I will probably do an in-depth summary of this book just because it’s so rich in information on how to set and achieve goals, more than I’ve ever come across just browsing online. I was lucky enough to randomly stumble across this and wish that more people knew of it.
That being said, there will still be a lot of things I will have to leave out just for brevity (like the super interesting experiments she cites…well, maybe I might share some to pique your interest), but for anyone interested in exploring it further, please do go grab yourself a copy on Amazon (not affiliated, just for convenience).
If you haven’t read part 1 yet, you can find it here:
posts in series
- Book Notes: “Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals” by Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. – Part 1 – Introduction: Willpower & Habits
- Book Notes: “Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals” by Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. – Part 2 – Specific Stretch Goals & How vs Why Thinking
CHAPTER 1 – Do You Know Where You Are Going?
Set Specific, Difficult but Attainable Goals
What’s the point of setting difficult goals when you’re most likely overworked and close to burn out? Why add to your troubles by layering on more difficult goals on top of all that you already have to accomplish?
“Succeeding at something hard is more pleasurable, gives greater satisfaction and happiness, and increases your overall sense of well-being…setting specific, challenging goals creates a cycle of success and happiness that can repeat itself over and over again, creating what Locke and Latham call the ‘high performance cycle.’”
Halvorson Ph.D., Heidi Grant. Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (p. 27-28). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle E
Setting and achieving more challenging goals increases happiness. Who knew?
Obviously don’t over do it, overkill is a no no. You need to make it just challenging enough to give you that dopamine hit once you reach the end, but not so much that you completely crash after its over and never want to approach anything like that ever again. Go after the sweet spot. Set difficult but possible goals. Stretch goals. Not unreasonable, not unattainable. Just something that’s a little bit further out of reach than you would normally achieve.
“…more difficult goals cause you to, often unconsciously, increase your effort, focus, and commitment to the goal; persist longer; and make better use of the most effective strategies.”
Halvorson Ph.D., Heidi Grant. Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (p. 26). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
The benefit to setting a specific goal is that you know your end point. You’ve either reached it or you haven’t. If you haven’t, you have a choice of either continuing or scrapping it.
Next time when setting a goal, don’t resolve to do your best (maybe just to set a baseline, but after that…), set specific, difficult goals, so you know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish and to ensure you’re going to be getting your dose of dopamine at the end.
But it’s worth mentioning again that having a balance in your life is vital. Set stretch goals for only one area at a time. Best not to light the candle at both ends and end up experiencing burn out. You’ll hesitate to go after worthwhile things in the future. Instead slow and steady improvements can produce great compounding effects and sustain motivation.
Why vs How
You’re most likely to think about the things you do in either ‘why’ or ‘how’ terms.
| Way of Thinking | Description | Example # 1 | Example # 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Why | big picture | Making a list is seen as being organized | Locking a door = securing the house |
| How | nitty gritty or the actual action steps of a process | Making a list = writing things down | Putting a key in the lock |
The why way of thinking is looking at the big picture. The how way of thinking is the nitty-gritty or actual action steps of the task you’re working on.
Although you may be naturally inclined to think in one way over the other, “each mode of thinking, under different circumstances, can lead to greater achievement” (Halvorson, pg 30).
If a task is unfamiliar, thinking in terms of how to get the task done will help you achieve it rather than if you thought of the why behind the goal.
For example, when starting a blog for the very first time, you might have a great why (i.e., you’re an author, you would like to build an audience, or you’re a true crime junkie and find interrogation videos incredibly interesting and you want to share everything you learn about it…foreshadowing of what’s to come on this blog lol), but it won’t do much to help you actually start one. At the start, you would need to focus on the steps to starting a blog: research the pros and cons of starting, look up the best options for what you’re trying to accomplish, sign up for the platform you choose to write on, etc.
On the other hand, if your blog is up and running and you’re having a hard time continuing to write for it, here’s when the why would come in. You would need to remember why you wanted to begin writing down your thoughts on the vast interwebs. Was it to garner attention or was it to help a solid group of people who you knew were like you and save them time on having to research and write on topics you’ve already looked into thoroughly (either reason is good, no judgements, this is a safe space).
It might be handy to write down an overarching why to your goal and then write down the very next step towards it. Any time you experience resistance towards working on your goal, analyze it. Is it because the motivation isn’t there? Check in with your why. Is it because you’re not sure of what to do next? Write down everything you can think of that you would need to touch on to make progress, then knock them off. Break everything down into small steps to get quick wins. Once the momentum is up and running again, build up the challenges to keep it going.
Don’t stop, get it get it. (You get a cookie if you’re old enough to know that reference.)
posts in series
- Book Notes: “Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals” by Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. – Part 1 – Introduction: Willpower & Habits
- Book Notes: “Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals” by Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. – Part 2 – Specific Stretch Goals & How vs Why Thinking
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