What Goal-Setting Does to Your Brain and Why It’s Spectacularly Effective

I’ve seldom met a successful person who didn’t start out with a set of ambitious goals. However, the power of goal-setting isn’t just anecdotal. It turns out that there’s a wealth of scientific research into how goal-setting changes the way you brain functions. That research also provides guidance on how to make goal-setting vastly more effective.

Here’s the gist: Goal-setting restructures your brain to make it more effective. A key article in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews explains:

First, emotional significance is evaluated preattentively by a subcortical circuit involving the amygdala; and second, stimuli deemed emotionally significant are given priority in the competition for access to selective attention. This process involves bottom-up inputs from the amygdala as well as top-down influences from frontal lobe regions involved in goal setting and maintaining representations in working memory.

That’s a fairly technical description, so let me break it down:

  1. The part of your brain that creates emotion (your amygdala) evaluates the degree to which the goal is important to you.
  2. The part of your brain that does problem solving (your frontal lobe) defines the specifics of what the goal entails.
  3. The amygdala and frontal lobe work together to keep you focused on, and moving toward, situations and behaviors that lead to the achievement of that goal, while simultaneously causing you to ignore and avoid situations and behaviors that don’t.

While that process sounds as straightforward as a computer program, what’s actually happening is much more complex. Because your brain has something called neuroplasticity, goal-setting literally changes the structure of your brain so that it’s optimized to achieve that goal.

This phenomenon was first identified in a landmark study of multiple sclerosis patients at the University of Texas. MS is an extremely serious degenerative disease of the brain with debilitating symptoms like numbness, speech impairment, loss of muscular coordination, and severe fatigue. Researchers found that MS patients who set ambitious wellness goals had fewer, less severe symptoms than a control group. In effect, goal-setting actually helped heal their brains.

Researchers have also learned what kind of goals make the most dramatic changes to the brain structure. A recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology showed that goals that are highly emotional (i.e., the subject is highly motivated to succeed) cause participants to downwardly evaluate the difficulty of achieving that goal.

In other words, if you strongly desire a goal, your brain will perceive obstacles as less significantthan they might otherwise appear.

Research has also shown that ambitious goals are far more motivating (i.e. they more thoroughly structure your brain) than easily achieved goals. For example, a study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that people who committed to an ambitious goal (in this case reducing energy consumption by 20 percent) actually ended up saving energy. People who committed to an easier goal (reducing consumption by 5 percent) ended up consuming the same amount as before.

In other words, if you want to fully activate your amygdala and frontal lobe so that your brain makes you more successful, you must set challenging goals. As a meta-analysis on goal-setting research published in the Psychological Bulletin explained:

In 90% of the studies, specific and challenging goals led to higher performance than easy goals, “do your best” goals, or no goals. Goals affect performance by directing attention, mobilizing effort, increasing persistence, and motivating strategy development. Goal setting is most likely to improve task performance when the goals are specific and sufficiently challenging.

So, let’s summarize:

  1. Goal-setting literally alters the structure of your brain so that you perceive and behave in ways that will cause you to achieve those goals.
  2. Challenging goals that have strong emotional resonance will alter your brain structure more quickly and effectively than weak goals.

One word of warning: The brain-changing power of goal setting works only when it taps into the characteristics of the goal-setter’s individual brain. Because of this, bosses can’t set brain-changing goals for their employees. All a leader can do is have ambitious, challenging goals for themselves in the hope it will inspire others to do the same.

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This article was written by Geoffrey James  who is a contributing editor for Inc.com, has authored a dozen books, hundreds of feature articles, and thousands of online columns, mostly about business and technology

How Super Successful People Set Goals

Picture this: you set a well thought out goal. Whether, for the workplace or your personal life,  you’re excited about it.  As you begin working toward it, you pick up momentum and build related habits along the way, eventually gliding seemingly effortlessly to the finish line. We all set, (occasionally) achieve and pivot away from our goals, but some people seem to hit every goal they set for themselves with an ease most of us only dream of.

Good news: setting and achieving goals is not reserved for those more ambitious, wealthier, or better connected than you. With the right strategies, setting and seeing through a goal can be a fun (and totally achievable) personal challenge that anyone can take on.

The key here is to have a very simplified way of setting, focusing and executing your goals. We spoke to a handful of successful CEOs and founders to get a glimpse into how they set their own goals. These simple tricks are bound to take your goal-setting and habit-creating skills to the next level.

Schedule ‘Strategic Time’

“Busy CEOs will unanimously agree: time is the commodity they wish they had more of,” says Shawn Johal, Entrepreneur & Business Growth Coach. “As a current CEO and business growth coach to other CEOs, one of my key hacks for goal-setting is a habit: scheduling one uninterrupted hour every day for Strategic Time.”

Scheduling time to work your goals into your calendar and make them visible to whoever has access ensures everyone on your team understands this time is non-negotiable. No distractions, no interruptions — just pure focus.

“Strategy does not have to be left as a quarterly or annual topic; being purposeful about Strategic Time allows me to spend more time working on and refining big-picture ideas and vision. The first step for accomplishing goals is to be purposeful about setting goals – and that starts with making them a priority in your schedule!” says Johal.

Take time to reflect

“I don’t set any goals straight away,” explains Brett Helling, CEO of Ridester. “I take time to reflect on my progress over the previous year. Then assess whether I’ve spent enough time on what really matters and what I want to achieve in the next year.  I think more about the legacy and the impact I want to make.”

Helling suggests breaking down your goals into monthly and weekly achievements to shoot for, working toward those smaller, more achievable goals will help you stay motivated while eventually reaching your destination.

Reverse engineer your plan

“Include short term and long-term goals when you’re planning for the future,” adds Helling. “Break it down and think about what you need to accomplish in the first week, the first month and the first year. Also, envision your business in the next five years and work your way backwards to see how you need to get there.”

Consider a checklist

“Use a simple checklist to write the top three action items that will help you achieve your monthly goals,” suggests Globafly CEO Mariya Palanjian. “As you can see on this daily to-do list, you can write your monthly goals each day so you stay focused and think of all the resources/action items necessary to accomplish the goal.”

Don’t be afraid of a Plan B

“I hate to say it, but every career goal should include a Plan B,” says Helling. “You need to know what you are going to do when your original plan fails. Having a Plan B will assist you in making confident decisions and stay level-headed if things go astray.”

Stay balanced

“When strategizing goals and developing a framework for scaffolding the habits on which skyscrapers of success can be built, I remind CEOs of the importance of attending to growth in all spheres of their lives:  business, finance, leadership, family, social relationships, physical health, intellect, and spirituality,” explains Dr. Joy Lere, a psychologist who practices at the intersection of behavior and business. “Neglect of important facets of a person’s identity, functioning, and life when goal mapping can, in the long run, limit the outcome of the finest laid plans.”

Don’t bother with KPIs

“I’ve recently changed my goal setting to not include metrics based KPIs,” says Phil Strazzulla is the Founder and CEO of SelectSoftware, “This is based on advice from Jason Friedman, who runs Basecamp, and made me realize most metrics-driven KPIs will leave you feeling like you haven’t hit your goals.”

Instead of focusing on metrics and KPIs, simply focus on doing work to further work on the goal you’re chasing. This way, you’re able to see the small milestones as wins rather than being beholden to KPIs that tend to swing for reasons outside of your control.

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This article was written by Kaitlyn McInnis, an experienced writer, editor, and consultant based in Montreal, Canada with a demonstrated history of working in digital media.