Latest / Productive Insights Podcast: Business Growth for Independent Professionals with Ash Roy / 275. Why Goal Setting Fails and 3 Steps to Fix It

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275. Why Goal Setting Fails and 3 Steps to Fix It · Productive Insights Podcast: Business Growth for Independent Professionals with Ash Roy

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the productive insights podcast where you can learn how to systemize, automate, and scale your business via the Internet. To access previous episodes and useful productivity tips, go to www.productiveinsights.com. Now here's your host, Ash Roy.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: I've been working with entrepreneurs for over a decade and here's what shocked me. Most successful entrepreneurs I know don't have more goals. They have fewer of them but they tend to focus on one goal at a time, they master it and then they move on. So in this video I'm going to tell you the three key obstacles to achieving your goals and what you can do differently starting today. Grab a coffee, let's go for a walk and talk about it.
• 0:55
  In today's world where more seems to be better, we're tempted to think that more goals equals more success. But the opposite is true. Having interviewed productivity experts like James Clear, Brian Tracy, and even an assistant professor of psychiatry from Harvard Medical School Doctor. Srini Pillai, an accomplished neuroscientist. It turns out that less is more when it comes to goal setting and achievement.
• 1:19
  So here's what typically happens with goals. We get really excited about changing something in our lives. Maybe we decide to get fit or we decide we want to be a better writer. We write it down, we make a plan and for the first few days we are on fire and then the motivation drops. Maybe we miss a day, maybe we miss two days in a row.
• 1:39
  Now we feel like it's not really worth pursuing that goal anymore and before we know it we've given up. We think we don't have enough willpower and then we beat ourselves up. But you see, I don't think it's a willpower problem. I think it's a system problem. And in the next few minutes I'm going to show you a system that helps you avoid the three typical traps that we tend to fall into that stops us from being our best selves and exceeding our goals.
• 2:05
  Let's head that way. The three traps are the direction trap, the reactive trap, and the environment trap. Let's talk about each one of these. So the direction trap is about not having clear priorities. We tend to have many goals and we focus our energy in every possible direction and we don't get traction on anything.
• 2:23
  And when we have too many goals, we tend to fall into the reactive trap, which basically is about having no clear point of focus and so we tend to feel like everything's urgent and instead of being proactive and choosing how to spend our time, we become reactive and end up putting out a whole lot of fires but not really getting anywhere. And the third trap is the environment trap. Because we often believe that our willpower will save us, we have a tendency to lean on that way too much but as the day progresses your willpower tends to fade and your decision fatigue starts kicking in. And this is why your environment really matters. If you have an environment that's conducive to being focused, you're far more likely succeed at the fewer goals that you choose to pursue.
• 3:09
  Okay, so now that we understand the three traps, let's talk about the three shifts you need to make to avoid them. Shift number one, from direction to strategy. First ask yourself, what is the one thing I can do today that will either eliminate the need for a lot of the other things I need to do and slash or make them redundant? You see, the eightytwenty principle tells us that approximately 20% of our effort delivers approximately 80% of our results. But here's the interesting thing that Perry Marshall told me in episode one eighty six.
• 3:39
  We'll link to that video in the description below. The eighty twenty rule is fractal. So 20% of 20% is 4%, and 8080% of 80% is 64%. So 4% of your effort was 64% of your results. And you take that one level further and you'll find 0.8% of your effort delivers 51.2% of your results.
• 3:58
  So the question is, what is that 0.8% of your effort that will deliver 51.2% of your results? One good example of this, if you're trying to scale a business, is spending a lot of time on hiring great quality team members and building a strong team culture. Because when you make the effort to hire great people and encourage and incentivize them, then they will do as good or better work than you could ever imagine doing yourself. Another great example is building great systems in your business and that is an extension of the people in your business. Now what I recommend you do is write down your 10 goals by hand and then pick one goal that is going to have the maximum impact on all of your objectives and focus fully on that.
• 4:42
  The power of writing down your goals by hand is often underestimated. Brian Tracy explained exactly how writing down his goals helped him to transform his life. He was sleeping on the floor of his friend's apartment and he ended up accomplishing almost everything that he hoped for and more. If you'd like to watch the full conversation with Brian Tracy, check out the link in the description below. You see the power of writing things down is pretty incredible because it embeds a lot of the deep learning into your subconscious mind and your mind is often working on the goal even when you're not consciously engaging with it.
• 5:14
  So handwriting your top 10 goals every day for thirty days can be an absolute game changer. But remember, you're only focusing on the most important goal that will give you the maximum possible impact. A great question to ask yourself after you've written those 10 goals down is what's my one thing? Shift number two, from outcome based thinking to identity based thinking. Most of our goals tend to be outcome focused.
• 5:38
  I want to write a book. I want to lose weight. I want to become a great YouTuber. But typically focusing on an outcome puts the locus of control outside of ourselves. It somehow takes from the agency.
• 5:51
  When we shift from outcome based thinking to identity based thinking, the locus of control shifts from outside of ourselves to inside. For example, instead of saying, I want to write a book, if we said, I am a writer who writes every day, then we are voting for the identity of being a writer every day that we write. And each day we write, we are casting another vote towards building that identity. James Clear explained this beautifully in my conversation with him, which I'll link to in the description below. If you haven't read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, highly recommend it.
• 6:24
  I'll link to that in the description below as well. If you want to lose weight instead of saying I want to lose 10 kilos by the end of this year, say I am an athlete who exercises every day. When you flip your thinking from outcome based thinking to identity based thinking, you're internalizing that identity and reinforcing that identity every time you take action toward that identity and this further motivates you to take more action. I highly recommend trying this. I found it to be very effective.
• 6:51
  Let's head down that way and we can talk about shift number three. Okay shift number three from willpower to environment. You see willpower is a limited resource. It's like a muscle. As you use it through the day, it gets tired.
• 7:04
  It's called decision fatigue. At the end of the day, after countless decisions, your willpower is depleted. I mean, think about it. That's the reason at the end of a long day, you reach out for your phone and doomscroll instead of focusing on that passion project that you really want to move forward or you use that phone to order some Uber Eats instead of cooking yourself a quick healthy meal that's going to move you closer to your long term health goals. Why?
• 7:29
  Because it's easier, because there's less friction, because you've set your environment up to reduce the friction to accessing that stuff on your phone or to accessing the junk food in your pantry. So you see the solution here isn't to fight harder, it's to design your environment to give yourself the best chance of success. If you reduce the number of times you reach out for your phone, you're less likely to reach out for that Uber Eats app on your phone to order takeaway and you're more likely to actually do something useful with your time and make yourself a nice meal. If you don't have that junk food sitting in your pantry, you're less likely to eat rubbish and you're more likely to make the effort to make yourself a healthy sandwich. Same goes with your phone.
• 8:11
  If you design your phone better and you don't have a whole lot of apps sitting on that first page of your phone, you're less likely to engage in destructive behaviors. I highly checking out my conversation with James Clear where he talks about how he designs his phone to minimize access to distracting apps and to maximize friction when it comes to a poor digital environment. He explains how he designs his phone screens. He talks about how you can set your iPhone to grayscale mode and lots more. Link in the description below.
• 8:41
  So here are some quick tips to increase friction around habits you don't want to cultivate. Put your phone in another room while you're working. Don't buy junk food when you're in the store. If you do buy it, keep it out of reach and keep the healthy food at eye level in your pantry. Clear your workspace, make it free of clutter.
• 8:58
  Rewire your mornings. Keep a notebook next to your bed and write down your top 10 goals that you want to achieve and then circle the one thing you want to focus on that day that is going to make as many of the other goals redundant as possible. Choose one environmental tweak that's going to help you to succeed. Okay. So quick recap.
• 9:16
  Focus on your top 10 goals and write them down physically in a book every day for thirty days and circle the one thing that you're going to do that is going to move you closest towards your objectives and make the other goals relatively redundant. The next idea is to shift from outcome based thinking to identity based thinking. And in that same book, write down what identity you want to embrace. So for example, if you want to be a great YouTuber, write down, I'm a YouTuber and I create one piece of content every day. And the third thing is to design your environment to minimize friction when it comes to habits you want to embrace and maximize friction.
• 9:53
  So it makes it really hard for you to cultivate habits that are going to hurt you in the long term. So let me know in the comments below, what are you going to do today to either change your environment, to embrace a new identity, or to focus on one thing that will help you get to your goals? Hey, guys. Thank you so much for watching this video. Ciao for now.
• 10:09
  And I'll see you in the next one.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the productive insights podcast. You can find all the links in the show notes below this episode on productiveinsights.com. You can also ask questions in the comment section that Ash personally answers. How can Ash help you today?