Goal Setting for 2014
(Source:
Video Topics:
[0:03:33.6] What is a goal?
[0:06:08.2] The Reticular Activating System
[0:16:06.9] Creating goals
[0:30:36.3] Turning goals into actions
ALLYSON: Hello! This is Allyson Lewis and we are so excited that it is 9 o'clock. As you may be able to tell, I have a little bit of a cold. I don't feel bad but I am so excited to be here today. We are about to take you on a journey-and I do want you to know that this is a live google hangout. It is our second attempt. The first time we had a few technical issues so we don't believe we're gonna have any technical issues today and we are delighted that you are here. It's been a little bit since we've been here and one of the core teachings of The 7 Minute Life is to step back and take at least 7 minutes to talk about what we're gonna be looking at. So the first thing that I want to do is share my screen and I am still learning so everyone bear with me. I'm sharing my desktop now and I'm going to go a Powerpoint. And John, can you see our Powerpoint?
JOHN: I see your Powerpoint screen. The slide's not on there yet but I see your powerpoint presentation.
ALLYSON: Alright. How about now?
JOHN: There you go. Woohoo!
ALLYSON: Yay! Live technology at its best.
JOHN: Great job.
ALLYSON: I'm Allyson Lewis and John, can you please introduce yourself to our group here today?
JOHN: Sure. I am John Arnold and I am Chief Inspiration Officer over at The 7 Minute Life, Inc. and I'm really excited about our webcast today. It's perfect timing.
ALLYSON: It is and I want to say special thanks to BitKea Technologies. They're the driving factor behind all of this and it's very exciting to have our whole team here today. We are really looking forward to sharing this live webcast. I want to show you exactly what we're gonna do. The first thing that we're gonna talk about is why we are here and then we're gonna talk about what is the goal, then of course- nerd, the geek person that loves science- I'm gonna be sharing about reticular activating system. I know all of you are on pins and needles to know what that is. Then we're gonna be talking about motivation and goals and finally, how to create your goals and turn your goals into action. By the end of this 60-minute program, we believe your life would be radically different. And so, John, I'd like you to talk about- actually I'd like to step back first. The reason why we're doing this is that goals are absolutely critical for living out our purpose and experiencing the sense of meaning in our lives. Deep satisfaction and a sense of joy come from being extremely crystal clear on where we would like to go and knowing that we are moving forward. I'm holding the last book that I wrote, The 7 Minute Solution, and when I was re-reading it I read this sentence: Focused written goals combined with daily purposeful action lead to meaningful lasting change. Let me read that again. "Focused written goals combined with daily purposeful action lead to meaningful lasting change." So John, if goals lead to change, I'm gonna ask you a very simple question. What is a goal?
[0:03:33.6] JOHN: Sure. A goal at its rawest essence is a picture of where you're not yet, at least. It's a fixed point of destination. Goals are those things we clearly define in a written form so that we can know when we're finished. We know what our finish line is. It's the thing that allows us to be able to say, "It's enough." You know, without a goal, you're just running. But if you want to run a race and know that you've won like the fellow on the slide who is crossing the finish line, the goal is the finish line. It lets us know that we've achieved the desired action, the desired result that we want. And when we don't have goals, we tend to just run toward whatever is in front of us and it makes us very tired and it makes us feel like we're going nowhere. So we want to end that today. For anybody out there who is feeling very tired and feels like you're just running nowhere, we're hoping today you'll have- well, you will. By the end of this you'll have the tools you need to clearly define where you want to be and purposely be moving through life.
ALLYSON: And John, we had an insight yesterday and I'd like you to share this insight with them.
JOHN: Yeah. This was great. Allyson put it this way: Goals are not the road map. They're the compass. They force you to compare who you are and who you want to be with where you are right now. So they're really a guiding light to drive you. Goals are something that have to connect with all your senses. You gotta see them, hear them, touch them, smell them, taste them. I'll explain why that's important in a moment. But the goals themselves, they- you can't achieve a goal per se. The goal itself is the destination. What you can achieve and what we're also gonna talk about are action steps. Deliberate micro-actions that bring you one step closer to who you want to become. So that in a nutshell is what goals are and we'll come back to that concept of goals as not the road map, they're the compass. They're the guiding sense at the end. We don't achieve the goal, we achieve action steps that take us there. I'll hand it back to you Allyson if you want to elaborate on that. If not, I'll let you go into geek mode, nerd mode and share with us.
[0:06:08.2] ALLYSON: This is some of my favorite part at what we do at The 7 Minute Life. I think so many people have heard what goal setting is and what goals are but I'd like to understand the science about how these goals motivate us and how they become a part of our life. I was talking to a great friend of mine, Jason Womack who is a performance coach and a psychology person that I hope to have on one of these live webcasts soon. And he shared with me a concept that I found fascinating. In the brain, we have several systems that help us focus our attention and one of them is the Reticular Activating System. And I put this picture of a leaf on there because reticular actually can be defined as veins in a leaf. And as you look at those veins, they almost look like a net. And so I get pretty excited about nets because here's how my brain works. I guess I should go ahead and tell the truth that the reason I write books on time management, priorities, organizations and simplifying your life is that that is not exactly a skillset I had. I wrote these books to actually learn. They're almost a 12 step program for me to become more in alignment with who I want to be. So I realized that for me, distractions- I'd like you to write that word down and you can hit the .pdf either in the email or at the side of this hangout and download it if you want to follow along with the handout that we're gonna to do- but on the reticular activating system, distractions keep you from focusing your full conscious attention on accomplishing the goals that inspire you and that are in perfect alignment with your purpose. And while we're working toward those goals, that brings us an increased sense of positive self-worth and meaningful fulfillment in our daily work. That's why goals are so important. And I think a lot of us set mental goals and they're good but we need to translate those mental goals into written goals because every moment of your life, your brain is being bombarded with literally millions of inputs. You'll experience the reality of each moment through your physical senses. This is how we live. What you see, smell, hear, touch and taste, these sensory inputs are filtered through the fastest processor in the world. Your brain processes at speeds that are absolutely fascinating and unbelievable. Your brain's been designed to accept the chaos that's all around you, the noise of millions of inputs that you're feeling right now and somehow bring order and understanding to that. But in order to bring order, you'll have to be able to ignore the unimportant inputs and focus your full attention. I'd like you to write that down. Part of The 7 Minute Life is is teaching people how to focus your full attention, get rid of the noise on just, say, a very small number of of inputsat any given time. I want to help you focus on the important inputs and get rid of the rest. Let me give you an example to make this clear. Right now, think of the millions of things that are swirling in your brain. Your brain is causing you to breathe, it's causing your heart to beat, it's regulating your blood pressure. You're regenerating millions of cells. Your immune system is working and thankfully mom's immune system is working because she has [0:10:02.2 unclear]. But then think about other inputs. The temperature in the room that you're sitting in. The clothes you're wearing. The fact that you don't even feel the shirt that's on your back until I bring it to your conscious awareness that you're wearing clothes. We're not even aware of our surroundings and where we are. Even in this instant, what do you see around you? What are you hearing? What are you tasting, smelling, touching? You don't even feel the pen in your hand until I bring it up to conscious level that, "Hey, I'm holding a pen in my hand." You don't feel the shoes on your feet until we say feel the shoes on your feet. You don't even feel the chair you're sitting there until we consciously bring it from the subconscious awareness to the awareness. And then, take it further to the hundreds of items on that To-Do list that you have that constantly swirl through your subconscious like pesky irritants. The Christmas cards you need to read and you need to get sent out, the Christmas presents you need to wrap and travel plans you need to make for the Holidays. And then in business, the projects that you have to finish in the next week.The deadlines, the budgets, the files, the clutter in your desk. Millions of things are vying for your attention every second of your life. Each moment, you have millions of things you could focus on but what we will want to do is help you learn how what you should focus your attention on rather being distracted by the unending noise and mental chaos that we experienced every single day. So that's why this particular activating system is one of the brain's processes. It works like a filter, like a net to have you focus on. You're at a party and you're talking to someone and someone behind you speaks your name. It's your reticular activating system hears them call your name and immediately you're drawn away from the conversation you were in and you hear them, your full attention goes there. The word reticular is a net. The reticular veins in this leaf. We need a conscious filter in our brain catching what we will choose to filter into our conscious attention. This is what we call conscious thought and that is how we experience life. Only a tiny fraction of what you're seeing and hearing each day is allowed through the chaos. Unfortunately, we get caught up in the chaos rather than choosing what we will focus on. Let me tell you how this is gonna tie to your goals. We believe that by understanding how the reticular activating system works you can prime your brain to see what you want to see. We actually do choose as humans to see only the things we want to see. We disregard the rest. We cannot possibly understand or think about the millions of things that are happening. We have a very narrow bandwidth to see what we want to see. That's why goals are so incredibly important. When you take the time to write down a goal, your reticlar activating system and the other parts of your brain that control focus and attention are being primed. I like you to write down that word. Primed. When you write down your goals, you prime your brain to let you see people, solutions and resources to help you achieve your goals sooner than you ever thought possible. 17 years ago when I was pregnant with my first child, as I would go through Walmart- I had never seen it before- but I noticed all the babies out there. I noticed all the car seats, I noticed all the children in the shopping cart. When I bought a Ford C-Max, I noticed all the other Ford C-Maxes that were out there and all the other [0:14:08.6 unclear] just because I was priming myself through my reticular activating system. You know we talked about neuroplasticity and repetition. I want you to view your goals often, I want you to take at least 7 minutes everyday to think about your goals from this day forward and to filter them consciously. I want you to ask yourself a few questions to prime that filter. As you look at your goals, who could you call today to help you achieve a specific goal? How can you achieve that goal? What action can you step today? When should you set the deadline for the goal? What action could you take today to help you achieve that goal? And finally, why is this goal so important to you? By asking these simple priming questions, you're taking intentional time to think and bring all these things to your conscious awareness. You're priming your reticular activating system to see the answers that have always been out there, you just been in too much noise and too much chaos and your filter has let in too much distraction. And those distractions, the overload of inputs, they keep you from achieving your goals. The reticular activating system responds and filters so much more powerfully when goals are tied to motivation. So this is where I start getting excited. John, I want you to tell our community members about how these two concepts of the reticular activating system and goal setting and the opportunity to achieve their goals come together. John, can you tell us the importance of having goals that motivate us and that are in alignment with what is most important to us?
[0:16:06.9] JOHN: You betcha. It just struck me as you were talking Allyson that our reticular activating system is essentially like the browser of our brain. You know, we have a web browser and you go on your web browser and there's a search engine sitting there and that search engine's great but it will not do anything and it won't help you until you put something on that search bar. And when we are working on our goals, we're gonna do two things that are very powerful when you wed them together. We need to first clarify our core values and our purpose. We do that using- Allyson just put up- we have two great tools for that. The Prioritization Worksheet and Discovering Your Purpose Worksheet. Those are in the Daily Planner. You can also download them from our site. They're great worksheets. And when we do that Prioritization Worksheet and we do that Purpose Worksheet, that is the beginning of entering on our browser bar, if you will, our search bar. The things we want to start looking for with our life. And your brain will then actively crawl around you, crawl around your life and look for those things and flag them. It's also by doing that before- and that's really critical- we have to do our priorities and purpose before writing our goals because they need to drive our goals. If we don't nail down those core values and purpose first, what will happen is you'll be spending your time and effort on things that are not in alignment with your values and even if you're accomplishing those tasks, they can produce stress and resentment. I'll give you an example. I don't know how many of you know. I'm a pastor and pastors get asked constantly to volunteer and do things. And a lot of pastors are almost obsessive people pleasers. It's part of our nature, I think, it's a big issue for a lot of pastors. And early on in ministry, I was often saying Yes to many things. They were good things but I was mostly saying Yes because someone asked me and I didn't have a ready answer for why I couldn't do it. And it was a good thing so how could I say no? But they wouldn't necessarily be things that were totally in alignment with my purpose and my values and so what would happen is as I started moving toward deadlines on those things or having to show up for meetings, I would feel myself having this sort of nagging resistance or nagging sense of kind of resenting it that I had to be there eventhough I said yes to it. And that's because I was living outside of my purpose and my alignment. I would actually at times get close to a big deadline on something and I would find myself physically getting sick because I was just that out of sync with wanting to do it and that was my kind of body's passive-aggressive way of shutting me down and making me not able to do it. So I'd wind up with a cold before a big date on something. So it's really critical- I hope you can see that it's really critical that we nail down the priorities and purpose first and you have those written down because there's a clarity that comes with writing that it just doesn't come with having a loosened tension in your head. So before I move forward, Allyson do you want to add anything before we look at actual couple of goals?