How To Trick Your Brain To Focus On Your Goals: Dopamine & The 7 Step Goal Breakdown
Achieving your goals is not about motivation - it's about inspiration. Back in college I did a report in psychology on How To Rewire Your Brain. The latest research shows it takes an average of 66 days for a habit to develop long term or as we would say in the military, “muscle memory”. That's well over two months before it becomes a natural part of your daily routine. The problem is, your brain is lazy and doesn't want to work on anything that doesn't bring instant reward. Let me repeat that again, Your brain does not want to use energy on anything that doesn’t bring instant reward. One of the “happy juices” as I like to call it, is dopamine. Dopamine is one of those happy juices that gets released in your brain. Here’s an example, everytime I eat pizza my brain releases dopamine - instant happiness or gratification! Great, now i’m thinking about ordering pizza after I finish this blog. WOAH, did I just delay the gratification by telling myself I get to eat pizza only after I finish writing this blog!?
So here’s 2 questions that popped up in my head after learning about this back in college,
#1 So how do you delay gratification/reward and still accomplish your goals?
#2 How do you keep your brain in check so to speak so it doesn’t focus on negative thoughts like, “this goal is to hard, you’ll never achieve it “
The key is to create an advantage by moving your goal 20% closer. This means you need to figure out what tasks you've already accomplished and check them off as complete. In other words, never start a goal from scratch, and if you do start small, use the “crawl, walk, run” method I used to use back in the Army. You can’t run if you don’t know how to walk, and you can't walk if you don't know how to crawl.
Seeing your goal as if you're already making progress will light up your brain's reward circuitry and give you a hit of dopamine. The sooner your goal is associated with pleasure, the faster you'll move towards achieving it. This simple strategy tricks your brain into focusing on your objectives, rather than getting sidetracked by instant gratification.
Remember never rely on motivation - it's short-lived. Instead, use this technique to inspire yourself and make real, lasting progress on your most important goals. By creating the illusion of progress, you can harness the power of your brain's reward system to stay focused and motivated. With this approach, you'll be well on your way to turning your dreams into reality.
Let me share with you an advanced 7 step process I used in my strategy coaching 1 on 1 sessions.
7 Step Advanced Breakdown
The example we’ll use today is “Gym Goals”
*Remember, be as detailed as possible when writing out the breakdown of your goals.
Set the goal: What type of goal do you want to focus on? Weight Goal
Attach a Why: What about it? → I want to lose weight and boost my confidence.
Plan/execute: How much? → I would like to lose 2-5 pounds per month.
Specify: By when? → by 5/22 My Birthday
Put it all together: Plan & Execute → Write a statement to yourself → “I will workout 2x a day & research workout plans the night before, day before, hour before, etc.at the end of the week I will reflect and reward myself with...”
Journal/Reflect: Journal everytime after working out, reflect on how you motivated yourself to workout. Use my 3-3-3 method.
Step Seven: Write all of these steps in your journal and read it to yourself every morning.
Download this digital-fillable template to help you along your journey. Same as the 10 step goal setting breakdown, I threw some extra bonus material in there as well. Good luck!
Own it!
