## Metadata author:: [[@Huberman Lab]] publish_date:: reviewed_date:: ```dataview TABLE notes FROM "" where file.name = "% 2023-03-20 The Science of Setting & Achieving Goals Episode 55" ``` ## Highlights - Speaker 0: us more likely to lean into our goals into action. And if we step back and think about this, this makes perfect sense. The brain and body need to be coordinated. We can't just think about a goal. In fact a deer or a lion, can't just think about a goal. It has to think about a goal and then has to feel some sort of activation energy, some willingness or desire to move forward in pursuit of that goal. So imagining a goal has to be coupled to the physical pursuit of the goal. So our visual system in a beautiful way brings together a focus literally a visual focus on a particular point outside us. Then it recruits an increase in systolic blood pressure which creates a systemic a body wide and brain wide [(Time 0:48:43)](https://www.airr.io/quote/64132efb8cd409e42056a130) - Speaker 0: about the perfect relationship and what that would look like and the the family that you would have and where you would live, is that effective in generating the kinds of behaviors that will lead you to that. Is it effective to think about the big win at the end? It turns out it is but you have to be very, very careful with when and how you implement that visualization, because if you do it correctly, it can really serve your goal seeking well and if you do it incorrectly, it can undermine the entire process. So does visualization work well, It turns out that visualization of the big win, the end goal. So the Super Bowl win or eight gold medals in the olympics or graduation from the University of your choice or making a certain amount of money or finding the partner of [(Time 0:59:47)](https://www.airr.io/quote/64189b6e3c8e5e1eb2f1624a) - notes:: Visualization practice not on the success of your big goal, but on the failure of your big goal can instill a doubling effect on your motivation  - Speaker 0: blood markers of lipids, etcetera are going to improve. Okay, fine. That's the visualization goal of visualizing the endpoint turns out that is far less effective and maybe even counterproductive compared to thinking about what's going to happen. If you don't do this, the negative health outcomes that are going to occur. The disappointment you're gonna have in yourself, the fact that you're going to wait until 7 30 that's not long enough for many people to run five miles. You gotta put on your shoes, there's gonna be pouring rain or even hailing or snowing outside and now you're not going outside unless you're somebody who's particularly motivated to do that. Okay, so foreshadowing failure turns out to be the best way to motivate toward goal pursuit. In fact, as I mentioned before, there's a near doubling in the likelihood that people will reach goals of any kind when they're constantly thinking [(Time 1:04:07)](https://www.airr.io/quote/64189e5c3c8e5e1eb2f1debf) - notes:: The best visualization practices to do is positive and goal achievement at the beginning of your task i.e. the very beginning of you starting some thing, and then the negative outcome reflection, constantly, and moving forward - Speaker 0: We've all heard that the more specific the goal is, and the more specific we are about when and how we are going to execute that goal, the higher probability that we will actually achieve that goal and indeed that's the case. But there's an additional feature that's not often discussed that is vitally important and in fact may be more important than having a specific time of day or a specific endpoint in mind. It's a really nice study that was done, looking at recycling and this is something that a number of groups, businesses, households and individuals are trying to do more of, they're trying to lower carbon footprint or contribute to um the world in some general way by throwing away fewer things that could potentially be recycled. So [(Time 1:16:00)](https://www.airr.io/quote/6418ad9a3c8e5e1eb2f409f2) - notes:: When, approaching your big goals, concrete action, plan steps, and reevaluation and updating of those steps in essentials in the achievement of that goal