Goal setting

I stumbled across Napoleon Hill early in my teens, I have never read Think and Grow Rich, however, I have listened to the audiobook many times. Whatever the mind can think it can achieve. It is a very powerful message to share with the world.

From my time competing, the training I have always had a goal. The desired outcome which I wanted to achieve. I found this goal gave me focus, it acted as a destination point on a Sat Nav that allowed me to know where I wanted to go, now actually getting there is a whole different issue. Many people walk through life going with this flow, and that’s great for some, for me, I am never able to measure whether the actions I am undergoing are of benefit in allowing me to reach my targets. I would like to stay I am outcome independent, but that would be a life, I often enjoy processes but achieving a result is feeling second to none.

During my break I had the pleasure of speaking with Mr A, he spoke about his life coach who had forced him to create a list of goals he wanted to achieve. He kept the sheet of paper with him and within 5 years he had achieved all of them. Many of the goals were lofty. The ability to refer to the sheet of goals was crucial and he would often undergo a cost-benefit analysis on anything distractions that appeared and if they didn’t align with his goals they would not be prioritised

Goals are useful for setting the direction. Systems are great for actually making progress, the primary benefit of having a goal is that it tells you what sort of system you need to put in place

You are the architect go your own destruction. The bigger blocker that stops you from achieving your goals is you. Your inability to remind focused, you have to pull focus and energy from your other pursuits

Sometimes you just need to reorganise your priorities a little bit and suddenly progress comes much more quickly because you are now fully committed to a goal that was only getting moderate attention previously. Sam Ovens describes the mind as a garden. In all gardens, we have weeds, after a whole if due diligence is not taken we often mistake the weeds for the greenery we want to grow resulting in us providing the week with too much attention which never allows us to truly achieve our goals. But a further question is to question why we want to achieve these goals and whether these goals are our goals.

We need to look at our behaviours and identify where our energy is being wasted. Many people find pleasure in escapism and then succumb to guilt as they realise they shouldn’t be doing what they are doing now and should be completing acts that bring them closer to goals. Will power is needed.

Sadly, many people have weak will power. Will power is similar to a muscle, it is unlikely that you are going to sit on the bench press and press 100KG until you have been training to do so. Will power needed to be strengthened, you need to rewire your brain. The easiest way to do this is systems, foolproof ones.

Before we have identified wastage, we can identify when we are most productive find out which sleeping animal you are and for deeper insight, take the full quiz here. We can then create system to mitigate, e.g. you may find yourself too much time on YouTube, in that case you find tools that block YouTube.

When we approach goal achieving, our system will outline we work consistently in the attempt to achieve the goal. Conventional wisdom dictates we should approach the bigger tasks first as they require more energy, however I would argue that these larger tasks tend to require greater insight and knowledge and an attempt to complete these may lead to our failure which will demotivate us and lead to us not attempting. This is an example of a negative feedback loop

We should look at the tasks that easiest to execute on to build our confidence and do these day in, day out by harnessing neuroplasticity we can improve everything we do and think and we will soon be able to attempt the more difficult big stone task

Connections within the brain are constantly becoming stronger or weaker, depending on what is being used.