If more people understood the science behind goal achievement, more people would set goals, more people would believe that they could achieve their goals, and more people would achieve them. There is a science of goal achievement. Learning this science makes goal setting more fun and makes the journey more enjoyable, because you no longer hope to achieve your goal, you know you will, because goal achievement is a science.
If you don't know much about setting goals, or need a refresher, be sure to read my posts on Why You Should Set Goals and How to Set Goals. Once you have a firm grasp on these two topics, we can move on to the science of goal achievement.
The science of goal achievement can be described by looking at four very important terms: Cognitive Dissonance, Reticular Activating System, The Law of Subconscious Activity and the Law of Attraction.
Cognitive Dissonance
When we set a goal that is not in line with our past, or congruent with our self-concept, we experience this phenomenon called cognitive dissonance (CD), or mental incongruity. Said another way, pressure on the brain. Doing this tampers with the fight or flight mechanism, and our mind, both conscious and subconscious, go to work to either fight or flight.
This is a really important part of the article, so I hope you get it…. Once you have created CD by deciding to go after a big goal, there are only two ways to get rid of the pressure on your mind:
- 1. Quit on your goal
- 2. Attain your goal
The cognitive dissonance which results from setting a big goal is most easily remedied by getting you to give up the goal. Your mind will ferociously attack you, and your desire, to reach this goal via your thoughts. “Who do you think you are? You can't do that? What will your friends think? What if you fail? What if people laugh at you? You've never done anything like this before. This is not for you. This isn't your thing. You're not good enough/tall enough/smart enough/fast enough/ nor big enough. You don't know the right people. Where do you think you're gonna get the money? You're too big to do that. You don't have the right look. What if she says no? What if it doesn't work? You can't do this. You're more of an idea person. You're not a finisher. This is too hard. Why are you wasting your time? Your mom said these things never work. You should listen to your mother.” And on…and on… and on.
When you experience these thoughts, it helps to know what's going on. Now, when I hear these things in my mind, I just say something like, “I'm doing it baby! So get used to it!” And send those nasty little negative thoughts packin'!
But if you don't know how all this works, and most people don't, you might mistake these thoughts as your intuition or some sort of inspiration. This happens all the time. These thoughts can be, and often are, the murderers of goals, and ultimately a better life.
This is critical. If you can learn to dismiss these thoughts, they will begin to occur less and less. And when your mind realizes you're not going to quit, it turns its efforts from trying to detour you, to helping you achieve your goal.
WARNING! If you heed those nutty little voices in your head, beware! If you quit on your goal, the dissonance will remain UNTIL you release it by blaming others or justifying why you quit. Once you have passed the buck for your failure, or have come up with a good scapegoat for why you are out on your goal for good, the brain lets out a long exhale, saying, “Ahhhhhhhhhhh! That's better!” Cognitive Dissonance is gone.
This is like the young man who decides to do mortgages for a living. He starts doing the math, and realizes he can make a lot of money if he closes X amount of loans per month. So, he goes after it. After two or three months, he's light years away from his goal. To remove the dissonance he begins blaming his boss, his trainer, or the interest rates, and more than likely he will either quit or just remain on the job with poor to mediocre results. Either way, no more pressure!
That's cognitive dissonance, part one of the science of goal achievement.
Reticular Activating System
The reticular activating system is located at the top of the brain stem. Its main functions are to regulate arousal and sleep-wake transistions. But for the purposes of our discussion, another thing the RAS does, is block out the thousands of pieces of stimuli which bombard us throughout every moment of our lives.
For example, observe the sensation you are experiencing right now in your right foot. See what just happened? That same sensation you are feeling now, you were feeling before I raised your awareness to it, but your RAS was blocking it from your observation, because it is an irrelevant stimulus. It didn't become relevant until I brought it to your attention.
When you set a big goal, by default, you raise your awareness, and will begin seeing and experiencing things that were there all along, that you did not notice because the RAS was blocking it out, as it was not relevant. This is a partial explanation for how so many “serendipitous” things begin to occur just shortly after a person commits to a major goal. Many of those things were there all along, but were not observable because they were not relevant.
All of you have experienced this phenomenon. For example, my wife and are preparing to buy a Cadillac Escalade. Before we decided to buy one, we may have passed hundreds of them on the road and never noticed. But, after we decided the Escalade would be our next car purchase, we see them everywhere! This is the RAS at work.
In America, and many other places throughout the world, opportunity abounds. It's everywhere! But most people can't see it because their RAS is blocking it out since it's not relevant to most people. However, when a person decides to be a goal achiever and sets specific goals, the proverbial veil of the RAS is lifted, and opportunity is illuminated…. everywhere!
The Law of Subconscious Activity
The law of subconscious activity (LSA) states that: Whatever thought or idea mixed with emotions you hold in your conscious mind, will be accepted as a command by your subconscious mind. (Given the proper commands, your subconscious mind also controls your body language, your tone of voice, and a list of other actions.)
When you master the process of setting goals, the LSA will come to your aid subconsciously causing you to do things and say things which you would have ordinarily never done or said, which will result in you getting what you want.
The Law of Attraction
The final component in the science of goal achievement is what's called the law of attraction. The law of attraction states: As a living magnet, you inevitably attract people, events and circumstances into your life that harmonize with your dominant thoughts.
Earl Nightingale taught that humans tend to travel in the direction of their dominate thoughts. This is true. But, not only do we travel in the direction of our dominate thoughts, all things in harmony with our dominate thoughts travel towards us. This is what is meant by the ancient phrase, “Draw near to me and I will draw near to you.” That which we draw near to in our thoughts and emotions, begin to also draw near to us. And the opposite is true also.
If you are negative, you will repel anyone who is positive. If you a smoker, you will generally repulse those who are not. In other words, birds of a feather flock together.
One time, my brother, as a college student, called on a multi-millionaire asking him if he would be interested in joining a new networking group he was putting together. The older, more successful gentleman was in a tough spot, and finally he just called a spade a spade simply stating, “I fly with eagles.” That was his way of saying, “I'm repulsed by you, and choose to be among my own kind.” Ruthless huh?
Your mind is like a radio transmitter. You are broadcasting a message 24 hours a day. The question is, what message are you sending out into the ether? It's easy to tell what a person has transmitted. Just look at their life. They have broadcasted the desires of their heart, and by the law of attraction, like a living magnet, they have attracted people, events and circumstances into their life which harmonize with their dominant thoughts and emotions… both positive and negative.
Wrap Up
When you set goals, the right way, you are stirring the powers of a very powerful, unseen and for most people unknown world within our own. Setting goals is so simple, but what goes on after the fact, is so complex and so wonderfully incredible. Don't you think?
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