3 Secrets to Reach Your Goals Faster

3 Secrets to Help You Reach Your Goals Faster  If you haven't caught our recent tweets with links to secret goal setting, follow us! What I love about having Emer on my team is that she is a goal setting shortcut sleuth. Here's just a few secrets she recently found: 1. Imagination Focuses Your Brain Better to Hit the Target New research published in Psychological Science shows that people who imagined a visual target before having to pick it out of a group of distracting items were faster at finding the target than those who did an actual practice run beforehand.  How can you apply this finding to your own goals? When you draw a picture of yourself achieving a goal and roll the tape of it in your imagination, seeing yourself walking through all the things you IMAGINE it will take to get there, you encode your neural pathways with the most direct route to achieve it. Don't take my word for it!  Try it! Before you are getting ready to do something, do that old tried and true "visualize success" technique! 2.  Be grateful and your goal achievement level goes up. Students asked to keep a gratitude journal were found to have a higher satisfaction level, ability to engage better socially with peers, and better overall performance. Leaders who expressed gratitude to staff had better working relationships and fostered a culture of support and appreciation.  Try keeping a gratitude journal. Write down 3 things you are grateful for before you fall asleep at night.  Research shows that after only two weeks of writing your gratitudes, you'll begin to see a change. 3.  Believe you'll achieve it, and you will. Belief plays a huge role in your ability to achieve success. Not belief that something could happen, but belief that you can make it happen. Albert Bandura proposed that individuals’  expectations are a major factor in determining goal setting, activity choice, willingness to expend effort, and persistence. What do you truly believe about that goal you have drawn on your paper?  Unpack it to make sure your belief in your own capability is solid. If you are wanting to make a change of some kind then now is the time to get focused on you and that dream you have been thinking about.  If you need a reboot, check out our FB page or twitter feed. We're offering you consistent tips to help you step into that reality you have been dreaming about. Big summer love to you! Tip Of The Week Be a Go Giver, not a Go Getter! Follow us on Vimeo, Youtube, or Facebook  and never miss a tip or a Creative Genius interview! $99 Toolkit The Snapshot of the Big Picture is still on sale for just $99. Ready to step your Creative Genius up to the next level? This toolkit contains everything you need to lead change in your organization, or with your clients. GET IT   FREE ICON GUIDE Have you downloaded your free icon guide yet? It's filled with ideas to get you inspired so you can DRAW YOUR FUTURE! DOWNLOAD

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Keep Your Eye on the Prize to Calm Your Doubting Mind

I just did a number of workshops, both in Colorado where I was able to speak at the DU Women's Conference, as well as for a couple of organizations celebrating Administrative Professionals Week in Seattle.  One of the key questions that was repeatedly asked was "How do we deal with a doubting mind in the process of getting to our success?"

That amygdala part of your brain is programmed to respond when you step out of the familiar.  When activated, it will send adrenaline into your system and subsequently can derail your progress.  So how do you keep that amygdala at bay?  One way to actively take charge is through noting and connoting any positive success you have made either towards this goal or in goal achievement from the past.  By reminding yourself of the movement and shifts you have been able to make you automatically shift your thinking into the right side of your brain which houses all of the potential and possibilities you can imagine.

Another suggestion from Dr. Ellen F. Weber* is to "Focus on your endpoint, even as you first step out of the gates. Glance toward that next well-paced addition to your plan, much the way drivers glance ahead on a highway. Center in on dividends you expect, and navigate sharp curves along the way, like the skilled driver you are. With each of the estimated 22 stressors that will hit you on an ordinary day, you’ll want to execute well-chosen strategies toward new directions that win."

How do we keep focused on our endpoints?  By going back to that image you drew of your Desired New Reality.  Here is what you said:

" I attended your seminar at the Women's College at DU. I left right after and didn't go to a final session because I didn't want to kill my buzz. Thank you so much for you energy!!"

What "buzz" is she talking about?  The buzz of serotonin you get when you envision and build the life you want.  Here's what another woman wrote:

"Thanks to your inspirational presentation at the DU Women's Conference I took the first bold step.  Yep, you may as well have been speaking directly to me...Thank you!"

If you (or those around you) aren't living the life you desire, why not take your own bold step?  Watch and forward my TEDxRainier talk.  You can take steps today to draw your future into reality.

 #meanit #drawingyourfutureworks





*Weber, Ellen (2012-04-25). Making Change Easy (Novelty with the Brain in Mind) (Kindle Locations 82-85). Mita International Brain Center. Kindle Edition.

Drawing Your Vision or Goals: Helping Your Brain Commit Them To Memory

Setting goals is a magnificent, inspiring, iterative practice.  Not just a quarterly or annual process, it can be an effective daily practice when you want to make change stick.  I was recently researching the neuroscience of memory and what helps us to keep our focus on achieving what we want; those sometimes slippery goals.

There are three types of memory - sense memory, which is what you experience on a sensory level; short-term memory (sometimes called working memory) which is what's happening right now in this present moment - for example you want something to eat so you go to the fridge and get it.  The third type of memory is long-term memory.  

Sense memory almost always automatically shifts into your short-term memory. Short-term memory can only hold information for about a few minutes, and its storage capacity is limited.  It can only take in about 5 items or elements before it short-circuits and starts dumping things off into the abyss. Long-term memory, however, can retain some information for life and it has an enormous capacity.  Long-term memory is key to goal achievement.

Think about it.  What's the use of goal setting if you can't remember what it is you are focusing on?  So it's a good idea to help your brain shift those new pictures of who and where you want to be a year from today out of that short-term and into the long-term memory.  

To make your thoughts into a roadmap for reality, you have to get a little loud and creative.  Your brain's short-term memory is so used to quickly sorting and screening out information that it often just simply deletes ideas and moves on to managing the car in traffic unless you tell it to stop and PAY ATTENTION. This is where using both words and images to capture your ideas and vision right when you are thinking about them is so critical.

Drawing, for those of you who are not artists, is a fantastic way to call something out with a big highlighter for your brain.  If you don't often draw, just the act of doing that "new thing" wakes your brain up and forges a new neural pathway.  Drawing also helps you relax, subsequently you are more likely to surface new ideas, increase your creativity, clarity and focus.  Doodling pictures or symbols helps imbed the concepts, ideas or vision with enough juice that your zippy short-term memory moves it into a more permanent place.  Both words and images combine to specify for your brain what and why something is important - a recipe for great goal-setting.

Next time you are reviewing where you are and where you want to be, why not draw it out on a piece of paper to see if you get any different results.  Remember combine words and images to thoroughly up your creative genius and lock in those goals you want to focus on to increase your success.