How to achieve your goals through neuroscience?

After celebrating the end of year holidays, you have certainly determined your good resolutions for 2023. New job that makes sense, promotion at the beginning of the year, launching your freelance project or even develop your turnover for those who already are, you will surely need a helping hand to stick to it! Discover the valuable advice of Melinda Limoges, neuroscience coach, to set your next goals and especially to achieve them.

Summary

1. Define a goal that holds up

2. Mobilize the 4 parts of your brain

Define a goal that holds up

What is a relevant objective?

There is a well-known method for setting a goal: the SMART method. This acronym includes 5 criteria to take into account: Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, Realistic and Temporally defined. This mnemonic tool is very practical to stay on track throughout the implementation of a project.

But what we often forget is to ask ourselves if these are “relevant” goals. Before putting the previous method into practice, you need to ask yourself the following question: is my goal personal and positive? If either of these points is not met, then you will have to adjust it. These two conditions are important because the more personal and positive your goal is, the more rewarding it will be to reach it.

Let's take an example. “I want to quit” can become the next objective: “I want to find a job that makes sense for me.” This one is more motivating, isn't it?

Focus on envy

For this goal to be attainable, it must thrill you. Your body should respond positively to the idea of doing it. Your physical sensations are important because they are the first indicator of your desire. Here are a few questions to ask yourself to get an even clearer picture:

• Is my objective really in line with my values?
  This goal may be ideal for many, but does it align with who you are? Does this goal align with your personal values or the expectations of someone else?
• Am I clear about the price to pay to reach this goal?
  This is not an easy question but it allows you to reframe your needs and limitations in relation to this objective. Are you ready to invest this amount of money to develop your business? Are you really ready to take this sabbatical to learn about this competence/area?
• If your goal is not reached, what would be an acceptable plan B?
  Unfortunately, you won't be able to anticipate all the unexpected and may need to adjust your goal during the year. For that, do you have a plan B that you can still congratulate yourself on? For example, if you do not reach a turnover of 100k at the end of the year, maybe it is still rewarding to have exceeded your turnover of the previous year.

Going beyond limiting beliefs

Despite your good will, you will surely face some obstacles. It's perfectly normal when you're taking on new challenges. It is also possible that you are not aware of your inner dialogue. You know, that little voice that assures you that it's impossible to get there.

How do you identify a limiting belief? Let's take a concrete case: this year, you want to start freelancing but you are afraid of not finding your first customers because”You don't know how to sell yourself”. If you add “I believe that...” at the beginning of this sentence, you will realize that it is only a belief and not a fact. If necessary, look for at least one element that contradicts this limiting belief in your past experiences: “I succeeded in convincing a former prospect of the value of a product and in making the exchange a reality by signing a contract.” This short exercise is a good way to take a step back and find hard facts that prove that you are fully capable of achieving this goal. But above all, you will know how to get back into a good state of mind.

Now let's move on to practice to very concretely thwart the bad tricks of our brain.

Mobilize the 4 parts of your brain

Neuroscience is concerned with the functioning and structure of the brain. Studies have thus identified four parts of the brain that, when mobilized together, can help you reach your goals more easily.

Precision

To measure the success of an objective, it must be specific and time-bound. But how can you properly stimulate your left brain, which is useful in organizing, planning and clarifying your objective?

To proceed, you will necessarily have to define a specific plan with a deadline so that your brain can get moving and mobilize the right resources. Without this, he will not understand that the action starts right now and that there is a time frame for completion. You will also need to define steps, the necessary means and anticipate potential obstacles. This last point is important because being aware of these obstacles will help you much more than if you ignore them. By anticipating potential obstacles related to people or events, you will be better prepared when they occur because your brain will know how to react.

Practical exercise: Create intermediate levels of success and each time you reach a level, reward yourself (with a dinner at a popular restaurant, a new experience or training that will help you surpass yourself). You will boost your dopamine doses and therefore maintain a higher degree of motivation throughout the process of achieving your goal.

Visualization

You have your objective in mind but is it concrete enough? Since your brain can't tell the difference between a real or imaginary experience, use your right brain's ability to visualize that your goal has already been achieved.

This may seem paradoxical but if your body has associated physical sensations with the achievement of your goal, your brain will at the same time believe in this event, even though it only occurs in the imaginary. The more detailed you can visualize your goal, the more it will be considered a memory.

Practical exercise: Create a visualization board with as much detail as possible. Use images by mobilizing your five senses: a photo of the result (if it is material), graphics, inspirational quotes, photos of objects or environments that recall the environment of your lens. If it is clear in your head, your unconscious will naturally guide you to information useful for its realization.

Emotions

We generally tend to focus on the rational aspect when setting a goal while neglecting emotions are a powerful motivator. Moreover, it is thanks to neuroscience that we have been able to demonstrate the link between emotions and their beneficial effects on performance.

Even if they are often considered as distractions, emotions are valuable tools for understanding our fears, desires, needs and limitations. What if we trusted our middle brain - the seat of our emotions - to understand the messages it transmits to us?

Practical exercise: Picture yourself when your goal has been reached. What emotions are going through you? Do you feel a rush of euphoria or rather a feeling of fullness? Remember these sensations if you forget why you set this goal for yourself along the way.

Action

Here is the last step, often the longest: take action. Your goal will most likely require significant effort. This is going to cost your brain, which will tend to prefer good old habits. But these are not (always) going to help you! How do you activate your cerebellum?

This part of the brain, about the size of an apple (about 10% of the cranial box), mobilizes more than 50% of our neurons. Considered as the part of the brain dedicated to action and sensitive to temporal markers, it will need to be stimulated regularly. You do not need to carry out major actions but you will increase your chances of reaching your goal with small efforts, for example at the rate of one action per day. Do not forget that the brain wants a quick return on its investment so if you multiply these actions, you will give it immediate pleasure.

Practical exercise: You don't want to get started but you feel obligated. Commit to only doing the first 5 minutes of the action in question. This can be a small administrative task, putting on your sportswear and sitting on your sofa or even sitting in front of your screen rereading a project from the day before. A good way to bypass your brain, which will have difficulty stopping an action that has just begun.

Bonus: Prefer time slots of 45 minutes instead of a full hour. Your brain is lazy sometimes so think again.

Neuroscience reminds us of the importance of knowing ourselves well, emotionally and cerebrally. This self-knowledge is more necessary to define goals that make sense to you and to put all the chances on your side in order to achieve them. These few cognitive exercises are a great introduction to help you achieve your projects. To find out more on the subject, watch the replay of our webinar on the subject and access additional exercises.

[This article was written in partnership with Melinda Limoges certified neuroscience coach, trainer and speaker. She applies neuroscience discoveries to the world of work to increase both the performance and the well-being of teams. His favorite subjects are neuro-sales, neuro-management and neuro-performance. To find out more or to register for his courses, send him a message on LinkedIn.]