The key to achieve high performance by goal setting brain friendly goals.
Do you ever feel like you’re coasting through life with no real idea of what you want or where you are going?
Perhaps you know exactly what you want to achieve, but have no idea how to get there or you are just afraid to take the required step.
Are you working hard on your job but not on your future?
This is where goal setting comes in.
Goal setting helps you think about your future, gives you an opportunity to reflect on your values, and helps you discover what really matters to you. It will bring clarity and allow you to see the bigger picture of your life.
Goal setting will give you the opportunity to assess your current situation and will lead you to close the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
Goals are the first step towards planning for your future, and will help you to develop skills in various facets of life, from work to relationships and everything in between.
“We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.” —Robert Brault
It’s a shame that many people don’t set clear goals and it is one of the most important decisions you can make. Some people live their lives as though they have no control over it, as they wander through life and blown in different directions by the circumstances and people surrounding them. This is literally giving your power to your environment instead of using it to create the life you desire.
Would you set off on a trip without a plan? This seems very obvious but it happens so much that it is worrying, individuals that, leaders, managers, business owners etc all working so hard with no definite focus or planning.
Prof Gale Mathews of University of California found that the mirror act of writing goals boosted achievement by 42%. The mere act of writing them down is like the first action in the creation process. Setting goals also provides Clarity and Focus - this becomes an accelerator towards moving you closer to your goals.
Research has shown that the percentage of people in their 20’s who achieve their goals is far greater than those in their 40’s and 50’s This is most likely due to a lifetime of disappointments which had made over 50’s lose faith, that is why you tend to hear some say “this goal setting thing is a waste of time”. If you are serious about making significant progress in your life, career or business, then invest time in setting goals and be determined to achieve them.
We design our homes before we build them; cars are designed before they are built and assembled, just as life also, must be designed to enable you live your desired life.
With goals everything is possible but without them nothing is possible.
Your success does not depend on anyone else, it depends on you. You have the power to make your life whatever you want it to be.
Most people don’t go after what they want because they don’t actually know what they want.
The key initially is to be aware of where you are going and have the belief that you will get there.
If you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to achieve things, then you do not have enough goals or the right goals. Every human achievement is an accomplishment of a goal.
“You can only grow, as big as the goals you set” - Paul Robinson
Set goals that are meaningful and important to you, as it gives you a compelling passion to achieve them.
Don’t let your current situation dilute your vision - Your dreams must be bigger than you.
Never allow your past to hold you hostage to your future.
When you set goals you give your mind a new set of eyes to see all sorts of ideas, creativity, resources, so it starts aligning your goals with what’s on the outside.
I must emphasise that simply having goals is not enough because unclear goals or goals that are out of alignment with what you really want, can be almost as bad as having none at all.
People without goals are doomed to work forever for people who do have goals. — Brian Tracy
Understanding the importance of goals and the techniques involved in setting achievable goals paves the way for success.
Some reasons people give for not setting goals are:
- I am too busy
- I haven’t really thought about it
- Being active and busy, doesn’t actually move you any closer to success. [Activity is often unrelated to productivity, and busyness rarely takes care of business].
As Henry David Thoreau said, “It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?”
Let's talk about the -to do list- [some people think this equates to goal setting]:
With your wants and other peoples wishes flying at you right and left, many people impulsively jot them down on scraps of paper in moments of clarity or build them methodically on printed notepads.
Time planners used for daily, weekly, and monthly task lists. Many Apps are now used for taking to-dos on the go. There is a constant encouragement to make lists—and though lists can be useful, they can also distract you with trivial, unimportant stuff that you feel obligated to get done—because it’s on our list and because you don’t know how to set and achieve your goals.
High Achievers operate differently. They have an eye for the essential. They pause just long enough to decide what matters based on their goal setting and then allow what matters to drive their day. They always work from a clear sense of priority.
The Science Of Goal Setting
Your subconscious mind can help you achieve your goal. Setting goals gives you a direction in life, but vague goals, like making more money or being happy, would rarely be achieved because of the way the brain interprets it. Your unconscious mind is like a powerful machine, and understanding how it works is a big part of successful goal setting. Its like a GPS, for example, If you give your GPS an address, it will do whatever it can to get you to your destination. The subconscious mind behaves in the same way. I always start me webinars and workshops with an illusion image - Have you ever noticed a new pattern or design or even learned a new word only to find yourself seeing or hearing it everywhere you go? This is an example of your brain ‘priming.’ In other words, your subconscious mind is scanning your environment for all information relevant to the pattern, design, word or phrase, or details you’ve given it. This is why setting clear goals gives you a greater chance to accomplish them.
Most people tend to think and feel within the biology of their past memories. As a result, those thoughts and feelings create attitudes, attitudes create beliefs, beliefs create perceptions, and perceptions create your reality. If your thoughts and beliefs are based on implicit memories (unconscious memory that reacts to the emotional intensity of events and situations) of your past, then there’s a strong probability that you will be missing out on new possibilities. Not only will you not see future possibilities, but your brain will not even be wired to see them.
Setting new goals begins a neurological building process whereby you’re essentially rewiring your brain, causing neurones to fire in new patterns and combinations. This the new thought becomes a new possibility for your brain to achieve.
Setting Goals Increases Self-Esteem
Demanding goals nurtures high self-esteem. Low self-esteem seeks the safety of the familiar and undemanding. Confining yourself to the familiar and undemanding weakens self-esteem.
You can actually increase your self-esteem by setting clear goals and mores by achieving them? Nathaniel Branden (the author of “The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem”) says part of our self-esteem comes from a ‘disposition to experience ourselves as competent to cope with life’s challenges.’ With every goal that you accomplish, you feel more equipped to tackle even bigger goals and life challenges. Consistently accomplishing your goals is one of the most efficient ways to build your self-esteem.
The Power of beliefs in goal achievement:
The brain is a goal seeking organ. Once you set goals, it starts looking for opportunities and resources to help you achieve it. Your brain tries to align your beliefs with your experiences, which causes you to see, what you instruct your brain to look for. When you define goals, you give your brain something to focus on and look for, such as, ideas, creativity, innovation and resources. Goals make you grow, so they must be big enough to challenge and push you beyond your limits, to enable you maximise your potential.
Setting and planning goals does not guarantee that you will achieve them and one of the reasons for this is - limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs arise usually from the past such as repetitive messages received from family, friends, and the media is one of the main restrictions to goal achievement.
Your expectations shape what you believe is possible, which determines your perceptions and actions. That means they also shape your outcomes and your reality.
To accomplish anything, you have to first believe that you will achieve it. That means acknowledging it will not be easy. It’s believing in your capability to do it.
When they struggle with an obstacle, they just look for new approaches to the problem. They know there’s a workaround or a solution if they just keep working at it.
Reframe the meaning.
Gollwitzer and Oettingen created the idea of “implementation intentions explaining that the best way to ensure goals are achieved is to create a cause-and-effect link in your mind. For example, when you make plans (implementation intentions) ahead of time and decide what actions you will carry out - the proper behavior pattern is usually automatically carried out instead of being drawn from your limited reserve of energy or willpower. In other words, you won’t have to strain your brain with thinking or worrying about what you should do and when you should do it.
Some Questions:
- Do you have personal or professional goals?
- Are your goals written down or do you think they are in your head?
- Do you have any short term, mid term or long term goals?
- Do you have career goals/ Does you company have company goals for this year? Are they written down. Does every employee know what they are?
- What are your company long term goals?
