Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #186 Psychological Secrets
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the
- 0:06Speaker 1: time poor parent who just wants answers.
- 0:09Speaker 2: Now, So a goal is really something where if you
- 0:12Speaker 2: do it, you can tell that it's being done.
- 0:15Speaker 1: And now here's the stars of our show, my mom
- 0:18Speaker 1: and dad.
- 0:19Speaker 2: Hello, this is doctor Justin Colson, the author of six
- 0:21Speaker 2: books about raising happy families. And I'm here with my
- 0:23Speaker 2: wife Clive, you miss Happy Families, mum to our six daughters.
- 0:27Speaker 3: You know, I don't know what it is really about
- 0:29Speaker 3: the new year and this idea of setting goals and
- 0:34Speaker 3: New Year's resolutions.
- 0:35Speaker 2: But fresh slate, clean slate, whatever it is, fire up
- 0:39Speaker 2: that that is.
- 0:40Speaker 4: Do you get excited by that?
- 0:41Speaker 5: I actually do.
- 0:42Speaker 3: Yeah, And I sit down and I, you know, map
- 0:45Speaker 3: out how I want the.
- 0:46Speaker 4: Year to look in I'm going to be so much better.
- 0:48Speaker 5: So much better, And it does. It's literally like it is.
- 0:52Speaker 3: It's this fresh page, and I get to decide what
- 0:56Speaker 3: it looks like.
- 0:56Speaker 4: You've got a brand new calendar.
- 0:58Speaker 5: I do have a brand.
- 0:59Speaker 3: New calendar and diary and I'm rearing and ready to go.
- 1:02Speaker 3: And so I've sat down and I've written down the
- 1:05Speaker 3: things that i want to.
- 1:06Speaker 5: Achieve this year. Awesome but the problem is that usually
- 1:10Speaker 5: what happens.
- 1:11Speaker 2: By Anuary the fourth. How are you going, by the way,
- 1:14Speaker 2: I mean, we're almost at the end of January. How
- 1:16Speaker 2: are you going with your New Year's resolutions?
- 1:18Speaker 5: I have kicked butt with a couple of them, and
- 1:21Speaker 5: I have completely missed the mark with some of them.
- 1:23Speaker 4: Wow.
- 1:23Speaker 2: Okay, so let's do this podcast about how we can
- 1:27Speaker 2: actually make our New Year's resolutions work. Let's talk about
- 1:30Speaker 2: how we can have the psychological secrets to having the
- 1:32Speaker 2: best year ever.
- 1:33Speaker 5: That sounds awesome.
- 1:34Speaker 3: I have got friends who love setting goals, and I've
- 1:37Speaker 3: got friends that absolutely hate it.
- 1:39Speaker 5: I think the problem is understanding what a goal is.
- 1:42Speaker 2: A goal is a form of self regulation that we
- 1:46Speaker 2: adopt to achieve a specific outcome and ideally, So let
- 1:51Speaker 2: me go over that very carefully. First of all, goals
- 1:53Speaker 2: require self regulation because we're working towards something that we're
- 1:55Speaker 2: currently not And that's why a lot of people don't
- 1:57Speaker 2: like goals, by the way, because if you're setting a goal,
- 1:58Speaker 2: it means I'm not enough as I am. I don't
- 2:00Speaker 2: have a problem with that. I think we should always
- 2:02Speaker 2: be reaching for more, trying to be better. I'm cool
- 2:04Speaker 2: with that. But it's a specific aim that we're working towards.
- 2:10Speaker 2: And this is where a lot of people fall down
- 2:11Speaker 2: with the goals. So they say, I want to have
- 2:14Speaker 2: a goal of being healthy, but there's nothing specific about
- 2:17Speaker 2: being healthy, like health exists on a continuum, so we
- 2:20Speaker 2: need to work out what it is to be healthy.
- 2:22Speaker 5: So I have a goal that I want to attend
- 2:24Speaker 5: the gym three times a week.
- 2:26Speaker 2: Okay, so that's really specific. That's absolutely specific, it's completely measurable.
- 2:30Speaker 2: So a goal is really something where if you do it,
- 2:33Speaker 2: you can tell that it's been done.
- 2:36Speaker 5: So I have to wait till the end of the
- 2:37Speaker 5: year to say have achieved that goal.
- 2:38Speaker 2: Well, if you've said I want to achieve I want
- 2:40Speaker 2: to go to the gym every day, oh sorry, three
- 2:42Speaker 2: times a week until the end of the year, then yes,
- 2:45Speaker 2: you have to wait until the end of the year.
- 2:46Speaker 4: So it depends on the timeframe that you want to
- 2:48Speaker 4: put on it.
- 2:48Speaker 2: Whereas if you say I want to set a goal
- 2:49Speaker 2: to be healthy, there's nothing specific about that. There's nothing
- 2:52Speaker 2: time bound about it. There's nothing specifically measurable about it
- 2:56Speaker 2: healthy in relation to what so a goal is saying
- 2:59Speaker 2: I'm going to regular my behavior towards a specific end
- 3:03Speaker 2: at a particular time.
- 3:04Speaker 4: That's really what we're talking about with goals.
- 3:06Speaker 2: So the goal, I'm going to go to the gym
- 3:08Speaker 2: three times a week, that's a goal.
- 3:10Speaker 5: So I want to complete my certificate three.
- 3:13Speaker 2: Ah, Yes, that's right, because today's the day. Today is
- 3:16Speaker 2: the day heading off to tape for the first time
- 3:19Speaker 2: in something a couple of decades. Yeah, so you want
- 3:23Speaker 2: to okay, and you'll have a time that's allocated.
- 3:26Speaker 3: You want to get it six month course, so I
- 3:28Speaker 3: want to finish it in six months time.
- 3:29Speaker 4: Right, So that's a specific goal.
- 3:31Speaker 2: It's measurable, you'll know when you've done it, and you've
- 3:34Speaker 2: got a time associated with it.
- 3:37Speaker 4: Okay, So that's what a goal is.
- 3:39Speaker 3: So I want to do my morning devotional time.
- 3:47Speaker 5: That's something that I struggle with.
- 3:48Speaker 3: I do it on and off, and sometimes I'm awesome
- 3:50Speaker 3: at it and sometimes I'm not. So that includes my affirmations,
- 3:53Speaker 3: includes you know, some self development reading, it.
- 3:58Speaker 4: Includes spiritual practice.
- 4:01Speaker 2: And so what you're saying there is that a goal. Yes,
- 4:04Speaker 2: Well it could be or it might not be. So
- 4:06Speaker 2: if you were to say, I want to set a
- 4:07Speaker 2: goal that I want to do this thing every single
- 4:10Speaker 2: day for the next three months, or the next twelve months,
- 4:14Speaker 2: or for the rest of my life. Then yes, that
- 4:17Speaker 2: can be a goal, but it's kind of non specific. Yes,
- 4:19Speaker 2: you can tell that you've done it. You either tick
- 4:21Speaker 2: the box or you don't. And yes, it is measurable
- 4:24Speaker 2: in that you've got that clear indication that it's either
- 4:28Speaker 2: being completed or not. But it's not really time bound.
- 4:31Speaker 2: Because what we're really talking about here is there's an
- 4:34Speaker 2: intersection between goals and habits. So habits are something that
- 4:37Speaker 2: their behavior that we repeat automatically. We're in a certain
- 4:40Speaker 2: situation and we simply do something almost without thinking, in fact,
- 4:43Speaker 2: often without thinking because it's become a habit.
- 4:46Speaker 5: So when we create new habits, they start off as goals.
- 4:49Speaker 2: Well sometimes sometimes they start off because we're not thinking
- 4:52Speaker 2: about anything at all, and it just becomes our habitual
- 4:55Speaker 2: way of responding. So let's say you've got the habit
- 4:57Speaker 2: of snapping every time you're part asks you to take
- 5:01Speaker 2: the bin out, or getting cranky every time your partner
- 5:05Speaker 2: leaves the towel on the floor in the bathroom.
- 5:07Speaker 4: That just becomes a habit.
- 5:08Speaker 2: You roll your eyes and say, oh, for goodness sakes,
- 5:10Speaker 2: I can't believe they've done it again. And that's just
- 5:12Speaker 2: your habitual response, which compounds over time. So a goal
- 5:16Speaker 2: has to be specifically chosen. A habit doesn't have to
- 5:19Speaker 2: be specifically chosen. A habit's just what we do automatically.
- 5:23Speaker 2: But you can set a goal to create better habits.
- 5:26Speaker 2: So have you got any habits that you want to
- 5:29Speaker 2: kick off this year? Well, my routine, your routine, That
- 5:33Speaker 2: morning routine is everything.
- 5:34Speaker 3: I really noticed that my day goes better when I
- 5:36Speaker 3: spend that time on me the first thing in the morning.
- 5:39Speaker 3: But I often get caught up in the fact that
- 5:41Speaker 3: that's the best time for me to do the other
- 5:44Speaker 3: things in my life.
- 5:44Speaker 4: Late mornings are the best. Yes, so many things that
- 5:47Speaker 4: you want to get done more morning. That's right.
- 5:50Speaker 2: It's tricky, isn't it. And then, of course you've got goals.
- 5:52Speaker 2: So there's a handful of things that get in the
- 5:54Speaker 2: way of being successful with either our habits or our goals.
- 5:58Speaker 2: Now that we know the difference between the two. There's
- 6:01Speaker 2: three Well, there's a whole lot of things, but I
- 6:03Speaker 2: reckon it's worth focusing on three things.
- 6:05Speaker 4: I actually talk to you twelve students about this.
- 6:07Speaker 2: Three things that get in the way of achieving success
- 6:11Speaker 2: in laying down effective habits and achieving goals.
- 6:14Speaker 4: Let's talk about.
- 6:15Speaker 2: Those three d's that devastate and destroy our habits and goals.
- 6:18Speaker 1: Right after break, it's the Happy Families Podcast.
- 6:22Speaker 3: For a happier family, Try a Happy Families membership because
- 6:26Speaker 3: a happy family doesn't just happen.
- 6:28Speaker 4: Details at happy families dot com dot au.
- 6:32Speaker 3: It's the Happy Families Podcast, the podcast for the time
- 6:34Speaker 3: poor parent who just wants answers now. And we are
- 6:36Speaker 3: talking about how to create the best year ever.
- 6:39Speaker 4: Yeah, goals and habits.
- 6:41Speaker 2: And before the break, I was talking about three things
- 6:43Speaker 2: that can really devastate our ability to achieve our goals
- 6:46Speaker 2: and set up three three ds. So doubt. Doubt is
- 6:50Speaker 2: the first one. Doubt what well, you've got a goal
- 6:53Speaker 2: to finish TAFE for example, you said you want to
- 6:56Speaker 2: get that certificate three this year in Florestry. You've got
- 6:58Speaker 2: six months to do it. But doubt is one of
- 7:01Speaker 2: the really big scary things. And a lot of people'll
- 7:03Speaker 2: set a goal. They know exactly what it is that
- 7:05Speaker 2: they want to achieve. It's specific and you know when
- 7:08Speaker 2: you've got it done. They know it's got to be
- 7:09Speaker 2: done by this time. But then doubt creeps in. I'm
- 7:12Speaker 2: not good enough. I've done that one before, I've tried before,
- 7:14Speaker 2: and it's just I'm not that good. Maybe it's a
- 7:16Speaker 2: goal to get your mornings right. Maybe it's a goal
- 7:19Speaker 2: to stop yelling at the kids. It's always burted by
- 7:21Speaker 2: the way. To set your goals in the positive, not
- 7:23Speaker 2: the negative. So stop yelling at the kids. That's a negative.
- 7:25Speaker 2: Don't set a goal to stop yelling. Set a goal
- 7:27Speaker 2: to always be calm with the kids. But when we
- 7:31Speaker 2: set these goals, we sometimes doubt. And you know the
- 7:35Speaker 2: best way to overcome doubt, it's with another word starting
- 7:38Speaker 2: with D of.
- 7:39Speaker 5: Course, it is because you love alliteration.
- 7:41Speaker 4: You've got to decide. Just decide.
- 7:44Speaker 2: It's like, oh should I sign up for the course,
- 7:46Speaker 2: or oh should I get my kids to do this,
- 7:48Speaker 2: or just decide decision. There's so much power in just
- 7:52Speaker 2: making a decision. Once you make the decision, once you
- 7:54Speaker 2: hand over your credit card, you committed, and it's amazing
- 7:58Speaker 2: what you achieve when you finally make that decision to commit.
- 8:02Speaker 3: So doing this course is actually has been a really
- 8:05Speaker 3: big turning point for me because I have doubted my
- 8:09Speaker 3: capacity to be able to do it in light of
- 8:11Speaker 3: everything else that needs to be done in my life.
- 8:13Speaker 4: There you go, you're living into the psychology without even
- 8:14Speaker 4: knowing it.
- 8:15Speaker 3: Yes, so I made a decision and I jumped on
- 8:18Speaker 3: the bandwagon.
- 8:19Speaker 2: Okay, So I mean we're talking about you here, honey,
- 8:22Speaker 2: But I mean this is really applicable to any anyone
- 8:26Speaker 2: in any situation. If you want to improve your life,
- 8:28Speaker 2: if you want to improve your family, you set a goal,
- 8:31Speaker 2: but recognize that doubt will creep in. And the best
- 8:34Speaker 2: way to have come doubt is with a decision.
- 8:36Speaker 4: Just commit.
- 8:37Speaker 2: And by the way, if you do absolutely commit and
- 8:39Speaker 2: then you fail, pick yourself up and get on with
- 8:43Speaker 2: it the next day. Don't fail two days in a row.
- 8:45Speaker 2: It's like that goal to exercise three times a week
- 8:48Speaker 2: at the gym. If you miss and only get two
- 8:51Speaker 2: this week, then make up for it next week. You
- 8:54Speaker 2: don't have to do a fourth day. Just get back
- 8:55Speaker 2: on the horse and make sure you get three next week.
- 8:57Speaker 2: Don't fail multiple days multiple weeks in a row. So
- 9:01Speaker 2: the second D is the d of distraction. Okay, the
- 9:04Speaker 2: other thing that gets in the way of our habits
- 9:05Speaker 2: and goals is distraction.
- 9:07Speaker 3: So this is a big one for me, especially we
- 9:09Speaker 3: talked about the morning routine.
- 9:11Speaker 4: Is we have six kids for crying out loud and Netflix.
- 9:14Speaker 3: If I haven't been great the night before and the
- 9:17Speaker 3: house is a bit disarrayed, When I get up first
- 9:20Speaker 3: thing in the morning and the house is calm, it's
- 9:21Speaker 3: the perfect time for me to get out quickly and
- 9:24Speaker 3: create order before the chaos walks out the bedroom doors.
- 9:29Speaker 5: And so all of a sudden.
- 9:30Speaker 2: Bwelling our kids chaos before the chaos walks out of
- 9:32Speaker 2: the bedroom.
- 9:33Speaker 4: I can't believe you said that.
- 9:36Speaker 3: Sorry, And so all of a sudden that becomes more
- 9:40Speaker 3: important than what I actually know, creates you groundedness and
- 9:48Speaker 3: the ability to kind of, you know, focus more intently
- 9:52Speaker 3: on the things that are important by doing that morning routine.
- 9:55Speaker 2: Well, in the same way that we overcome doubt with
- 9:58Speaker 2: the decision, we overcome the lemma of distraction. I can't
- 10:03Speaker 2: help myself with discipline.
- 10:05Speaker 3: So you're saying I'm not disciplined if I decide that
- 10:08Speaker 3: your dishes need to be done much first.
- 10:10Speaker 2: Well, the dishes should have been done the night before,
- 10:12Speaker 2: let's face it. But yeah, it really comes down to
- 10:15Speaker 2: discipline when you make that commitment when you make that decision,
- 10:17Speaker 2: you've got to be disciplined enough to stick with it.
- 10:19Speaker 2: But there are things that you can do to make
- 10:20Speaker 2: it easier to be disciplined. Okay, like what, well, let's
- 10:24Speaker 2: say it's the gym. You make sure that you've got
- 10:26Speaker 2: your gym clothes out, or you make sure that your
- 10:28Speaker 2: schedule is.
- 10:28Speaker 5: I get into my gym clothes, I'm.
- 10:30Speaker 2: Wearing them, or you make sure that you do everything
- 10:33Speaker 2: that you can to set yourself up to be successful,
- 10:36Speaker 2: because that requires less discipline. If you do the work
- 10:38Speaker 2: ahead of time and remove the friction, it's easier to
- 10:43Speaker 2: step in and follow through to actually move towards that goal,
- 10:46Speaker 2: towards that habit being completed.
- 10:49Speaker 5: So you know how much I hate having things on
- 10:51Speaker 5: my bedside table.
- 10:53Speaker 4: Yeah?
- 10:53Speaker 3: Yeah, that my bedside table is now stacked up with
- 10:56Speaker 3: the things that I would use for my morning routine.
- 10:59Speaker 3: So literally open my eyes and they're.
- 11:02Speaker 4: All right there.
- 11:03Speaker 2: So you've removed all friction. It's right in front of you.
- 11:06Speaker 2: All you have to do a switch on the light,
- 11:08Speaker 2: reach out, pick up the first thing, and you're away.
- 11:10Speaker 2: And that's what I'm talking about, because the more you
- 11:12Speaker 2: have to rely on discipline and willpower, the less likely
- 11:15Speaker 2: it is that you'll be successful because.
- 11:17Speaker 3: Not to actually olse. What else I did that was
- 11:18Speaker 3: really cool? I brought this elastic band. I don't even
- 11:21Speaker 3: know what you call them, but it goes around all
- 11:23Speaker 3: of my books and holds them all in one, keeps.
- 11:26Speaker 4: Them neat and tidy. That's right.
- 11:28Speaker 2: But the idea here is you just don't want to
- 11:30Speaker 2: rely on willpower if you can avoid it, because willpower
- 11:33Speaker 2: is lousy.
- 11:33Speaker 4: You know, let's say you're trying to get off chocolate.
- 11:35Speaker 5: Let's not talk about chocolate.
- 11:37Speaker 2: Having it in the kitchen is really really you're relying
- 11:40Speaker 2: on willpower. You're going to fail at about three thirty
- 11:43Speaker 2: in the afternoon or two thirty in the afternoon. But
- 11:45Speaker 2: if you don't have it there, you don't have to
- 11:46Speaker 2: rely on willpower.
- 11:47Speaker 5: Are you in the kitchen at three thirty?
- 11:49Speaker 2: I'm just saying, Okay, So we've got two d's doubt
- 11:52Speaker 2: and distraction.
- 11:53Speaker 5: You said there were three.
- 11:54Speaker 2: You overcome them with, you know, such hard work. You
- 11:57Speaker 2: overcome them with decision and discipline. But I think that
- 12:01Speaker 2: the third D is one of the most challenging ones,
- 12:04Speaker 2: and that is when we're trying to set a new
- 12:05Speaker 2: goal or create new habits. We kind of get caught
- 12:08Speaker 2: up in the drudgery of it, like eventually it's just
- 12:11Speaker 2: hard work. We're really inspired and motivated at the beginning,
- 12:15Speaker 2: and then we get to what some psychologists have called
- 12:17Speaker 2: the messy middle, where it's just plain hard work. Committed
- 12:23Speaker 2: to go to the gym three times a week for
- 12:25Speaker 2: the rest of the year.
- 12:25Speaker 4: I'll hang on. I've got eleven months to go.
- 12:28Speaker 2: It was really inspiring for the first three days, but
- 12:30Speaker 2: now my body hurts and I'm tired, and I've got
- 12:33Speaker 2: a new course that I've signed up for, and my
- 12:35Speaker 2: husband's sick, husband's traveling, kids were sick, They've got to
- 12:38Speaker 2: get to school.
- 12:39Speaker 4: How am I going to do it?
- 12:39Speaker 2: It's all too hard, and we get into the messy
- 12:41Speaker 2: middle of it and it's just drudgery, simply challenging. And
- 12:45Speaker 2: so the way we overcome that is we really work
- 12:50Speaker 2: on intentional deep work.
- 12:52Speaker 4: That's the answer.
- 12:53Speaker 2: You get really committed to it and you say, well,
- 12:56Speaker 2: from this point to this point, I'm going to be
- 12:58Speaker 2: fully invested. I'm going to work deeply. This is where
- 13:01Speaker 2: I'm going to spend my time, and that deep work,
- 13:04Speaker 2: whether it's keeping the house clean, or whether it's doing
- 13:06Speaker 2: the deep inner work of learning how to calm your
- 13:10Speaker 2: farm and keep your temper in check, or whether it's
- 13:14Speaker 2: doing the deep work that's necessary to get to wherever
- 13:17Speaker 2: it is.
- 13:18Speaker 4: It doesn't really matter what it is that you're trying
- 13:20Speaker 4: to do.
- 13:20Speaker 2: It's that deep work, it's that discipline and that decision. Ultimately,
- 13:23Speaker 2: it's the decision that gets you there towards those goals
- 13:26Speaker 2: to create those habits.
- 13:28Speaker 4: You're feeling inspired.
- 13:29Speaker 5: Do you know what my word is?
- 13:30Speaker 3: This shift?
- 13:31Speaker 4: Intention? Yeah?
- 13:34Speaker 5: You slipped that in there, didn't you?
- 13:35Speaker 4: I did?
- 13:36Speaker 5: You did?
- 13:36Speaker 4: Yeah? Because I'm good like that?
- 13:39Speaker 5: No, I am. I'm feeling great. I think that number one.
- 13:42Speaker 3: Understanding what a goal is as opposed to a habit
- 13:46Speaker 3: or a routine is really important. And now that I
- 13:48Speaker 3: have a really clear picture of what my goals are
- 13:50Speaker 3: and what my habits are will really help moving forward.
- 13:54Speaker 5: I'm excited.
- 13:55Speaker 2: Okay now, No, I know it's sort of like January
- 13:57Speaker 2: and some people have already given up on their goals,
- 13:58Speaker 2: but it's not too late to start again. And just
- 14:01Speaker 2: you're never going to rise above your systems, your habits.
- 14:04Speaker 2: So it's one thing to set a goal, but if
- 14:06Speaker 2: you've got lousy habits underpinning the goal, you're never going
- 14:08Speaker 2: to get there. You've got to create the habits, and
- 14:10Speaker 2: that's really where the answer lies.
- 14:13Speaker 4: So good luck, set some new goals. Create.
- 14:15Speaker 2: By the way, don't have more than two or three goals.
- 14:16Speaker 2: Your brain just can't hang on twenty more than that,
- 14:18Speaker 2: it's simply too much.
- 14:20Speaker 3: Thanks for that coaching session, honey, I'm going to have
- 14:22Speaker 3: an awesome there result of that.
- 14:25Speaker 1: Well.
- 14:25Speaker 4: I hope you enjoyed the podcast.
- 14:27Speaker 2: If you do enjoy it, please visit Apple Podcasts and
- 14:29Speaker 2: leave a rating and review. It's the reviews that help
- 14:30Speaker 2: people to find the podcast and have happier families. The
- 14:33Speaker 2: Happy Families podcast is produced by Justin Ruhlan and our
- 14:36Speaker 2: executive producer is Craig Bruce. For more information about making
- 14:40Speaker 2: your family flourish, visit happy families dot com dot au.