Goal Setting - Save Time by Just Thinking About It

This sounds magical, but you can often save time without sacrificing output by just thinking about your goals. Crazy right?

But it works! And here is the most important reason why:

The human brain is a remarkable and powerful organ, capable of transforming thoughts into reality. Thinking about your goals constantly aligns your brain to the goals.

Why is that so powerful and how does it work?

1. Goal Setting: every decision is now an opportunity to progress towards the goal

2. Your brain will attempt to find the path of least resistance just by thinking about it through Visualization

3. You will now fight off distractions so you can stay focused via the Reticular Activating System

Let's break these down:

Goal Setting: every decision is now an opportunity to progress towards the goal

Goal setting is a well-established psychological technique that can increase motivation, commitment, and performance (Locke & Latham, 2006). Thinking about your goals enables you to break them down into smaller, more manageable steps, making the process less daunting and more approachable. And consistently reflecting those objectives helps to maintain motivation.

By setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals, you provide yourselves with a clear roadmap to success (Doran, 1981).

SMART goals are:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Relevant

• Time-bound

When you actively engage with your goals, you become more focused, driven, and efficient in your pursuit, leading to faster and more successful outcomes.

Find the path of least resistance with Visualizations

Visualization is the process of imagining oneself performing a specific task or achieving a desired outcome. This technique has been widely researched and found to significantly improve performance (Driskell, Copper, & Moran, 1994). When you visualize yourself accomplishing your goals, your brain establishes neural pathways that simulate actual experiences, which in turn strengthens your skills and abilities. Just to prove how this actually works, it activates the same brain regions as physical practice, allowing for similar performance improvements without the need for physical exertion (Guillot & Collet, 2008).

That saves a lot of time! Now the time when you lay in bed after turning off your alarm can be used to improve your life. Just visualize yourself accomplishing the big task for that day, boom, your brain is prepping you for the task and you get your 15 minutes of rest.

Fight off distractions with the Reticular Activating System.

The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is a network of neurons located in the brainstem that play a crucial role in regulating attention, and consciousness (Mashour, 2018). So obviously important for achieving goals. By actively concentrating on your objectives, the RAS sharpens your focus, making you more aware of opportunities and resources that align with your goals (Zimmerman, 2013).

Basically, the RAS acts as a filter, enabling us to prioritize relevant information and ignore all that noise. You may start to question, why did I spend 30 minutes on this, it really doesn't matter. You start to see where the items that actually push the needle are. As a result, you become more efficient and effective in working towards your targets, ultimately achieving them in a shorter timeframe.

Conclusion

These functions play a unique and vital role in enhancing your focus, performance, and motivation. If you understand and utilize these cognitive strategies, you can harness the true power of your thoughts and significantly accelerate your path to success. And you can do this from the comfort of your couch, or a remote beach. Dealer's choice.

References:

Bandura, A., & Schunk, D. H. (1981). Cultivating competence, self-efficacy, and intrinsic interest through proximal self-motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41(3), 586-598.

Doran, G. T. (1981). There's a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management's goals and objectives. Management Review, 70(11), 35-36.

Driskell, J. E., Copper, C., & Moran, A. (1994). Does mental practice enhance performance? Journal of Applied Psychology, 79(4), 481-492.

Guillot, A., & Collet, C. (2008). Construction of the Motor Imagery Integrative Model in Sport: A review and theoretical investigation of motor imagery use. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 1(1), 31-44.

Klein, H. J., Wesson, M. J., Hollenbeck, J. R., & Alge, B. J. (1999). Goal commitment and the goal-setting process: Conceptual clarification and empirical synthesis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(6), 885-896.

Kosslyn, S. M., Ganis, G., & Thompson, W. L. (2001). Neural foundations of imagery. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2(9), 635-642.

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2006). New directions in goal-setting theory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(5), 265-268.

Mashour, G. A. (2018). Neural correlates of unconsciousness in large-scale brain networks. Trends in Neurosciences, 41(3), 150-160.

Sousa, D. A. (2011). How the Brain Learns (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Zimmerman, B. J. (2013). From cognitive modeling to self-regulation: A social cognitive career path. Educational Psychologist, 48(3), 135-147.