Goals I need help… indeed! When I look back at this decade, two of the phenomena that I’ll remember most is the ‘life-hack’ and endless goal setting. It seems like everyone is trying to do more in less time. Yet, it has more to do with blind efficiency and less to do with effectiveness. The conversation has become, how can we save time doing all the mundane and necessary things in life to make more time for Instagram and selfies? We’re losing sight of the important things in life.
Don’t get me wrong. I think goal-setting as a concept is important. But maybe not for the reasons you’d expect. I don’t believe the power in goals lies in what we will accomplish in the future. I believe goals are there to focus our time on the present. I am less attached to the outcome of a goal and more concerned with the subsequent steps needed to move me in the right direction towards this goal. I call these steps nudges.
This next statement may make me sound like an old man, but in the 21st century, our entire reality is changing at light speed. There is nothing we can count on to remain unchanged in the next month, let alone the next year. That’s why the more lofty and distant the goal, the more imperative it is to break it down into bite-size chunks, into nudges.
I define a nudge as the smallest intentional and measurable action you can take to get you closer to your goal. You can see it as the lowest barrier of entry to beginning your journey towards the desired outcome.
For example, let’s take the most popular goal in today’s society… losing weight. Specifically, let’s define this goal as losing 20 pounds in the next 90 days. If I were to tackle this goal, I would break it down in the following nudges:
- Take a clear measurement of my weight.
- Develop a weekly nutritional regimen.
- Create a checklist to ensure that I measure my progress towards this nutritional regimen.
- Develop a weekly fitness regimen.
- Create a checklist to ensure that I measure my progress towards this nutritional regimen.
- Get the commitment from a close friend to hold me accountable.
- Schedule weekly updates with my friend to review progress.
I think you get the picture. We should be less focused on the 20-pound goal and more focused on the process to get there and the positive habits that we could develop that would last me a lifetime.
As a side note, having someone to hold you accountable has been shown to increase the chances of completing your goal by 95%1.
The Power of Nudges
Some goals may be less objective and more nebulous, but you can always create nudges for almost any goal you set your mind to.
Not only will nudges make the goal easier to achieve, completing nudges will give you implicit feedback throughout the journey. This feedback will produce dopamine hits that will act as motivation. The more nudges you complete, the greater the satisfaction and the greater the chances you will stick to your newly developed habits.
Another key motivational tool for tackling goals is based on research from Hal Hershfield at Harvard. This research illustrates that when people see visual projections of their future selves their connection to this future self is galvanized. Meaning that when you project yourself in the future and see through the eyes of your future self, you will develop a deeper emotional connection with this person. Think of it this way, if you connect to how you will feel in the future (having achieved your goal), you will be less inclined to let yourself down in the present.
Why the goal in the first place?
All this being said, I can help anyone with the mechanics of successfully achieving their goals. That’s the easy part. The hard part is knowing where to focus your efforts. At work, this may be dictated to you, but life goals are often murky.
We need to begin by understanding what’s intrinsically important to us? The more intrinsically important a goal may be, the greater the drive to achieve it. Liken it to doing something with purpose, driven by a strong passion. The challenge doesn’t lie in your resolve. We have nearly unlimited energy reserves when we care about something. The challenge lies in understanding what it is we care about.
Do we need to clearly articulate what we need to change in our environment to create the conditions that will best serve us in the future? Often times, what we think serves us is influenced by a healthy dose of ego, so we need to be disciplined and do the hard work it takes to understand who we are at our core and who we wish to become. We need to be honest with ourselves and get the answers within our souls. What gets us jazzed? What serves us and what doesn’t?
If you do have goals, take a step back and ask yourself why you chose those goals? Are they ego-based or do they speak to your soul?
You are an amazing person. Your authentic-self has value. I don’t know much but I do know that when we tap into this authentic self and better understand how we want to grow, we can’t lose.
So base your next goal on mapping out what will serve your authentic-self going forward and nudge away!
