The Goals Toolkit - How to Actually Achieve Your Goals in 2024
Scientific Tips & Tricks for Making Real Progress Sustainably
Hi folks,
It’s me again, I hope your new year has been going great so far. I just came back from reading my last article (Year in Review 2023) to reflect and warm up my brain for writing this issue - oh damn, what is this video?? Yup, a video just popped up in my feed and got me hooked. Ahh, these devilish distractions! But sometimes, you do find something interesting and special that gets you thinking and may inspire you (see end section for interesting stuff). Letting “boredom” or the lack of focus carry you can indeed be a good thing.
But I digress, let’s pick up where we left last time. With the closing of the past year I have come to terms with the emotional roller coaster I was in and was essentially…at peace. I felt more fulfilled and content with myself, I was off to a good start.
I can focus back on myself again, rebuilding the foundational habits that make me happy and successful in the long run.
So how do you do that? How can one achieve their goals?
Now, we all know that new year’s resolutions are not gonna work when you have no strategy whatsoever to support these goals. And that is why most people will have given up on their once-so optimistic goals set at the beginning of the year by the third month (see below chart, web version for email readers).
So let’s set some strategies. One weekend when I got up, a certain podcast episode caught my attention: The Huberman Lab’s episode on “How to Set and Achieve Your Goals”. So that morning I was just listening to the entire episode while taking notes.
The One Goal in a Quarter
The part about deciding what goals to set fell a bit shorter than I would have liked. Largely because you are supposed to set ONE goal as your priority goal where this is the one that really matters and all else not as much. I totally get the concept and in fact, it’s brilliant. Brilliantly painful. You see, I just have a lot of interests and find many things worthy of pursuit: Improving your skills at work, becoming fluent in another language, expressing yourself creatively in photography/videography, getting fitter.
So if I were to just focus on ONE goal, how do I decide which one to choose? Well, I started listing all the different areas I wanted to improve and what each entails more specifically. Afterwards I started writing out my thoughts, why I might like one more than the other. In the grand scheme of things one in particular stood out the most, like it could change my life in ways that I would appreciate and enjoy.
However, as I was strolling down the streets of Barcelona, a thought occured to me. There is no need to discard that one goal just because it doesn’t seem as life-altering or lofty or “ultimate” in my personal vision. Because this singular “priority goal” may be achieved in a QUARTER, i.e. 3 months. Or not. The point being, priority goals are not meant to be that one thing you are gonna focus on for the rest of your lives. But it is simply a tool for you to set your priorities straight and make a certain goal increase its probability for success within a time frame that you set for yourself.
For instance, fitness is something that a lot of people strive for. There are many variants to this, but let’s say you are currently out of shape and you’d really love to get fitter again, at least reaching a certain baseline. After all, you don’t have any desire to be an Olympic athlete. So you set yourself the goal to at least be able to do x pushups, y pullups and run a 5K in z time.
Since you are so far from that baseline you desire, it makes sense to put all your focus on this one goal, so that you can ultimately achieve it. After you do so, you are rather content and can move on with other goals or priorities. Clearly, the “baseline” you reached can be crossed again and again, reaching ever higher levels. But once you have a certain level, you most likely also have all the habits/routines ingrained in your DNA. Okay, maybe not, but it certainly would become much easier for anyone to keep those activities going while being able to focus on new goals to pursue.
And that’s the point. Although I may have a certain grand vision I wish to accomplish, it’s a long road. On the other hand I have another goal that - while not as lofty or special - may be an important keystone habit and capability that could enable me to do a lot of other things in my life while gaining more self-confidence and improving overall health and one’s mindset. So why not focus on this one goal for 3 months that will give me foundational habits I can benefit from and then turn my attention toward my other grand vision?
The Role of Identity and Taking It Slow (Secretly)
Regardless though, always think about your identity as well. What kind of person do you want to be? As James Clear from the book Atomic Habits emphasizes, the actions you do repeatedly - whether that is never missing a workout or always slacking off - are essentially votes or proofpoints for the type of person you seem to be. So if you always do well at school in English or Math e.g., then you will think of yourself as someone who is good at English or Math. So work backwards, and think about the type of person you want to be, and then determine what actions that type of person would do repeatedly.
Examples from James Clear’s blog
Want to become a better writer?
Identity: Become the type of person who writes 1,000 words every day.
Small win: Write one paragraph each day this week.
Want to become strong?
Identity: Become the type of person who never misses a workout.
Small win: Do pushups every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
There are three layers of behavior change: a change in your outcomes, a change in your processes, or a change in your identity. Source
One big conclusion I drew from last year is to take it slow this year, be more patient and forgiving. Perhaps you can relate, but for me it was really easy to feel like I’ve failed when I’ve missed something or when I’ve not done something as perfectly as I was supposed to.
This feeling of being a failure - even if it’s subconscious - will do more harm than good to you. It’s also the fear of failing. Fear of being judged a failure by yourself and others is gonna paralyze you. More than you notice. When I’m sitting in front of my laptop, editing a video, it takes a long time to finish the product. Sure, in the end, the product may not be so bad, but what you really wanted was to ship out videos regularly because quantity helps with improving quickly more than focusing on quality with low output - seriously, there was a study about this - not to mention that regularity is important when growing an audience.
Allowing myself to take a chill pill and see things less seriously - kind of like a game - makes the process a lot more fun, with less pressure. It keeps one going for longer certainly.
By the way, notice how I didn’t tell you exactly what my goals were? Well, that’s because of the “Don’t tell the world” rule. I feel like I tend to overshare walking the fine line between me wanting to share stuff with the world and wanting to be private. But in any case, NOT telling others your goals is actually beneficial. The reason is that when you tell someone what your goal is, you’d most likely get some kind of positive response which activates certain reward systems and motivation systems in your brain - like making you feel like you’ve already done or accomplished something - which according to scientific data diminishes the probability of continued behavior that ultimately will allow ourselves to achieve our goal. Of course, it also depends on the person you’re saying this to. If it’s your personal trainer or a very strict accountability partner or someone who actually doubts you, the effect of telling them your goal is a different story.
How to Define Your Goal Effectively
So! You have decided on a goal! Now what? It’s time to define your goal more clearly.
For goals to be useful they need to be SPECIFIC and MEASURABLE. Defining specific verb actions that are involved for achieving the goal and quantifying the amount per week is going to increase your probability of achieving your goal significantly. It also helps to write down your goals on paper as it’s more effective in engaging your neurocircuitry.
The scientific recommendation is to have a 12 week period for focusing on that one goal. There is nothing magical about it, you could take less or more time, but the quarter cycle works well in today’s society. Within that macro cycle, define how many hours each week and each day you spend pursuing that goal, and on which days of the week specifically.
This INPUT-based way of defining your goal is especially important when your goal is less quantifiable. Take for instance the goal of running 5 km in under 20 minutes and the goal of writing a book.
The running goal - which is an outcome/output-based goal - is very specific and easy to quantify, either you make the cut or you don’t. And you can break it down in milestones, trying to achieve a faster time than your current one in 2-3 weeks, and updating your goals every time, so that by the end of the quarter you have hopefully achieved your goal.
What finishing writing a “book” means is less obvious as it depends on factors such as the content and length of the book. Experienced writers don’t wait for inspiration to hit them, they just commit to writing x words each day or y amount of time just writing. THAT is a word-generating action where the prize itself is not the focus, yet without fail you’ll get to your goal when you simply stick to the inputs that matter.
How to Make the Pursuit Less Stale
Another interesting factor to take into account when pursuing your goal is the “Middle Problem”. Whether on a macro scale of weeks and months or on a micro scale during the activity itself. In the middle of it you might find yourself less motivated. We all know how when we begin pursuing our goal we are full of motivation and optimism, but eventually you get stuck in the middle where you become bored, stressed or tired, feeling like skipping the activity. Don’t worry, just expect it! It’s natural. What you can do is to try “time chunking”. Break down the middle chunk of your bout into smaller chunks. E.g. your Wednesday 2h session can be broken down into consecutive 15min sessions or whatever way you want to split it.
A trick I really liked and will try to implement moving forward is the idea of “Random, Intermittent Reinforcement” or simply, random rewards. As you may know, dopamine is an important factor in all things motivation. One could reward themselves with every good work done to keep oneself motivated. However, the potency and effectiveness will lessen over time. At the other end of the spectrum, celebrating only when you accomplish your goal will also undermine the probability of success.
What you really should do instead is find the middle ground by utilizing the great power of RANDOMNESS. It’s what casinos use to hook players as well. After each successful work done, flip a coin. This will decide whether you get a reward or not. A reward can be anything from something physical like treating yourself to a meal or watching a movie. It can also be cognitive like telling yourself in a positive but not excessive “shower of praise” kind of way: “Yes, I’m making progress, I’m someone who gets things done.”
Last, But Not Least: Keep Track of Your Progress
Okay, this one I almost forgot to mention because I didn’t have it in my notes that I was using for this article. I was just about to close my laptop as I glanced at my bullet journal to check whether I completed all my habits today. Over the years I have tried all kinds of habit trackers, whether analogue or digital. I gotta say, at the moment, good old paper is winning. I had tried different ways of doing it, my current one I captured below. Create your own system of tracking it. It’s fun checking stuff off and feeling the hot streak increasing each day. There’s some psychological wheel running in your head nudging you to keep it going.
Summary of the Goals Toolkit
Think about the type of person you want to become
Choose one priority goal to pursue at a time (12 weeks)
Define verb actions to make your goal specific and measurable
Set the bar high but take it slow, start small and be patient
Best keep your goal secret
Make use of time chunking and random rewards
Track your progress.
Good luck and much success!
-Patrick
Resources, Tools & Favorite Things
Movie - Chungking Express. I recently watched this movie and In The Mood for Love by the legendary director Wong Kar Wai who is a pivotal figure in Hong Kong cinema. His film work is very artistic, subtle, with iconic cinematography and use of music. Simply beautiful.
Video - mac demarco - chamber of reflection. Perhaps this could convince you to give the movie a watch. This YouTube video is a whole vibe. The aesthetic movie scenes of Chungking Express combined with the atmospheric song by mac is just chef’s kiss.
Tool - Cron (now Notion Calendar). Sometime ago I came across the Cron Calendar which is basically just a calendar, but beautiful. I simply like products with good aesthetics and usability. They recently got acquired by Notion but it still looks the same. You can combine all your calendars in one place.
Book - “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman. I had this book on my reading list for a long time, and I finally got around to getting it. Funny story, I bought it on the Spanish online second-hand marketplace called Wallapop, and when picking up the book from the seller I became friends with the guy because we were vibing.
Video/Product - rabbit r1. This is the video I was talking about in the beginning. Its Steve Jobs-like presentation randomly caught my attention and I have to say, I’m quite impressed. It’s like the Pokédex in real life. Except it works as your personal companion using LAM (Large Action Model), the declared next level of LLM (Large Language Model) and Generative AI allowing the AI to perform tasks for you by interacting with any interface of the web.