Defence

Work–Life

Aiming for the top

It is an easy process to set a goal: you decide what you want to do, and you might write it down to ensure you don't forget. In fact, setting a goal does nothing; it's the process of achieving the goal that is difficult but actually creates the result. Katharina Chase looks at the strategies you can implement to achieve your goals.

Achieving your goals

Achieving goals is the process of doing what you set out to do. This isn't necessarily about completing it in the time set or motivating yourself to do it; it's about going from one step to the next until the goal has been achieved.

Dr Stephanie Burns has a PhD focusing on goal achievement, and has done significant research into the topic, as well as facilitating online learning programs in the areas of overriding procrastination and achieving goals. She talks about making 'to do' lists in order to organise the steps towards a goal. They assist you to remember what you have to do, but they don't have any bearing on getting those things done. Getting things done, and therefore achieving the goal, is about action with purpose and within a framework.

When thinking about strategies for getting things done and reaching a goal, you may think of picturing the end result. The idea with this simple and common technique is that if you picture the goal, the end point, and imagine yourself at that point, that positive affirmation will help you feel as though the goal is achievable and will motivate you to get there. On thinking back to times you have done that in the past, Dr Burns asks the question, 'What was the result?' Thinking about achieving the goal is not enough; you need to think about how you will feel after the attempt at achieving the goal.

To explain the concept fully, Dr Burns uses the following real-life scenario. Imagine being an Olympic athlete, doing what you love, what you're passionate about, with the goal of winning an Olympic medal. You would do absolutely anything required in order to achieve that goal, particularly considering that being given the chance to compete at the Olympics may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, right? You would eat the right foods, do the correct training, sleep well, and calm your mind, all in preparation for the Games.

When Dr Burns coached Australian athletes on goal achievement in the lead up to the Sydney 2000 Olympics, she asked them to write down what they should do to be best prepared to compete at the highest level. Then she asked them to put a tick against each item that, although they knew its importance, they would procrastinate in doing, or do half-heartedly. Surprisingly, there were plenty of ticks! But how can these elite athletes be competing at that level without the necessary discipline, you might ask?

The fact is, we're all human, and our psychology rules us to a great extent. The reason is that these athletes, like anyone else, no matter how fit or passionate about their sport, didn't like going to bed early, or eating health food, or doing many of the other things that could mean the difference between a medal and fourth place. There is no immediate negative consequence for not doing these things, so it's easy to bypass them.

The athletes said that, throughout their careers, their coaches and mentors had encouraged them to visualise winning a medal, standing on the podium, the crown roaring. This, in theory, would help motivate them to do those small but significant things to help achieve their goal of winning a medal. They soon realised that this didn't necessarily work, in practice.

'The excitement of the positive image of performing at the Olympic Games and even the image of winning a gold medal was not strong enough, or compelling enough, or timely enough to affect their behaviour now,' says Dr Burns.

The other side of the mountain

So if the thought of winning a medal was not enough to motivate these Olympic athletes to be disciplined in aiming to reach that goal, what more could they possibly do?

The answer, according to Dr Burns, is for them to consciously change the point in time on which they focus.

'I wanted to know, for them to know, how they were going to feel the day after the competition when they saw their performance in the reflection of what they did or didn't do in the last few weeks before the Games,' says Dr Burns. If an athlete had missed out on a medal, and knew he or she hadn't eaten well or hadn't slept properly the night before, the anger at not having done that tiny thing to possibly change the larger outcome would be immense.

This technique worked for Dr Burns herself in completing her PhD. She thought ahead to how she would feel at 50, still not having completed her PhD because of procrastination, or because she didn't feel like doing the work to submit papers.

'I knew I would still [want] to pursue a PhD even at 50 years old, and I certainly did not want to wake up on that day and begin the process all over again.'

Barriers to goal achievement

It's not always smooth sailing, even if you do manage to discipline your mental side and remain motivated to do all those small things leading up to the achievement of your goal. Life puts barriers in front of us; for an Olympic athlete, the barrier might be an injury or an illness. For someone wanting to complete a university degree, it might be the cancellation of a course. Sometimes, the achievement of a goal in the way you aim for it does not happen, and it's beyond your control. So how do you overcome these barriers and still reach the end point successfully?

Dr Burns suggests a number of matters to consider in this situation.

• Time will pass whether you do anything or not.
• Do something, rather than nothing—not being able to take a lot of action is not a good enough reason to take no action.
• In most cases, no matter how bad the moment is, it will change in time.
• Create anticipation for getting back to achieving your goal—imagine getting back on track with your actions.
• Focus only on what's relevant.
• Once you have thought about those matters, Dr Burns says it's time to start doing something.
• Plan, and pick a date to restart.
• Celebrate your ability to be taking very small actions again—don't think about where you were, think about where you are and where you are going.
• Seek alternative actions that are still aligned with the goal.
• Just start.
• Do not re-evaluate the value of the goal.

These are just some of the ideas that can help you achieve your goal, however large or small, simple or complex.

Some of this information was sourced from Dr Stephanie Burns' research into goal achievement, located on her website at www.stephanieburns.com. Additional information on Dr Burns' online learning program, The Labyrinth, is available at http://www.stephanieburns.com/promo/courses/labyrinth.asp.

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