Summary 1

The Science of Setting Goals

A month has passed since we celebrated the time of year and we need to think back to ourselves. Whether our New Year’s resolutions are still progressive or not. What is this year totally different comparing last year? If you feel uncomfortable because of nothing different, here are some suggestion of setting goals.

Choose a goal that matters, not just an easy win.

Our brains are wired to love rewards, so we often set simple goals that make it easy to achieve. “People often set them just for the burst of optimism they get when they vow to make a change.” But if that’s all our New Year’s resolutions are about, no wonder we end up abandoning them so quickly. A meaningful goal that truly inspire us to change requires going deeper. Let’s think about what we want in this year, then ask again three times ourselves why you want that. Get to something that just feels so obviously important to us

Focus on the process, not the outcome.

When we set goals, it’s easy to fixate on that ending when we’ve reached the goal and everything is better. But we can’t control outcomes. We have to inch toward them, one choice at a time. People often get lost thinking they have to change everything all at once. But small changes can pave the way for bigger changes. We can make very, very small changes that are consistent with your big goals without having to understand how you’re going to get to the end.

Prepare for failure.

Moments of failure are inevitable, but most of us abandon the goal entirely when minor failures start piling up. We give up on getting fit when we miss the gym, or we forget about losing weight after a night of burgers. In that moment when we fail, often the first instinct is to push the goal away, because it’s so uncomfortable to be in that place of self-doubt. our task is not to avoid failures, but to plan for them. “if this happens, then I’ll do that.” It’s a mental plan for how we’ll react to things that might trip you up.

from Ted.com : http://ideas.ted.com/2014/12/22/the-science-of-setting-goals/

posts by Naida Goodman