How to set and achieve your goals

I have always been a goal-setting lover.

Setting goals made me feel halfway to accomplishing them, and seeing my objectives written on paper was always a satisfaction.

But how many of those goals have I ever achieved?

Well, almost none.

To be sincere, it is one thing I still struggle with now.

I set goals, but when it comes to taking action, somehow I end up off track.

Sometimes it's pure procrastination, other times a loss of interest, and other times it just takes me more time than I thought, and I get discouraged.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a new goal-setting, scientific-based protocol.

I tested it on myself, and I feel this was the missing piece for goal achieving. So, I need to share this knowledge with you.

Starting with: why is goal setting so important, and what prevents us from achieving those goals?

Goal setting and achieving is a lifelong skill.

Goals give us direction and problems to solve.

In the school system, goal achieving is often overlooked.

Students are used to getting “goals” to achieve from the school, but what about the process to reach them?

They make it seem explicit: study more, study better, but goal achieving goes way further than that.

And keep in mind: school-related goals are not different from life goals. Learn to set and achieve goals, and you’ll be okay for life.

What are people struggling with in achieving goals?

As humans, we are not very good at achieving success.

Just for example: studies have shown that we are very bad at estimating the time necessary to complete a project. We tend to estimate 50% less time than what is actually required.

Architects always add 25% more time than estimated for a project to avoid this mistake. (Great tip also when it comes to study sessions.)

Furthermore, we have this interesting tendency to create discouraging thoughts in our minds, for example, by comparing ourselves with other individuals who achieved the success we want without truly taking into account the effort and time that went into that success (another thing we’re very bad at estimating).

And obviously, all of this impacts our ability to stay motivated and reach our goals.

Motivation, focus, and discipline are our blocks—you know that.

These things prevent us from taking the actions required.

And the more you miss out on goals, the more you start thinking you’re not able to achieve any goal at all.

This deeply impacts the opportunities you’ll take on and, therefore, your life.

But today you’ll discover a new point of view on motivation and the goal-achieving process.

Motivation rises and falls naturally

The biggest misconception people have about motivation is that it should be a continuous state.

People do not realize that the rise and fall of motivation is a natural process, and not only does it happen to everyone, but it also happens with a certain regularity.

I learned about this cycle from Andrew Huberman, professor of neuroscience at Stanford University (Podcast: The Huberman Lab, if you have ever heard about him, is infinitely interesting).

By learning about this cycle, you’ll be able to better manage your motivation to achieve your goals easily.

The first thing to understand is that at a neurological level, we all have the same “achieving goal” structure. We all have the same four areas of the brain principally involved in goal achieving, and the same chemicals going around.

Based on this truth, you can comfort yourself that you are able to achieve every goal; you just need to know how and practice.

Firstly, you need to understand neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity, to make it easy, is our brain's ability to adapt, therefore to learn (the brain literally changes in “shape” by creating new connections when you learn).

The very interesting part is that neuroplasticity starts when you feel discomfort.

That means that the frustration or anxiety you feel in learning something new is what triggers neuroplasticity and so what actually makes you learn!

That frustration is not only normal, but it is also necessary for our brain to adapt.

Knowing this helps you deal with it.

So tip number 1:

Remember that the frustration you feel in the learning phase is a good signal. Your brain is able to remember this consciously, just because now you discovered it.

Connected to this, let’s see the first real tip in goal setting:

1. Do not set too easy goals

When you set goals that are too easy to achieve, that do not require any out-of-the-ordinary effort from you, neuroplasticity is not triggered.

And you might say: I don’t learn anything new, but I still get the goal.

Well, studies show that’s false.

In fact, without triggering the neuroplasticity process, you don’t even have the sufficient motivation to take action.

On the other hand, setting goals that are too hard doesn’t help either, since you’ll know you don’t have a chance to achieve them, and therefore, no motivation either.

When setting a goal, always make sure to set a goal that’s a little bit “out of reach.” Set a 25% higher target than what you want, push a bit further than what you think is possible for you now.

That way, you’ll enter the learning phase, where you’re motivated and in flow. The perfect challenge.

Setting a higher goal helps you achieve higher results (not an excessive one).

2. Middle motivation drop:

The second concept I found revolutionary in goal achieving is the middle motivation drop concept.

You know when you start a new goal, and you’re really motivated about it? The first few moments/days/months you are motivated to work toward it. But after a while, your motivation drops, and you have to rely on discipline to continue working towards your goal.

And this is where many people drop off.

If you don’t drop off, there is another stage, the final stage, where you can see your goal at the end of the road, and there is a motivation surge in reaching it.

This fall in motivation is normal and is called “the middle motivation problem.”

In the middle of the process of achieving a goal, we’ve lost the starting motivation and still do not see the end of the goal, and there is a moment of plateau.

It happens to everyone and in everything we want to achieve.

With that in mind, how can you deal with the middle motivation problem to avoid stopping working toward the goal?

The most effective tip is a very simple one: Chunks

When you’re in the middle phase of goal achieving, you can expect the motivation to fall. Therefore, break the time you dedicate to goal achieving into smaller chunks: take more pauses.

Your performance might slow down a bit, but you’ll be able to stay consistent until you arrive where you can see the end goal again.

This concept does not apply only to big goals but also to every small one.

For example, I realized that when I work, I tend to start with motivation, but after I lose my motivation, I try to push harder, and I end up stressed and not finishing what I set out to do. In the last month, I applied this concept to every one of my working-study-mornings/sessions. And it changed everything.

In the middle of the hours I dedicate to my goals, I chunk the time.

Instead of 45-minute sessions, I do 25-minute ones, I take more frequent pauses, and I’m a bit more compassionate toward myself because I know that drop is normal.

After a while, I see the end of my tasks arriving, and I can easily finish the last few things with renewed motivation.

So, chunk the time in the middle of your study session. Game-changer.

3. Visualization false myth

The last tip: I want to debunk a false myth—visualization of the end goal.

There’s a lot about “visualizing and feeling the end goal is motivating.”

Actually, studies have shown that it is not true, or better, it is half true.

In fact, it has been shown that if you feel motivated and positive towards your goal, visualizing the achievement actually motivates you.

But when you’re NOT motivated, this does not help. What works better instead is visualizing the worst-case scenario in which you don’t achieve your goal.

In that state, we are more motivated to avoid what’s negative than going toward a prize.

So, when you feel unmotivated, reminding yourself of the feelings you would experience if you don’t achieve the goal is more effective than trying to think about how it would be to achieve it.

I hope you enjoyed these tips and found some valuable resources.

Have a great week,

Isa

PS: If you want to learn an entire protocol to keep up your motivation, overcome procrastination, and make studying enjoyable and more effective, check out my ebook: “Fall in Love with Studying: 2 Weeks Transformation.” That will be your forever game-changer.

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