1/8: Goals, Habits and Success in the New Year

Quick links:

Canvas discussion board: https://sdccd.instructure.com/

Recording:

For a look at the lesson, view this 30 minute recording by instructor Bridget Wright.

Goals and Habits for a New Year

Ah, New Years. That time when we are given a blank slate and encouraged to come up with some New Year goals. This is a very challenging process. The goals that we are seeking are not simple goals (clean the garage) but often long term and complex goals. However, setting a goal does not always define what needs to be done to complete the goal. This lesson looks at the parts of goal setting and will help you to create goals that you understand and can achieve.

What are goals?

(Ho, 2021) (Houston, 2021)

Although there are many definitions of goals, early pioneers in goal-setting theory viewed goals as an idea of the future or desired result that a person or group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. It is usually designed to be completed in a specific amount of time.

Goals enable us to focus on life by helping us to determine what we want. They keep us motivated and constantly in a state of action. When setting a goal, we first must decide what is beneficial to our welfare and set goals accordingly.

What are some examples of goals? Goals can be personal (such as stopping smoking or walking every day). They can be educational (learn a new skill) or health related (eat 3 servings of fish a week). They might center around family and relationships (spend one night out with your significant other) or be spiritually based (participate in a church group).

Whatever the goal, it can be a key feature to improving yourself, your health and your relationships.

How do we set up a goal?

(Ho, 2021) (Personal Goal Setting, 2020) (Houston, 2021)

Key principles of successful goals

There has been much written about goal setting. In the 1990s, research from Locke & Latham suggested 5 key principles for successful goal achievement:

1. Commitment: The degree to which an individual is attached to the goal. Goals are most successful when people are committed, even if the goals are difficult. Key factors in commitment include how much the goal is desired and the ability of the goal setter to achieve it.

2. Clarity: Specific goals are implicit and can be measured. When the goal is clear, you have an improved understanding of the task at hand.

3. Challenging: Goals should be challenging, yet attainable. If not, the inability to meet the goal will lead to feelings of dissatisfaction and frustration. We are motived by achievement and the anticipate of achievement.

4. Task complexity: Research suggests that overly complex tasks add to the difficulty of goal-setting. They may make goals seem overwhelming and negatively impact motivation. The timescale should be realistic as well.

5. Feedback: Goal setting is more effective with immediate feedback. This allows the ability to reflect on the goal and set new goals if the current ones seem unattainable. With no feedback, you cannot evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies.

Creating smart goals

One way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. Although it may vary a bit, SMART usually stands for:

· S: Specific or significant

· M: Measurable or meaningful

· A: Attainable or action-oriented

· R: Relevant or rewarding

· T: Time-bound or trackable

Video: A cute video which provides a quick look at SMART goals.

Practical tips for goals

Positive psychology researcher and writer Elaine Houston has written about goal setting. She offers the following suggestions when considering a personal goal:

• Set just three goals: This helps to avoid the negative emotions from failure in meeting many goals.

• Focus on short term goals: Setting a timeframe enables more opportunities to review and acknowledge the success of goals.

• Use positive goals: Instead of negative (I want to stop eating junk food), reframe in a positive way (I want to feel healthy and will change my diet to do so).

What skills are required in successful goal setting?

(Houston, 2021)

Achieving your goals requires some essential work. This includes:

· Planning: Prioritize and maintain focus on the task at hand, while avoiding distractions that draw us away from the end goal.

· Self-motivation: Motivation encourages us to develop new techniques and skills to succeed.

· Time management: If unable to attain a goal in a designated time, that goal will inevitably fail. Also, research suggests that the more time spent on planning the goals, the greater the chance of succeeding.

· Flexibility: Sometimes, goals need to be modified in order to be successful.

· Self-regulation: A person needs to regulate and manage their emotions to promote their goals.

· Commitment and focus: We must be committed to our goals, which must be important and relevant on a personal level.

What are some suggestions to help you achieve your goals?

(Ryback, 2016) (VerPlanck, 2021)

Turn the goal into a habit: (More on habits later in the lesson) Habits and goals are stored differently in the brain. The orbitofrontal cortex is responsible for converting wishful goals into solid automatic habits via the endocannabinoids, responsible for appetite, memory, mood and the effects of cannabis. Consistency will get your endocannabinoids to help you form a habit. Set aside a specific time a day with a specific context. The more regular the behavior, the more easily the brain can convert it into a habit.
Change the environment: Scientists discovered that students who transferred to another college were more likely to change their daily habits than students who remained at the same place. If you were having trouble sticking to your goals, consider changing the surroundings. Organize the bookshelves. Sit in a different chair. Take a vacation.
Dopamine is your friend: Dopamine is the “feel good” neurotransmitter that is released when we get something we want. The dopamine makes us feel good. You can manipulate dopamine levels by setting small goals and then accomplishing them. For example, if you tell your brain you are going to clean out the refrigerator and you do, you will get a release in dopamine. To-do lists are great at modulating dopamine. Break the goals into small, dopamine-friendly pieces. Play the instrument for just 15 minutes a day. Check off on the calendar each day that you walk the dog.
Game night: If you can turn chores and goals into games, you have a great way to reach them.
Easy to remember: To make goals easy to remember, they must be simple and easily retrievable. This takes less cognitive effort to recall.
Streamline the goals: Keep it simple. Our brains have limits so minimizing the amount of information people need to process will maximize their attention to the tasks. And if it is easy to remember, start each day with a recap of your goals.

Goal setting in the brain

(LEARN HOW GOAL SETTING AFFECTS YOUR BRAIN, 2019) (Comaford, 2015) (Compton, 2003) (Cole, 2013) (Becker, 1978)

The brain's role in goal setting encompasses a combination of emotional processing, attention management, and adaptive planning. Central to this function is the brain's plasticity, enabling it to restructure and fortify neural pathways essential for realizing goals. Numerous studies have identified specific brain areas and processes integral to this mechanism. These insights yield several critical observations about how the brain facilitates goal setting and achievement. Research has shown ways that goal setting interacts with the brain. Here are some of the findings:

Restructuring the Brain:

The brain's ability to change and adapt, known as neuroplasticity, is crucial in goal setting. When you set a goal and work towards it, you strengthen neural pathways associated with the behaviors and thoughts needed to achieve that goal. This process effectively 'rewires' the brain, making it more efficient at tasks related to the goal. Research indicates that consistent practice and learning new skills can lead to physical changes in the brain, including growth in the regions related to those skills.

Emotions and Goal Achievement:

Emotions play a significant role in goal setting and achievement. Positive emotions like enthusiasm and excitement can enhance motivation and drive, making it easier to pursue and achieve goals. The brain's limbic system, which processes emotions, interacts with other brain areas to influence motivation and decision-making. Studies show that emotional attachment to a goal can increase commitment and persistence, making the goal more likely to be achieved.

Focusing and Engagement:

Focusing on a goal activates various brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for executive functions like planning, decision-making, and regulating attention. When you focus on a goal, your brain allocates resources to maintain attention and resist distractions. This heightened state of engagement is critical for goal-directed behavior. Neuroimaging studies have shown that people who are better at focusing and managing their attention tend to be more successful at achieving their goals.

Role of the Amygdala and Frontal Lobe:

The amygdala, a part of the limbic system, plays a role in processing emotions, especially fear and pleasure. This can impact goal setting, particularly in terms of assessing risks and rewards associated with a goal. When our goals involve emotions, the limbic system is activated.
The frontal lobe, particularly the prefrontal cortex, is involved in planning complex cognitive behaviors and expressing personality. It helps in setting long-term goals and making decisions aligned with those goals. Consider incorporating strategies which activate the frontal lobe while working with goals. Things like goal visualization, mindfulness and including challenging goals will all work to activate the frontal lobe.
The interaction between the amygdala and frontal lobe is crucial in balancing emotional responses and rational decision-making in the pursuit of goals

Goal setting to create excitement in the brain

(Comaford, 2015)

Social psychologist Emily Balcetis suggests that the key to success in goal settings lies in the factors which generate the most excitement in the brain: psychological distance, social distance and spatial distance. She describes the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) is the area of the brain that deals with the present. When activated, it helps us to simulate goal achievement and envision what it will be like to achieve the goal. As goals become too distant and unreachable, there is less activation in the MPFC and less simulation or envisioning of the goal. Based on her research, Balcetis suggests that the following might enhance goal setting:

1. Plan for obstacles: Have a plan, a backup plan, and a backup plan to the backup plan. Know what you will do if something interferes with your goal. Planning for obstacles while envisioning success boosts our systolic blood pressure and increases the readiness to act.

2. Create the right habits: Setting and sharing intentions make goals happen. When we make commitments to ourselves and others, and discuss them, and ask ourselves what we can do to get closer to the goal, all these things boost systolic blood pressure. They are called Implementation Intentions. It helps to create a minimum goal (easy), a target (moderate) and a mindblower goal (“impossible”).

3. Move the goal closer: If the goal is a mindblower, you can do things to help meet that goal. We mentioned the 3 types of distance between you and the goal (psychological, social and spatial). Moving the goal closer requires us to envision it, and to see ourselves achieving it. The goal must be specific and tangible (as opposed to abstract). With this “promotional” focus, the left side of the prefrontal cortex is activated, and planning and envisioning gets stronger. The ventral striatum is also activated, the area that we experience reward. And, as discussed earlier, the dopamine is released which causes us to feel good about the goal being achieved.

Balcetis’ team found that when goals were envisioned, they actually looked 30% closer and more achievable. And, when goals look closer, any progress towards achieving them feels easier, and the goal actually seems easier (17% according to research). And, even better, when envisioned, the goal can be achieved by 23%.

Is your goal to change a habit?

(Squire, 2015) (Different Facets of Memory, 2012)

Up to this point, we have been referring to goals. They are intentional, conscious plans that you set out to achieve. They are planned and require effort to achieve them. Habits are automatic behaviors or routines triggered by specific cues or contexts. Typically, they are formed through repeated actions until they are subconscious.

Habits are formed and triggered through a process involving memory systems and stimuli. Typically, these include a cue-routine-reward cycle:

· Cue: External or internal triggers that initiate the habitual behavior

· Routine: The habit itself

· Reward: The benefit or satisfaction of the habit, which reinforces the behavior.

Habits involve our memory systems, specifically declarative vs nondeclarative memory.

Declarative memory is conscious recall of facts and events. It involves the hippocampus and is crucial for setting and recalling goals.

Nondeclarative memory (also known as procedural memory) is an unconscious memory of skills and how to perform tasks. It is linked to the basal ganglia and is crucial in habit formation.

When trying to change a habit (nondeclarative memory) into a goal (declarative memory) these memory systems collide. For example, if you are trying to replace an unhealthy habit with a healthy one, you need to override the automatic routines of your nondeclarative memory and replace them with intentional actions (declarative memory).

For example, if your goal is to quit smoking, each time that you encounter that cue (such as finishing your meal), you must immediately switch to your declarative memory (I am quitting smoking). When you do this, you are successful, but only for that one time. If you have ever tried to quit a habit, you know that it is very difficult.

We are in constant battle with our declarative and nondeclarative memory systems, which is due in part to your brain’s energy needs. The part of the brain which is involved with habits (basal ganglia) requires less energy than the part of the brain where we create and manage goals (prefrontal cortex). Habits free the prefrontal cortex for complicated or unfamiliar tasks.

Have you ever arrived at a destination without being conscious of getting there? That is the nondeclarative memory system, the unconscious memory. If you are faced with a challenge to your habit (there is road work on the freeway, so you need to remember to take another route), you can sometimes find that you forget and continue the way you have always gone. In this case, you have relied on your unconscious memory and have not succeeded in your goal of changing the route.

It might be easier to substitute a new habit with an old one. So, if your habit is to watch 3 hours of TV after dinner, you would be more successful in breaking it if you had a positive habit taking the place (card game perhaps?). Don’t forget to reward yourself so that you can reinforce this new behavior.

Breaking old habits and creating new habits are difficult. Research has suggested that time to create a new habit is between 3 and 36 weeks, with 9 weeks being average. But remember that your new habit creates connections in the brain, which are hopefully stronger than the old habit.

Set up your goals for the new year using brain-based methods

If we understand how the brain forms and maintains routines, we can use this to transform habits into goals. These strategies focus on the neural mechanisms of forming habits, and replacing them with intentional, goal-oriented actions. Some of the ways that you can use your brain to set up your New Years goals include:

· Repetition and consistency: Repeating a behavior consistently in the same way helps to create a habit, which strengthens the neural pathways

· Small, incremental steps: Start small. This will make the changes easier to incorporate into daily life

· Cue-Routine-Reward loop: Identify the cue for the new habit, follow with the new habit (routine) and end with a reward which reinforces your behavior

· Mindfulness and reflection: Be mindful of the new habit and reflect on the benefits. This can reinforce the intentional aspect of habit change.

· Share your progress: Telling others that you are creating a new goal or habit will provide motivation and support.

Summary

As you set up your goals, use this lesson to help you be successful in meeting the goals. Remember some key points from the lesson:

Principles of successful goals: Commitment, clarity, challenging, task complexity and feedback

SMART goals: Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time based

Tips: Set just 3 goals, focus on short term goals at first, make them positive

Put in the work: Planning, self-motivation, time management, flexibility, self-regulation and commitment

Suggestions for success: Goal into habit, change your environment, manage your dopamine, turn the goals into a game, make them easy to remember and streamline goals to minimize cognitive effort

Use your brain: Emotions will engage the limbic system while focus, goal visualization and mindfulness will engage the frontal lobe. The balance of emotional responses with rational decision making will increase the risk of success

Create excitement in the brain: Plan for obstacles, create the right habits and keep the goal within reach

Change bad habits as a goal: Remember cue, habit and reward. Use your declarative memory (intentions) to replace a habit lodged in your nondeclarative memory (habit)

For best results: Repetition and consistency in achieving goals, use small steps, remember the cue, routine and reward, include mindfulness and reflection and share your progress

Creating new goals should be a part of life. Use this opportunity to set some clear and smart goals to make you a better person. Let us know how it goes!

Works Cited

Becker, L. (1978, October). Joint effect of feedback and goal setting on performance: A field study of residential energy conservation. Retrieved from psycnet.apa.org: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1979-09988-001

Bees, D. (2017, June 20). Achieving your goals starts in your brain. Retrieved from bigthink.com: https://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/achieving-your-goals-starts-in-your-brain

Cole, S. e. (2013, January). Visual perception and regulatory conflict: Motivation and physiology influence distance perception. Retrieved from Journal of Experimental Psychology: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027882

Comaford, C. (2015, November 22). Achieve your goals faster: The latest neuroscience of goal attainment. Retrieved from forbes.com: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinecomaford/2015/11/22/achieve-your-goals-faster-the-latest-neuroscience-of-goal-attainment/#46341ffb6e25

Compton, R. (2003, June 1). The Interface Between Emotion and Attention: A Review of Evidence from Psychology and Neuroscience. Retrieved from journals.sagepub.com: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1534582303002002003

Different Facets of Memory. (2012, April). Retrieved from brainfacts.org: https://www.brainfacts.org/Thinking-Sensing-and-Behaving/Learning-and-Memory/2012/Different-Facets-of-Memory

Ho, L. (2021, January 19). What are Goals? Achieve More By Changing Your Perspectives. Retrieved from lifehack.org: https://www.lifehack.org/863723/what-are-goals

Houston, E. (2021, December 13). What is Goal Setting and How to Do it Well. Retrieved from positivepsychology.com: https://positivepsychology.com/goal-setting/

LEARN HOW GOAL SETTING AFFECTS YOUR BRAIN. (2019, November 29). Retrieved from topstackgroup.com: https://topstackgroup.com/learn-how-goal-setting-affects-your-brain/

Personal Goal Setting. (2020, October). Retrieved from mindtools.com: https://www.mindtools.com/page6.html

Ryback, R. (2016, October 3). Science of accomplishing your goals. Retrieved from psychologytoday.com: http://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-truisms-wellness/201610/the-science-accomplishing-your-goals

Squire, L. &. (2015, March). Conscious and Unconscious Memory Systems. Retrieved from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4355270/

VerPlanck, J. &. (2021, September 23). Your Brain on Goals. Retrieved from neuroleadershiop.com: https://neuroleadership.com/your-brain-at-work/brain-and-work-goals