How To Set Goals That Actually Work

How To Set Goals That Actually Work

If you’re tired of setting goals that never seem to work out, then it’s time to take action.

You need to know how to set goals that actually work.

Fortunately, I’ve got you covered.

this guide will show you exactly how to set goals that will help you achieve success.

and do and reverse plan them

based on science

this article is 3rd one at start the year Strong series

link to the rest of the series will be at the end

So let’s get started!

What’ll learn

1-what is the biology of goal-seeking
2-how to set goals & why each point had been chosen
3-the 5 steps goal setting and annual planning

The science of goals based on Neuroscience

What happens when you set a goal and embark on pursuing it

First, there are
4 brain areas are involved in goal achievement, pursuit and setting

1-amygdala( fear,anxiety, and avidance) responsible for the avoidance of punishment

2-ventral striatum part of the basal ganglia which has 2 circuits

1- action and 2- no action circuit

3- The lateral prefrontal cortex is responsible for executive functions

like planning and thinking about things across different time scales.

it helps you plan and think about what you want in the future which is something animals lack

4- Orbital prefrontal cortex
which compares where you at now emotionally to where you will be emotionally

all these 4 parts come together to help your goals setting, pursuing and achieving and

their collective functions boil down to 2 things

1- value information and assess how important the goal is to us, and whether it is worth pursuing.

Assess the goal and put value on it at different moments in the pursuit

2-action and no action meaning helping us take action or not take action

based on the value we gave to a particular goal

Dopamine is a major neurotransmitter here as epinephrine

let’s dig deep into it

Dopamine 

How it works, ways to use it for goal pursuit and achievement

Dopamine is responsible for the action you take as it motivates you to take action

2 aspects and features of how dopamine works

1-dopamine reward prediction error

It is a feature of how the brain releases and uses dopamine

If you anticipate something will happen and it happens you get a boost of dopamine

it will happen 2 times once when you anticipate it by

a small amount and when it happens with a small increase then when you don’t 

a related aspect of this: The dopamine release will be great when something unexpected happens

How to use this feature to release dopamine on demand

By creating a consistent schedule to get the reward through and through

picking milestones that are spread on consistent intervale

so, to get the reward and the boost of motivation 

also, on different intervals or times of day reward yourself to get a boost of dopamine

2-Another feature of Dopamine is subjectivity 

Things can have good or bad effects on you depending on your thoughts about them

That’s why it’s important to understand why we are doing something

that’s important for the effects that we will get from that behavior 

And the effects that behavior has on us 

So, the dopamine system has a subjective effect 

When we decide something is going to be good for us in a given time frame

then it’s going to be good for us

 because dopamine provides a state of motivation and readiness for the regular pursuit of our goals

Dopamine is a self-amplifying system meaning

it helps us re-up ourselves if we are consistently telling ourselves that we’re on track

provided that we are leveraging the dopamine system on a consistent schedule

(consistent schedule for self-reward)

To leverage this 

reward yourself cognitively consistently telling yourself that you are on the right track,

another week where I accomplished what I’m trying to accomplish)

for successful and correct pursuit of your goal 

recap on how to get the dopamine system to work for you considering the above features

Assess your progress at specific intervals

(milestones and weekly are the most reasonable and trackable

to assess your progress/performance in the pursuit of a given goal ) then

if you have been making progress reward yourself cognitively

eg. I’m on the right track, I’m making progress,…etc

now, that we’ve finished understanding how goal setting, and pursuing works in our biology

let’s get to the goal-setting process

reminder, Before you set goals you should have done your yearly review
Here are journaling prompts to help you that

After that comes the fun part which is setting goals

Let’s apply what we learned about the biology

The goal-setting process

1- Choose 3 major areas

so, you don’t overwhelm your mental space
you can have small goals or habit-based goals in other areas that won’t distract you

or have other goals in all the important areas for you

but work on them at a different time

also, keep them to 3 you can plan all the goals you want in a year

but keep in mind that they are small i.e. don’t take a year or more to finish

before we go on how to set goals

let’s understand the types of goals that we can set

2-set the goals in each area

there are 2 types of goals

1-outcome goals include big and small goals where you focus on reaching a specific destination

2-habit goals any behaviour you want to make part of your identity or daily life

I will have a more in-depth look at habits in a later post

for now, let’s learn about how to

How To Set Goals That Actually Work

Goals must be:

1-specific clearly defined

2-challenging but possible which is the sweet spot to keep your brain motivated

If the goal is too easy, it doesn’t recruit enough of

the autonomic nervous system to make the pursuit of that goal possible

Which don’t increase systolic blood pressure or

recruit other neuronal and vascular systems required

for an ongoing effort The same goes for big & lofty goals

3-significant i.e. important to you and has good reason to pursue

which will the amygdala assess to help you pursue it.

because the dopamine system is subjective effects

When we decide something is going to be good for us in a given time frame

then it’s going to be good for us

meaning if we decide this goal is going to be good for us

then when we make progress and achieve it will get a reward in the brain via dopamine

4-measurable you can know if you have made progress or not

5-time bound limited to date so, you can harness the dopamine system to help you pursue your goal

6-action oriented having a concrete plan with action steps that lead to it, specify action steps from

7- inspirational you want to do it

Example
my areas are health, career, languages

my goals for my career are

Grow my account to 1k by the end of 2024
Grow my blog traffic to 10k a month before the end of 2024

how many goals to set at once
limit to 1-3 goals
So, you don’t get overwhelmed by your mental and visual space(more on this in the next article)

3-plan what will you do for each.

Create a concrete plan, a detailed plan on how to get there or as detailed as possible

Get as detailed and clear as possible

divide them into milestones

i.e. the bigger steps that you need to take to reach your goal

then add details on what will do to reach each

4-spread your milestones into quarters & months

5-assess your progress and actions you’re taking weekly and then in their respective time

so, you can see your progress and reward yourself to keep achieving your goals

do a weekly review to leverage your dopamine system to help you pursue your goals

More on planning and planning with details that will be in the upcoming articles

How to do reverse goal planning(create a concrete plan)

Start with the goal then go one step backward from the goal

(one step away from accomplishing the goal)

then one step away from that step until you reach the first step

Specify each step and what activities will get you there

You create links between each step using evidence

Let’s work on my goal and see how that works

example

Grow the blog to 10K views a month by December 25

milestones
Grow to 10k views by December 25th

Grow to 7k views by September 30th
Grow to 2k views by June 30th
Grow to 500 views by March 30th
Publish weekly 2 times
Publish weekly 1 time SEO optimized posts

how to achieve them Learn more about how to grow it, especially SEO through an ebook by the end of January
Learn about writing and have a writing routine daily through a course by the end of February
have a daily writing routine following the writing course
Optimize based on analytics & always check it and see what can you do about it
Optimize Pinterest & make monthly pins and use keywords for that promote on X

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what are your goals? Please share them below

before you go get your free goal-setting and annual planning workbook here

this post is part of start the year Strong series

All of these posts have an aim to help you prepare for the new year and start the year strong

here is the list of all the articles at start the Year Strong series

• How To Get Ready For The New Year
• How To Reflect On The Past Year
• How To Set Goals That Actually Work
• How To Make A Plan To Reach Your Goals
• How To Set And Build New Habits
• 3 Mindsets You Need To Succeed At Every Goal
• Can’t Get Myself Motivated? 3 Powerful Ways To Get Motivated
• How To Beat Procrastination Tips: 5 Strategies Based On Science

Reference
Episode 55: The Science of Setting & Achieving Goals

to your success

Wafaa