Join me in today’s episode, let’s achieve our goals together! Maximizing your time, energy, and focus requires intentionality, prioritization, patience, and rest. We will start by looking at the positive impacts of settingspecific, measurable goals and why prioritizing fewer goals is effective. Additionally, we will explore a few tools to help us break goals into smaller actionable steps and promote consistency, credibility, and motivation. Lastly, we recognize the importance of planned breaks and rest in your schedule. EPISODE NOTES: It is interesting, people often rely on temporal landmarks like New Year’s to remind them that time has passed. This symbol of a new year, a blank slate motivates people to think about their lives and evaluate their goals and priorities. But why? The “fresh start” effect: Psychologically, Temporal landmarks create mental chapters that structure our memories and organize our lives. They feel like a new beginning, a fresh start or a blank slate. They encourage aperception of fresh opportunities and a renewed sense of control over our actions. Studies show that people are more likely to initiate positive changes in their lives and pursue their goals following Temporal landmarks like New Years and birthdays but also smaller examples like the first day of school, getting a new job, moving, or the start of a new week or month. The Actual self-vs. the Ideal self-theory: Essentially, the theory compares your current self, including your attributions, your strengths/weaknesses, and your experiences with who you want to be including your values, your goals, and your aspirations. We feel motivated to take action and close the gap between our actual self and our ideal self. Setting specific measurable goals: When we have a clear and specific goal, it is easier to identify an effective action plan. Clear goals turn abstract ideas into concrete steps. Identify your why behind your goals: Research shows that setting personally meaningful goals generally have higher success rates because they provide intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes purely from within, from a deep sense of interest, enjoyment, purpose, fulfilment, passion, and determination. A goal must be worthwhile and meaningful enough to you to devote yourself to the process. Even when you face obstacles and hardships, intrinsic motivation fuels perseverance and resilience by turning challenges into opportunities for discovery, growth, and learning, making the journey itself enjoyable and inherently valuable. When identifying your goals, ensure that there are elements of intrinsic motivation behind them. Ask yourself, are you willing to do the hard work that is necessary to accomplish this goal? Will you be able to stay motivated even when faced with challenges? Are you willing to be patient and commit to the process? Prioritizing fewer goals: You cannot do everything at once. There is only 24 hours in a day. Our brains have limited resources. We have limited amounts of energy. Switching tasks and topics constantly drains cognitive energy and decreases quality and progress. Having too many goals at once makes them compete for your attention. In contrast, a targeted focus and commitment to fewer goals promotesdeeper work, deeper curiosity, higher quality, and increased joy in the task. Only prioritize the goals that are most important to you right now. “You can have it all, just not at once” -Oprah Winfrey. While achieving many life goals is possible, it requires patience, intentionality, and prioritized focus. Action plans/systems: The means to achieve a goal are the action plans and the systems that you put in place to help you get there. Goals provide direction; systems provide progress.According to the book Atomic Habits, a handful of problems arise when people spend too much time thinking about their goals and not enough time designing their systems. Goals daydream over the result, the outcome. Systems focus on the process and the action plan. The process is the day-to-day efforts. It is hard work, patience, and resilience. In order toimprove for good, you need to solve problems at the systems level. Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves. Breaking goals down: By breaking big goals into smaller goals and steps, you are deliberately making your goals more manageable and building positive habits overtime. This slowly creates growth that becomes ingrained in who you are. Start very small and aim for consistency.This is like the story of the tortoise and the hare. Slow and steady wins the race. Baby steps will prove to be more effective and sustainable than scattered bursts of effort that don’t add up. For example, Instead of starting with the goal of writing a book, commit to writing for 10 minutes a day. Surely you can do this, you may even find that when you start writing, you continue writing past 10 minutes. To do, Should do, Could do: Organize your to do list into 3 categories; to do, should do, and could do. By organizing your tasks beforehand, it provides you with clarity and direction. Organizing your tasks into these three categories helps you build a solid action plan to ensure that you are prioritizing your focus on the most important tasks first. The tasks in your to do category are tasks that are at the top of your priorities, these are things you absolutely need to get done. These are the things that set tomorrow you up for success. Things that bring you closer to your desired life. You must prioritize your focus. Choose 1-3 tasks for your to do list. The next category is your should do list, these are tasks that you should do if you have extra time after you finish your to dos. Lastly, the tasks in your could do category are tasks that are extra things that you could do if you have extra time and you choose to do them. Importance of planned rest: You do not need to maximize every moment. Not only do breaks and rest help you recharge, it also enhances creativity, information retention, and idea generation. Research shows that rest improves focus, work life balance, and productivity by reducing burnout and stress. Rest is a priority. This is why I make sure to have schedules rests. Make time for intentional breaks and rest in your schedule. Block out time in your schedule for a planned break just like you would for an important appointment. Plan short 10-15 minute breaks and longer full day or weekend rests to truly help you detox and recharge. There are different kinds of rest. Listen to your mind, body, and spirit. Ask yourself what you need. Are you mentally drained, physically tired, or emotionally depleted. What can you do to intentionally plan pockets of rest into your schedule? How can you take care of yourself while working towards your goals? In this season of your life, with the resources you have, how can you create somebreathing room? How can you work to balance work, play, and rest? Mentally drained: Take a walk, spend time on hobbies, get outside, watch tv, read, get a nice meal, spend a night in. Physically tired: Sleep, get a nice meal, take a bath, stretch, read, watch tv. Emotionally depleted: Spend time with loved ones, take a walk, spend time on hobbies, take a night out, dance, exercise. Positive Affirmations: Turn your goals into positive, present tense statements. Statements like I am someone who is responsible with my money. I am capable of becoming financially independent. I am someone who takes care of my body. I am getting stronger. I am resilient, I am brave. I am a leader. I am a good student. I am a writer. When positive affirmations are repeated regularly, they strengthen neural pathways in the brain associated with confidence, motivation, and resilience. When you regularly reinforce positive affirmations, you are training your brain to focus on opportunities, positivity, and growth, rather than negativity and limitations. For example, if your repeatedly affirm “ I am brave” then your brain will be more prone to pursue new opportunities with confidence. You may naturally stand taller and speak with confidence. Positive affirmations can be used to help guide your decisions and actions. You are training your brain and yourself. For example, If you are a good student, how do you show up? A good student is prepared. A good student is focused and curious. Tell yourself that you are a good student, then show up as you believe a good student would show up. Action is key, Affirmations work to train your mind, but action is necessary to turn thought into reality. The affirmations pave the way, you must provide the will. Will is the strong desire, discipline, anddetermination needed to achieve your goals. Goal Punch card: Essentially, a goal punch card is a measurable way to work towards a goal and each time you complete the task, you get to check a box off. When you check off all the boxes, you get a reward. You get to give yourself a reward. What would your reward be? Would it be a nice meal, a fun activity, going shopping, a night out, a spa day, a day off, a treat? A goal punch card makes your goals visual, providing a dopamine release with each box you check off increasing motivation and credibility. References Mapp, J. W. (2024, December 26). Harnessing the fresh start effect to achieve your goals. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/4000-mondays/202412/fresh-starts-the-psychology-behind-new-year-motivation Berkman, E. T. (2018). The neuroscience of goals and behavior change. Consulting Psychology Journal, 70(1), 28–44. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000094 Clear, J. (2020, February 4). Forget about setting goals. focus on this instead. James Clear. https://jamesclear.com/goals-systems The science behind positive affirmations in Coaching Success. (n.d.). https://www.coachhub.com/blog/the-science-behind-positive
