How do you get things done and accomplish your goals?
Search for this on Google and you'll find, oh, about 93 million results. And a lot of them are trying to sell you something too. Want a secret? If your goal is to sell a book, make it a "how-to" book. After all,
Amazon has only 499,071 (oops, now it's 499,072) for sell.
Ok, so obviously there are a thousand different opinions on how to accomplish your goal and a hundred thousand success stories for every one. All of them claim to be the secret sauce, and all of them have that rave review from the friend of a friend. However, discounting the claims of your best friend's grandmother's hair dresser, what does science tell us about how to accomplish your goals?
1. Don't tell them to anyone when you start. There's a short but informative
Ted talk that explains it well, but the gist of it is, as soon as you vocalize your goals to another person your brain produces a small rush that is similar (though much less powerful) to that feeling you get when you actually accomplish your goal. The problem is that now that you've experienced that nice euphoria you have much less incentive to go through the hard work and pain of accomplishing the intended goal. Eventually you're going to tell people your goal, but get going on it first. Put in some sweat and effort, enough that when you do tell someone and you do get that little feeling of pleasure it isn't enough to overcome the effort you've already put in. At that point, your brain will keep saying "I need the real thing now" and it won't let you settle for less. But speak too soon and you'll have hijacked your effort before you even started.
2. Define your goal. Make it
SMART. If you're the visual kind, diagram or map it out. Or make an audio recording of yourself talking about it (this can also double as practice for when you perfect your elevator pitch).
3. Have someone who will keep you accountable. Ok, so this kind of sounds contradictory to point #1, but it's all in the timing. First you need to keep things secret, but once you've dug in and actually started, it will help you a lot if you have someone who will ask you the hard questions and keep you accountable. They can also help you celebrate and, when the going gets tough, remind you why you even started in the first place.
4. Pace yourself. You won't go anywhere if you wear yourself out. Know your limits and push them a little, but remember that most goals are marathons and not sprints. That being said, the old saying of two steps forward and one step back often holds true. Most of our growth and accomplishments don't happen linearly but in spurts, and often we experience a slight regression before the spurt occurs. I don't know the scientific name for this, and there are many articles and books out there claiming to help you "skip" over it, but fact is this is how your body/brain grows and you'll just need to go through it. So just keep reminding yourself that it will be there, that it will end, and that when you come out the other side you'll be at a higher level.
5. Eat healthy and exercise. We all know this to intuitively be true, but the science proves it too. In her book
The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain, Barbara Strauch touches on research showing how diet and exercise directly affect our ability to grow and accomplish tasks. For instance, somehow (the exact mechanism isn't known) the act of exercise results in, or at least accelerates, the birth of new brain cells. Since most of the time accomplishing our goals involves some form of stretching ourselves and learning or acquiring new skills and knowledge, having a few extra brain cells floating around can do nothing but help.
6. Write about it. Whatever your goal is, the act of writing about it, recording the progress, and getting thoughts out of your head and down onto paper can help immensely. If you have a blog you can put it there, or if you just need a private place to jot it down check out
750words.com. Or go the olde fashioned route and use a pencil and paper. It doesn't matter where, just get it out. Sometimes even forgoing words and just
mind-mapping or letting things freeflow can help you get unstuck.
These are just some ideas and observations. What it all comes down to is just start and keep at it.
