Goals & Goal setting

• Vision board

  A great way to put together a motivational, visual image of what you want to achieve
• Things to include on a vision board

  • Motivational quotes, thoughts, and your word of the year
  • Inspiring images that sum up what you want to achieve
  • Rewards for achieving your goals
  • Anyone or anything that will help you to stick to the goals in your vision
  • An image of what things will look like when you achieve each goal
• Looking at images on a vision board primes the brain to grasp opportunities that may otherwise [have] gone unnoticed. That is because the brain has a process called 'value-tagging' which imprints important things onto your subconscious and filters out unnecessary information.
• Designing your life

  Being proactive and actively deciding how you want to spend your time, in order to live the life that you want to lead
• Rudders and oars

  The rudders represent your end goal, the final destination of the journey. The oars represent the effort and systems that you put in place to achieve those end goals.
• WOOP

  A method to help think of the most important dreams that you want to achieve, as well as the internal obstacles that could prevent you from achieving them
• Mental contrasting

  Involves comparing your dream and where you want to be, to the current reality of where you are right now
• Implementation intentions

  Planning how you will overcome obstacles to achieving your dreams
• SMART goals

  Specific, Measurable, Achievable and realistic, Time-bound, Evaluate and re-adjust/reward
• Stuart Scott: 'Don't downgrade your dream just to fit your reality. Upgrade your conviction to match your destiny.'
• Grit

  The endurance, perseverance and passion which keeps you moving towards your long-term goals despite the challenges and setbacks you face
• How to be gritty

  • Decide what grit means for you personally
  • Build on your aim
  • Create strong habits
• Common characteristics of someone who has grit

  • Courage
  • Conscientiousness
  • Perseverance
• Fixed mindset

  Believes that abilities are set in stone
• Growth mindset

  Believes that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work
• Grit

  Implementing small daily steps to reach your aim; little moments that then lead on to big moments
• Characteristics of someone who has grit

  • Courage
  • Conscientiousness
  • Perseverance
• Being gritty means being okay with failure
• Success in life involves understanding that it is inevitable we will make mistakes and experience failures along the way
• Learning from setbacks while continuing to work towards achieving our dreams is an incredibly useful life skill
• Embracing failure means acknowledging that we all make mistakes, and that this is part of life
• To grow the attitude of embracing failure in our lives, we need to develop grit and a growth mindset
• Fixed mindset

  Intelligence levels cannot change, failure is seen as a permanent setback, challenges are scary and to be avoided, skill levels are fixed as a result of talent
• Growth mindset

  Intelligence levels can be improved and developed, failure is seen as a temporary setback and an exciting growth opportunity, challenges are opportunities to improve with hard work
• Factors that influence goal setting and decision making include friends and family, the media, culture, role models, and past experiences
• Step-by-step guide to decision-making

  1. Brainstorm

  2. Determine your goal

  3. Research and gather information

  4. Find alternatives

  5. Communicate

  6. Value check

  7. Make a decision

  8. Take action

  9. Review your decision
• Assertiveness

  Having self-confidence and being firm in what you believe, without being aggressive or ignoring others' opinions
• Types of decision-makers

  • Over-analyser
  • Procrastinator
  • Perfectionist
  • Gut thinker
  • Does not think things through properly
  • Slow to action
• Decision fatigue

  The difficulty experienced in making a decision when there are a large number of decisions to make
• Common signs of decision fatigue include avoidance, indecision, procrastination, and impulsivity
• How to recover from decision fatigue

  1. Tackle important decisions when fresh in the morning

  2. Plan everyday decisions the night before

  3. Narrow down choices to top three

  4. Avoid distractions

  5. Take a break
• Some influential people like Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs wore the same outfit every day to avoid decision fatigue and focus on more important decisions
• Research shows that too much choice can lead to feeling paralyzed and making no decision at all
• What-if analysis

  Looking at what happens when certain actions are taken, and determining which results contribute most to the goal
• Weighing up pros and cons

  List the advantages and disadvantages of one choice and compare it to the advantages and disadvantages of a second option