Happy New Year!
Are you one who makes a New Year’s resolution each year? Do you accomplish them?
Dr. Andrew Huberman says that you have two different types of people: some who will share with their friends and family that they have this great idea they will achieve. Their family will hopefully respond with encouragement. Saying, “That’s a great idea, you can do that!”. The problem is they are satisfied with the amount of dopamine released from the encouragement alone. Therefore, they no longer have the drive to pursue their goal. They feel good about telling people their dreams and what they will do but never follow through.
Then you have another set of people who will tell their family, and after, they go and do it. So, how do you train yourself or rewire your brain to be like the second person rather than the latter? First, we must understand how our brain aids in achieving our goals.
Neurology behind goal achievement
- The basal ganglia – is a group of linked brain structures in the brain’s center. It has two primary neural circuits, the go and no-go pathways. The no-go pathway resists or withholds action. While the go pathway allows it.
- Lateral Prefrontal Cortex – located at your forehead, is a significant key for goal setting because it is responsible for short and long-term planning. It is also involved in our perception, which helps us see our progress as we reach our goal.
- Orbitofrontal Cortex- located just above your eye sockets or orbits, analyzes our emotions. For example, we may be frustrated that we aren’t making progress or excited because we are doing well at keeping the habit in place.
- Amygdala- is a paired structure. You have two, one on both sides of the brain. The Amygdala sits in front of the hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe. It is responsible for decision-making, adapting behavior to environmental changes, and neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is your brain’s ability to change and create new neural pathways. The Amygdala helps a ton in creating new habits.
How do you pick your goals?
How often have you set a New Year resolution and given up by the 3rd week of January? Were you trying to attain many goals at one time? I am so guilty of wanting to start three new habits, learn four new skills, and learn a new language simultaneously. This approach is overwhelming, and you cannot accomplish something well if you divide yourself between many goals. Instead, we should pick out the main thing we want to accomplish. What are you super excited about? What is something you’ve wanted to accomplish and would do anything to be able to do it? Here is your primary goal. Focus on it. Once you have accomplished it, you can add another goal. I introduce to you the concept of habit stacking.
Habit stacking is a method of growing your habits successfully. You put your energy into one habit at a time so that you can establish the habit before moving on to the next. Compared to juggling a bunch of new habits at once and dropping them all. Many say they do not set yearly goals because they never keep them. With this approach, they could.
How to achieve your goals
Many studies state that writing goals is a great way to map out what you want to achieve. Put them into two sectors: short-term and long-term goals. Creating short-term goals helps us have something manageable to work towards by placing it on a smaller scale. Once we accomplish the short-term goal, we will get that release of dopamine, which will propel us and encourage us to keep going. Therefore, it helps us work towards our long-term goals.
Now, the small goals look big, but they’re achievable. If you continue to do this, you will be achieving even bigger goals than you thought you ever could. Many studies have found that this is a great way to motivate yourself and keep yourself on track because if we don’t write out what we want to achieve, we won’t do it. With both the short-term and long-term goals, make measurable details in writing what you want to do; it will help you achieve those goals.
For example, I want to read five books by December 20, 2024. I would get more specific and write I want to read for at least ten minutes each day until December 20, 2024, to read at least five books this year. It would be best if you wrote it because there is evidence to support that physically writing on paper with a pencil or pen activates our brain in a way that other means of gathering information do not. Interesting right?
Why so stagnate?
Why is it so hard to start a new habit or accomplish our goals? What gives us a reason to settle? I hypothesize that it has to do with the instant gratification that we have solidified into the world and mind of anyone who gets on the Internet. All the short videos that are 60 seconds or less have dwindled our attention span and motivation to finish something. We get things fast and no longer have to wait. I remember waiting each week to see what would happen on a show, and now we don’t have that. We can binge all the shows we want right at our fingertips, so we don’t have to wait.
The world has manufactured many amenities to increase our comfort and decrease our wait time. I am not saying this is all bad, but there are ramifications for not waiting for the natural process to unfold. For example, used to families would eat what was in season in their garden. Now, we can buy whatever we want in and out of season due to produce being chemically ripened for our convenience. Not only does this affect our chemical exposure, but also the flavor. There is a character element that also goes with working with our hands and patiently waiting.
Back to the basics
Home-grown strawberries take time to produce, constantly having to make sure no critters are roaming in the garden, watering and pruning it day by day. Til one day, you get to bless your family with delicious, flavorful red strawberries. How much more do those strawberries impact your life in a beautiful way compared to buying them in their plastic container? Again I am not knocking buying stuff at the store, just highlighting and honestly encouraging myself that there is a way that we can enrich our lives and bring ourselves joy in the simplicity of the mundane. Bringing life and not sterility.
Instant gratification is detrimental to our society. It is harming this generation now and future generations to come. Already, the amount of people who want to learn skills that take time is scarce. Today, no one wants to do things that will take a long time to produce. Regardless, whenever you are patient and continually work on something, you will reap the benefits, and it will yield fruit when it’s time for harvest. There’s a season for everything, so we should focus on investing in things that take some time but will last a lifetime.
God, I pray that those reading this today will be refreshed by the possibilities this new year can bring. May we work toward the goals that you have set in our hearts. Even if we fall, we know there are new mercies every day. I pray for us to grow in our patience this new year. To you all the glory, Lord. Amen.
SOURCES
Huberman, A. (n.d.). Goals toolkit: How to set & achieve your goals. Goals Toolkit: How to Set & Achieve Your Goals – Huberman Lab. https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/goals-toolkit-how-to-set-achieve-your-goals
Professional, C. C. medical. (n.d.). Basal ganglia: What it is, Function & Anatomy. Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/23962-basal-ganglia