I’m not going to bore you with scientific and psychological mumbo jumbo, but I think you should understand the importance of creating SMART goals using the process I will outline in this chapter. Understanding why something is important makes you more likely to follow the process diligently. Remember, people don’t buy what you do or how you do it. They buy why you do it. The same principle follows here.
First, as logical human beings, we all understand that having something to aim for increases the chances of hitting it. Jordan Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, says, “One of the things you can be virtually certain of in life is that you don’t hit something you don’t aim at.”[1] Seems pretty logical to me. Robin Hood would never have split that arrow if he didn’t aim at it.
When you aim at a target and hit it, your brain releases a chemical called dopamine, which gives you a feeling of pleasure. Dopamine is your body’s reward system. Dopamine makes you feel good, and the fact that it is released immediately upon achieving a goal creates a solid behavioral association. That makes you want to set and accomplish another goal to get that good feeling again. It is also why setting short-term goals, as you will see later, is much more effective than only setting long-term goals. The longer the wait between dopamine releases, the less effective it is as a reward. Dopamine is the habit-forming chemical in your brain. IT rewards you for completing tasks regularly at short intervals, motivating you to accomplish more.
Another vital tool for goal achievement is visualization, which has physiological and psychological elements. By visualizing yourself succeeding, you fool your brain into thinking you’ve achieved your goal already, and it releases some dopamine. Yes, it is tricky.
The psychological aspect works a bit differently. Have you ever bought a new car and suddenly noticed the same make and model everywhere as you drive down the road? Have you ever said to yourself after purchasing a Ford Taurus, for example, Wow, I never realized there were so many Taurus’ on the road?
Your reticular activating system or RAS is now focused on your new Taurus, and you notice every Taurus on the road. Your RAS is a series of neurons in your brain that filter out unnecessary stuff, which allows you to focus only on what’s important. When you buy a new car, you’re excited and think a lot about it as you drive down the road. Your RAS filters out, unconsciously, of course, the cars around you and zeros in on the ones like yours.
Coaches teach athletes to visualize desired outcomes because it trains their RAS to filter out failure and focus on success. Professional basketball players visualize their shot going in the basket. Visualization increases the odds of making the point because it filters out all the noise and distractions created by the fans and other players designed to make them miss. Golfers also visualize their shots going down the middle of the fairway or in the hole because it filters out everything else like water, sand, and the rough.
When I teach people how to set and achieve goals, one of the things I do is have them create goals boards. As part of the preparation process, I have my boxes of old magazines and tell the attendees to bring as many magazines as they can find. It doesn’t matter what it is. Any magazine will do. In this way, we always end up with an excellent assortment. Everyone in the class gets a poster board, pair of scissors, and a glue stick. As you’ll see later, this is a crucial step near the end of the goal-setting process. Participants find pictures representing their goals in the magazines, cut them out, and paste them onto the poster board. Each one, in turn, presents their board to the group to make a verbal commitment and increase their accountability. The board then receives a prominent place in the office or home where it will often be seen, reinforcing that filter in the RAS.
Visualization is a powerful tool in the setting and achieving of goals. Share on X Jack Niklaus, arguably the greatest golfer who ever lived, has been quoted as saying, “I never hit a shot, even in practice, without having a very sharp in-focus picture of it in my head.” Here is what I know:
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- Writing down my goals and having visual reminders that I see often have helped me achieve goals
- I have worked with clients who previously never set goals and have used visualization and the process I teach to achieve things they had never thought possible.
Whether or not there are statistics to support these facts is irrelevant. I have seen the process work over and over with individuals and teams. If you and your team want to begin reaching new heights of achievement and have fun in the process, this is how you do it.
[1] J. Peterson. 2018. “How to Set Goals the Smart Way .”www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WX9UEYZsR8&t=3s
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