Intentions and commitment
Do you know the saying: the road to Hell is paved with good intentions? Well, when it comes to goal setting, this cannot be more true. How many times, especially right before the start of a new year, have you set good resolutions for yourself, to get in shape, to stop smoking, to be more productive etc., but were never able to follow up on them? (Or the good resolutions died past the first week of January…). It’s like what Jerry Seinfeld said about car rental companies: they know how to “take a reservation”, but they don’t know how to “hold the reservation”. The same could be said for our New Year’s resolutions: we all know how to take them, we just don’t know how to hold them… And that is indeed the most important part of the resolution, the holding…
Obviously, the hardest part about setting a goal is achieving it. But what keeps us from doing so? Why do we constantly lack motivation? What does motivation really mean?
Motivation and the role of the subconscious
Motivation is the power within. It’s the desire for something we truly want. It’s not “what I should be doing, because eventually, that might be good for me in the future”, it’s what I want, what I need to do right now. It's an inner compulsion that comes as naturally and strongly as wanting to sustain, or to mate. In other terms, it’s the subconscious desire, as opposed to a conscious calculation. And when there’s a battle between the subconscious and the conscious mind, it’s almost always the first one who wins. That’s human nature; trying to go against it is an uphill battle. Even if it does work for a little while, due to sheer will power, the effort would be too great to maintain in the long term, and the goal would eventually fail.
Instead of going against your subconscious, it would be far more efficient to outwit it; the key to achieving your consciously planned goals is to trick your subconscious mind into absorbing them, as its own. You have to keep feeding those goals into your subconscious until they become a second nature, just like Pavlov’s experiment on his dog (except you are both Pavlov and the dog). Now how do I do that? The following strategies might help.
1. Visualize your goals
One of the most powerful tools to internalize your goals is your imagination. By visualizing your goals, you can create a mental picture of what you want to achieve, start to make it feel real and thus start believing in it. If you try to picture right now a juicy medium-rare steak, with a creamy peppercorn sauce and grilled vegetables on the side, don’t you feel your mouth watering? Well, that’s not exactly a self-improving goal (maybe the opposite), but just trying to make a point here; that imagination does have a physical effect on the body. Now let’s try something else: picture yourself right now, in details, waking up at 6 o’clock in the morning, putting on your favorite pair of running shoes, and going for a 20 minute run around the block. You feel the cold morning breeze tickling your nostrils while you listen on your air pods to your favorite 90's classic rock band… ‘See what I mean?
Do this mental exercise long enough, and one morning you’ll find yourself "magically compelled" to go for a run indeed around the block. It would seem effortless, because the desire came from within. That’s how the subconscious works; like a loyal dog, it follows obediently whatever its master tells it to do. The key now is to give it the right “orders”.
2. Write down your goals, specifically and repeatedly
When we were young, we used to write down our academic tasks in our daily planners; and then, once back home, we had to actually do the said tasks. And even if we didn’t open our planners to the current page, we would know deep inside that we have something to do, and oftentimes, we'd know exactly what it is. Writing things down has a way of sliding them into our subconscious. And the more specific the task is, the easier it is to remember. Write down your goals and keep them in a safe place, like a journal or some obscure document in your cloud storage system. It's also a good idea to have a look at them from time to time, to monitor their progress.
Now why do I have to re-write them down, if I wrote them the first time? Wherever the subconscious is involved, repetition is key to mastery; repeating an order over and over to your subconscious will slowly anchor it, and carve it down permanently. Years will go by, and then one day, while re-reading your goals, you just realize you've crossed off one or several items from your bucket list. All this time, you've been subconsciously working towards them without realizing it.
3. Meditate
Sometimes the mind is just too cluttered to come up with any kind of effort; whether with worries, burnout or depression, sometimes the mind is just too full. Meditation can then come in handy to empty the vase. By taking a few minutes from time to time, like once a week in the early morning, to sit down quietly and clear your mind, you can increase your ability to stay focused on your goals and make better decisions. All hypnotists know this fact very well; it is only when the subject is in a state of extreme calmness and openness that a suggestion can be impressed unto his subconscious. And that is exactly what we plan on doing...
4. Take baby steps
Trying to achieve too big of goal will seem overwhelming and is a recipe for failure. If you’re trying to feed your subconscious more than it can chew, it will just spit it out. It wouldn’t take it in, it wouldn’t believe the veracity of the image you’re trying to sell. If I say to myself: I will write down 20 pages tomorrow, or do a 100 push-ups in one set, chances are I will give up before even trying… and then I’ll feel guilty about it. It’s better to set the bar lower, like let’s say 15 or 20 push-ups per set, or writing 2 pages per day, that would be much more likely to happen. You have to make the Yerkes-Dodson law work for you, set an optimal difficulty level for your tasks in order to push yourself to produce enough, but never crumble down under the pressure of unattainable outcome.
Set realistic goals, or break down your large goal down into smaller, more manageable steps. This will give you a sense of accomplishment as you make progress, and it will also help you stay on track. There are very few things more satisfying than crossing off items from a to-do list.
5. Take action immediately
Finally, the subconscious needs speed to operate efficiently, just like a wildcat needs speed to catch its prey. Never break down the momentum. Once you've set your goals, take action right away. Don't hesitate and don’t wait for the perfect moment – just start working towards your goal today, right now. Even if you can only spare 15 or 30 minutes a day on your goal, every little bit of progress counts.
By using these strategies, you can increase your chances of realizing your goals and achieving success. Keep working towards your goals, and you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish. Never give up. No retreat, no surrender.
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