%% ID: 13238022 Updated: 2022-02-02 %% ![](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/article0.00998d930354.png) # About Title: [[Other/Obsidian Starter Vault(Second Brain)/Readwise/Articles/7 Research-Backed Tips to Achieve Any Goal]] Author: [[Scott H. Young]] Category: #articles Number of Highlights: ==31== Last Highlighted: *2022-01-30* Readwise URL: https://readwise.io/bookreview/13238022 Source URL: https://betterhumans.pub/the-science-of-achievement-7-research-backed-tips-to-achieve-any-goal-fda2e69f4d23 # Highlights Setting goals can transform your life. ^278941756 --- But goal-setting can also leave you miserable. Burnout, stress and disillusionment are high on the list of potential side effects. ^278941757 --- The crucial difference between success and burnout often comes down to how your goals are designed. ^278941758 --- 1. Aim for Hard, but Believable ^278941759 --- easy goals lead to weak efforts, but so do goals that are too hard. The key factor here seems to be that goals need to be challenging, but also believable to be effective. ^278941760 --- Thus the best goals to set are those that demand effort from you, but you’re confident you can achieve if you put in the effort. ^278941761 --- why some people eagerly face challenges while others shrink ^278941762 --- If you don’t feel you’ll be successful, you don’t put effort into your goals. ^278941763 --- you can pick successful goals, achieve them and steadily boost your confidence. ^278941764 --- One way to calibrate this is to set smaller goals (think 30 days) and track your success rate. If you’re under 80%, try setting a more achievable target. If you’re over 80%, try something a little more ambitious. ^278941765 --- 3. Deadlines Are Poison for Creative Problem-Solving ^278941766 --- the amount of things we can keep in mind at one time is limited — and often less than we think. ^278941767 --- A stressful deadline to come up with a creative solution can hurt. ^278941768 --- Goal-setting works by marshaling motivation and energy to reach a goal. Without goals, we often fail to put in the effort needed to achieve. ^278941769 --- set goals to work on a creative problem for a chunk of time without interruption or expectation of results ^278941770 --- 4. Visualize Failure ^278941771 --- This allows you to focus on the task and gives your mind more space to think of solutions. ^278941772 --- visualizing failure might work even better. ^278941773 --- a key ingredient to the success of your goals is what he calls implementation intentions. These are when you visualize difficulties that might come up in pursuing your goal and decide in advance how you will handle them. ^278941774 --- Imagining obstacles in advance and deciding your response can make those responses more effective when the time comes. ^278941775 --- 5. Keep it to Yourself (At Least to Start) ^278941776 --- Announcing our goals can make us feel like we have sent that signal, and our motivation to achieve the actual goal can go down. ^278941777 --- we should focus first on taking action, not talking about it. ^278941778 --- 6. Break it Down and Make Yourself Accountable ^278941779 --- The common perception is that procrastination is caused by perfectionism. People who need to do everything perfectly waste time getting started. ^278941780 --- Unpleasant tasks and impulsive personalities. ^278941781 --- The key is to break down your goals into smaller, daily actions. If you know what needs to be done today, you’re in a much better position to act on it. ^278941782 --- you can create a compelling incentive to stick to the daily plan. A powerful tool for overcoming procrastination is precommitment. ^278941783 --- 7. Set Goals You Want to Achieve (Not Just Those You Feel You Should ^278941784 --- external incentives, such as paying someone to complete an otherwise interesting puzzle, could crowd out internal motivation. ^278941785 --- For goal-setting to be life-affirming, the goals pursued have to feel deeply meaningful to you. Getting in touch with what you really want out of life, and separating out the things you merely think you “should” want, is perhaps the most essential part of goal-setting. ^279516906