so other items would interfere with the product in mind. your attention get shattered when there are lots of items( goals) in your visual and cognitive environment.
Do not get distracted by other goals.
Specify you goals
When people have concrete plan, they take actions. when you know what the steps are, you will take actions. You can just say i want to lose weight, you need to write down the steps , what is involved ( work out, cardio, how many times per week, when, What should I eat, How many times per day should I eat and etc.). A detailed plan containing steps will dramatically improve the chance of achieving your goal.
Dopamine / set goals and Achieve goals
Dopamine is the molecule of motivations. In one experiment, When the Rat where depleted of Dopamine, they did not move even one length of their body to get to the food or mate,
Dopamine is the currency of pursuing goals. Dopamine gets released in a great amount when something positive and new happens to us. Furthermore, Dopamine releases happen by anticipation, when you don't expect something and it happens, you get a release of dopamine and it will motivate you. However, if we anticipate something happens ( which we get a dose of dopamine) and it doesn't happen, our dopamine plunges and goes lower than it was before( baseline) That feels like disappointment.
We should use and manage dopamine for long term goals. The milestones should be put and progress should be assessed. Robert Sapolsky mentions an experiment where a we put in a cage with a running wheel, the rat voluntarily started to run, after the experiment, the rat's blood markers were improved, on the other hand when another rat where forced to run on a wheel, after the run all its marker had gotten worse.
why i mentioned this: our subjective understanding of why we are doing something is fundamentally important for the effects we are looking to get from that behaviors.
in assessing our progress, we can do it every day and reward ourselves. but we need to understand this, how often we assess our progress should be entangled with the benefit received so we get the dopamine reward to get motivated, For instance, if we are trying to lose weight and we assess our progress every day by a scale, we might be progressing but not seeing the results and get unmotivated. on the other hand if we don't assess our progress we might not get the dopamine reward to stay motivates. when you assess your progress is subjective to you,
Pick a particular interval and assess yourself, when you see your progress you remind your self that : " yes, i am on the right path" Give yourself mental rewards. you should be able to stick to that interval. maybe once a week. Pick a milestone that you can maintain.
According to the rat study ( running on the wheel) we need to absolutely believe in your accomplishment and the voluntarily actions that are going to benefit you.
This feeling of being on track, consistently increases dopamine, and this cycle of dopamine will keep you motivated and consistent on the track of the detailed actions and steps you planned.
You can artificially increase your dopamine.
Another great way is cold exposure Specially cold showers which give you an 2.5 fold increase which last for 3-4 hours.
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