Strategies to Achieve Goals That You Care About: Two Great Exercises

One of the main things that motivates our behaviors is our desire to grow, develop and reach our potential. This is why we set goals and strive to attain them. In this short post, I present two psychological strategies that can support you in reaching your goals. Practicing visualization and using positive affirmations are two effective strategies to achieve goals that are important to you.

Visualization – Strategies to Achieve Goals

Research in brain imagery shows visualization is effective because neurons interpret images in your brain the same as if they were happening in real life. Therfore, when you imagine doing something, the brain tells your neurons to carry that thing out. Over time visualization creates new neural pathways (clusters of cells in our brain that create memories and learned behaviors) that prime you to carry out actions in line with what you imagined. There are two main visualization techniques: visualizing the outcome and visualizing the process.

Visualization Exercise

There are several ways to carry out visualization. One of the most common exercises is the BPS. The following variation can also be quite effective if practiced regularly.

Step 1: Visualize yourself reaching your goal. Consider in detail what you want to achieve and engage all five senses. Try to make the moment as real and palpable as possible. What do you see, smell, hear, taste and feel? Furthermore, it’s important to consider what emotions you experience when you imagine reaching your goal. Using sensory images will help you to follow through. Write down all of these details, so that you can reflect on them regularly.

Step 2: Continue to prime your brain for goal achievement by turning your desires into beliefs. We often think about our goals as an endstate that we would like to attain to. However, it’s more effective to frame your goal as something that you believe will actually will happen. In other words, you know what will happen if you stay committed to working on your goals. For instance, it’s not enough just think I would like to get a promotion. You have to convince yourself that you will get a promotion if you keep working towards it. This belief will motivate and energize you to take action towards your goal.

Step 3: Visualize the process. Think about what you need to do to reach your goal and imagine carrying out each step. As you’re working towards your goal, consider various potential outcomes as well as obstacles that could arise. Accept that there will be set-backs, but consider how you would respond in each situation. By visualizing the process along with alternative scenarios you’ll be better equipped to respond optimally when faced with challenges.

Step 4: Schedule two 5-minute slots daily to carry out steps 1 – 3. You’re most likely to do your visualization exercise consistently if you turn it into a habit by connecting it with something else that you always do. For example, before going to bed or right after working out spend 5 minutes to practice visualization.

Positive Affirmations – Strategies to Achieve Goals

Positive affirmations are statements that you tell yourself to overcome self-limiting, self-sabotaging thoughts. Such statements are effective for adjusting mental habits because they can:

• change thought patterns
• help replace negative, automatic thoughts with more positive ones

What you keep telling yourself eventually becomes part of your identity. This subsequently has a huge impact on your actions. For example, if you want to become a writer you would normally tell someone, “I would like to become a writer.” However, if you regularly say to yourself, I am a writer, it eventually becomes part of your identity. Because a writer is what you are, you naturally will do the things that writers do.

This of course should not be taken in a superstitious way. For example, saying, “I am a pilot” will not help you if you’re not undergoing the proper training. No matter how much you tell yourself, “I’m a pilot”, it’s just not going to happen without taking the necessary steps.

Affirmations can strengthen your resolve to pursue your dreams and ambitions. Even when faced with set-backs, using positive affirmations can help you to restore feelings of competence because you reflect on things that contribute to your sense of self-worth. Furthermore, this restored sense of competence can lead to behavioral change. In other words, affirmations help you to act. They also empower you with a deep sense of reassurance that your aspirations will become a reality.

Positive Affirmations Exercise

Step 1: Compse your positive affirmations. One approach is to consider your recurring negative thoughts or an area in your life that you want to change. Now write down your negative beliefs and then convert them into positive beliefs. For example, let’s say you’re worried about doing a bad job at work. Your positive affirmations may look like this:

• I am an excellent employee
• I am creative and generate valuable ideas
• I deliver great results

Step 2: For affirmations to be effective, you have to repeat them. Repitition is key. Set a time each day in which you repeat your affirmations to yourself. Here are some ways to do this:

• Speak them out loud to yourself
• Record yourself speaking the positive affirmations and listen to the recording
• Write down your affirmations in a journal

Step 3: Try to incorporate your affirmations into other aspects of your life. For example you can:

• Post your affirmations in a place where you see them regularly so you are reminded of them
• Arrange your apps into categories based on your positive affirmations. For example, all of your organization apps can be grouped together in the category I am organized. Your health apps can be arranged in a group called I am healthy
• Get someone you know and trust to speak your positive affirmations to you on a regular basis. For instance, when your friend sees you they’ll remind you: you are a great employee and you deliver great results

Conclusion

In this post we covered two great psychological strategies to achieve goals you care about. The first one is visualization. This mainly involves visualizing the end result and visualizing each step necessary to get there. The second exercise involves using positive affirmations to help support behavioral change.

It’s important to note that these are supporting strategies. At the end of the day, if you want to accomplish something, you have to take action. You have to get to work. I recommend combining these strategies with personal goal setting.

If you need support in reaching your goals or implementing these exercises feel free to reach out to me here. I’d be happy to help.