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in this video we're going to talk about
00:00:01
five pretty easy evidence-based things
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you can do to massively increase the
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chances that you're actually going to
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achieve your goals now obviously when it
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comes to actually setting and achieving
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goals generally the thing that separates
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people who do achieve their goals from
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the people who don't achieve their goals
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is the action that they're actually
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putting into them but if you look at the
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signs there are actually these five
00:00:18
relatively straightforward things you
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can do to stack the deck in your favor
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call them hacks call them habits they
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don't take very long but they will
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massively boost your odds of actually
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achieving the goals and so if you are
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already doing all five of these things
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fantastic you winning and if you're not
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doing some or any of these five things
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then you've got some very easy wins that
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you can apply pretty much as soon as you
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finish watching this video and by the
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way if you're new here hello my name is
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Ali I'm a doctor turned entrepreneur and
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author and since 2017 I've been making
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videos on this channel which are all
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about the books the ideas the strategies
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and tools that can help us live more
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intentionally be more productive and
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generally build a life that we truly
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love I also spent ages researching and
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writing this book Feelgood productivity
00:00:53
which is a New York Times and Sunday
00:00:54
Times best cell and this Dives deep into
00:00:56
how we can get stuff done without
00:00:57
burning out or sacrificing the things
00:00:59
that matter most and it's available in
00:01:00
paperback hardback Kindle audible
00:01:02
basically everywhere books are sold and
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has also been translated into 35
00:01:06
languages and it's got a couple thousand
00:01:07
five star reviews on Amazon and
00:01:09
Goodreads so if that sounds interesting
00:01:10
it'll be linked down below if you want
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to check it out all right so let's start
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with Point number one now here I want to
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play you this clip from a guy called Jim
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ran now Jim ran was a multi-millionaire
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success Coach Guy based in the US but at
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age 25 he was completely broke but he
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managed to get mentored by this business
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tycoon guy called Mr cha and here he is
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talking about an interesting encounter
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with Mr CH that completely changed his
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life not long after I met Mr scha we're
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having breakfast one morning Mr cha said
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Mr own now that we've gotten acquainted
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we know each other fairly well he said
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maybe one of the best ways I can help
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you he said let me see your current list
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of goals let's go over them and talk
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about
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them and I said what I don't have a list
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he said well Mr ran if you don't have a
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list of your goals he said I can guess
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your bank balance within a few
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hundred which he did and that got my
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attention I said you mean my bank
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balance would change if I had a list of
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goals he said
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drastically so that day I became a
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student of setting goals and I've used
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it to dynamically affect my life I've
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taught it to some of my business
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colleagues we use it to do business
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around the
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world setting goals H so this is
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interesting write down your list of
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goals I'm curious do you have a list of
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goals written down somewhere could you
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bring them up if someone asked you to
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see them but you might be thinking this
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seems a bit too good to be true this is
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just some like personal development Guru
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it's like it surely can't be that basic
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as just writing down your list of goals
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do we have any actual science or
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research to back this up and to that I
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would like to draw your attention to
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this study from the Dominican University
00:02:42
and these guys were basically testing
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does writing down your goals compared to
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not writing them down change your
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chances of achieving set goals so on the
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y- axis we've got average goal
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achievement and then we've got two
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groups one group did not write down
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their goals and the other group wrote
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down their goals this was the average
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goal achievement for the group that set
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goals but did not write them down and
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this was the average goal achievement
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for the group that set goals and did
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write them down the researchers found
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that if you write down your goals you're
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around 42% more likely to actually
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achieve them now I don't know about you
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but if I could improve by 42% the
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probability of me actually achieving the
00:03:14
goals I've set for myself simply by
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writing them down I would probably do
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that because it doesn't take that long
00:03:19
to write down your goals and that is why
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our evidence-based strategy number one
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for achieving your goals is to Simply
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write them down now it doesn't really
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matter what format you write them down
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in I personally have a Google doc that I
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I've named goalkeeper and I've been
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doing this for the last couple of years
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and I personally like setting quarterly
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goals rather than annual goals I refer
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to my quarterly goals as my quarterly
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quests and each quarter so every 3
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months I like to set around three or
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four of them I found that if I set any
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more than four I don't end up making
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progress on any of them and so three or
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four seems to be like a reasonable
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number oh by the way quick thing if you
00:03:48
are watching this before the 4th of
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January 2025 then you might like to
00:03:51
check out the completely free 2-day
00:03:53
productivity Workshop that I'm hosting
00:03:55
on the 4th and 5th of January 2025 it is
00:03:58
called productivity Spark and it's
00:04:00
essentially a two-day series of
00:04:01
workshops that are hosted by me and also
00:04:03
my wife and also a couple of guests that
00:04:04
I aim to help you reflect on 2024 figure
00:04:07
out where your work and life are heading
00:04:08
and set active goals and quarterly
00:04:10
Quests for 2025 it is completely free
00:04:13
you can check it out with a link down
00:04:14
below and I hope to see you there
00:04:16
potentially all righty so now we come to
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insanely simple strategy for actually
00:04:19
achieving your goals number two now here
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it is worth us understanding a little
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bit of the brain called the reticular
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activating system now the RAS is
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basically a bundle of nerves at the base
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of your brain stem that acts as a filter
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and it determines what information your
00:04:32
brain pays attention to obviously in
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day-to-day life there are millions upon
00:04:36
millions of various sensory inputs that
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your brain could pay attention to so how
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does it know which ones to focus on well
00:04:42
that's where the particular activating
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system comes in generally based on your
00:04:45
goals and priorities the brain filters
00:04:47
out stuff that is irrelevant to those
00:04:48
goals and priorities and helps Focus
00:04:50
your attention on the stuff that
00:04:51
actually matters to you the classic
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example of this is let's say you buying
00:04:54
a car and you're like man I really want
00:04:55
to get a Fiat 500 all of a sudden by the
00:04:58
fact that you've set the intention to
00:05:00
buy potentially a Fiat 500 you will
00:05:01
suddenly start seeing Fiat 500s
00:05:03
literally everywhere you look and that
00:05:04
is not because all of a sudden when you
00:05:06
decided to set the goal of buying a Fiat
00:05:07
500 suddenly everyone else also bought
00:05:09
Fiat 500s it's because of your reticular
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activating system because you have said
00:05:13
this as a goal for yourself your brain
00:05:14
is more likely to notice all of the Fiat
00:05:16
500s that are floating around the place
00:05:18
and so strategy number two for
00:05:19
drastically improving our chances of
00:05:20
actually achieving our goals is to
00:05:22
actually look at those goals that you've
00:05:24
written down every single week if not
00:05:27
every single day mistake number one that
00:05:28
people make is that they don't set goals
00:05:30
in the first place but you're not going
00:05:31
to make that mistake because you're
00:05:32
watching this video mistake number two
00:05:33
is that if they do set goals they don't
00:05:35
write them down and mistake number three
00:05:36
is that for so many of us we set goals
00:05:38
at the start of the year and then we
00:05:40
never look at them ever again and so the
00:05:41
idea behind strategy number two is that
00:05:43
we can harness the reticular activating
00:05:44
system by actually looking at our goals
00:05:46
every single day or every single week I
00:05:48
personally review mine once a week as
00:05:50
part of my weekly reset I've got a
00:05:52
little journaling prompt that says what
00:05:54
were my quarterly quests and how are
00:05:56
they going and that means every single
00:05:57
week when I do my weekly resets it just
00:05:59
reminds me to check up on my quarterly
00:06:00
goals each week I also set three main
00:06:02
priorities for the week and then as part
00:06:04
of my daily morning Manifesto is what I
00:06:06
call it morning Manifesto journaling
00:06:07
practice I ask myself a simple question
00:06:08
which is what were our weekly priorities
00:06:11
and how are they going I like to refer
00:06:13
to it as our rather than my because it
00:06:14
sort of feels like I'm harnessing all
00:06:16
parts of my brain what were our weekly
00:06:18
priorities and how are they going so
00:06:19
every single week I'm reviewing my
00:06:21
quarterly goals and every single day I'm
00:06:23
reviewing my weekly priorities this does
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not take very much time at all this is
00:06:27
like a 10-second job at most but it's
00:06:29
just that little jog that the brain
00:06:31
needs to be like oh yeah I did intend to
00:06:34
sign up for that squash club or oh yeah
00:06:36
I did intend to make progress on that
00:06:38
particular work task and sometime it's
00:06:40
just so easy to forget those things
00:06:41
otherwise because we're so caught up in
00:06:42
the day-to-day of what's happening in
00:06:43
the calendar what's happening in work
00:06:44
and in life but by literally spending 10
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seconds every week looking back at your
00:06:48
list of written goals or priorities that
00:06:50
alone is such a needle moving Insight
00:06:51
that I'm amazed that more people don't
00:06:53
do it and you know to be honest this
00:06:54
video is advice myself because I also
00:06:56
sometimes fall off I know all the
00:06:58
studies I've read did a a ton of
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research from my book talking about all
00:07:01
this stuff and still I forget sometimes
00:07:03
to do my weekly reset where I look at my
00:07:04
goals and sometimes a couple of weeks
00:07:06
pass where I haven't looked at my list
00:07:07
of goals I'm like damn I've actually
00:07:09
been less consistent with the goals that
00:07:11
I set because I simply forgot to look at
00:07:13
them oh by the way if one of your dreams
00:07:14
or goals is to potentially grow an
00:07:16
audience or to generate consistent
00:07:18
revenue or turn whatever expertise you
00:07:20
have into a full-time gig you should
00:07:21
definitely check out the future of
00:07:23
newsletters report from HubSpot who are
00:07:24
very kindly sponsoring this video and
00:07:26
you can download this report completely
00:07:27
for free using the link in the video
00:07:28
description now having a an email list
00:07:30
and a newsletter is one of the most
00:07:31
underrated I guess social media
00:07:33
platforms out there in that it's sort of
00:07:34
like a social media platform but it's
00:07:36
also sort of not it is in the sense that
00:07:37
you can directly connect with your
00:07:38
audience but it's not in the sense that
00:07:40
you actually own the platform of your
00:07:42
newsletter rather than building the
00:07:44
house on borrowed land as it were and
00:07:45
this free report is packed with tips and
00:07:47
insights to help you create and improve
00:07:49
your own newsletter whether you're a
00:07:50
business owner or a content creator I've
00:07:52
personally had my own email newsletter
00:07:53
since April 2018 so it's been over 6 and
00:07:56
1 half years that I've been sending it
00:07:57
every single week and one section I
00:07:58
really love from the report is that it
00:08:00
talked about a bunch of different ways
00:08:01
that you can generate recurring Revenue
00:08:03
through subscriptions and a bunch of
00:08:04
actionable ideas along that vein this
00:08:06
resource is made completely for free by
00:08:08
HubSpot who are today's video sponsor so
00:08:09
thank you very much for them for making
00:08:11
this video possible and do check out the
00:08:12
free report in the video description all
00:08:14
right let's move on to strategy number
00:08:15
three and here we can cite this meta
00:08:17
analysis of I think 138 studies that
00:08:20
covered nearly 20,000 participants and
00:08:22
the authors of the meta analysis found
00:08:24
that one simple strategy that you can
00:08:25
use to improve your odds of goal
00:08:27
attainment is simply to monitor your
00:08:30
progress regularly in my case for
00:08:32
example in my weekly reset thing I asked
00:08:34
myself what were my quarterly quests and
00:08:36
how are they going the and how are they
00:08:39
going bit encourages me to actually
00:08:40
monitor progress generally I give it red
00:08:42
yellow or green or I just say kind of on
00:08:44
track or off track just even that is
00:08:47
enough for me to monitor the progress
00:08:49
that I'm making towards my goals every
00:08:50
single day when I make the time to do my
00:08:52
morning Manifesto and I ask myself what
00:08:53
were our priorities for the week and how
00:08:55
are they going again I'm monitoring
00:08:57
progress I defined the most important
00:08:59
priority ities at the start of the week
00:09:00
and now I'm just checking in with myself
00:09:01
to see how am I actually doing and
00:09:03
achieving them the other way that I
00:09:04
personally like to do this monitoring
00:09:05
progress thing it's also fairly simple I
00:09:06
use an app things three for my to-do
00:09:08
list and within things three I have the
00:09:10
various projects that I'm working on so
00:09:12
I've got you can ignore Iram and Angus
00:09:14
this is sort of two of my team members
00:09:15
that I delegate stuff to so that is a
00:09:17
project because delegation and stuff but
00:09:19
I basically split up my project into
00:09:21
work and life and you can see I've got
00:09:23
these four different projects under work
00:09:25
company relocation life OS Mastermind
00:09:26
and learn AI agents and I've got get
00:09:29
food on autopilot cuz I'm sorting out
00:09:30
like some sort of food situation for my
00:09:31
life these are a couple of the projects
00:09:33
that I'm actively working on and about
00:09:34
once a week when I update my projects
00:09:36
list I will just put a little Emoji of
00:09:38
like yellow or green green is it is on
00:09:40
track yellow is that it's sort of a bit
00:09:42
off track but there's a plan to get it
00:09:44
back on track and if it's red it's like
00:09:46
off track without a plan you can also
00:09:47
monitor your progress in any Wich way
00:09:49
you like back when I was writing my book
00:09:50
feel good productivity I monitored
00:09:52
progress in terms of word counts for
00:09:54
specific chapters because that's like an
00:09:55
easy way to make progress more visible
00:09:57
it also just makes it feel better as
00:09:58
you're achieving a goal if you're able
00:10:00
to monitor the progress sort of like the
00:10:01
leveling up bar in a video game as
00:10:03
you're killing the monsters and doing
00:10:04
the quests you're leveling up your
00:10:06
experience meter is filling and there's
00:10:08
something very satisfying about that but
00:10:10
what the evidence suggests is that
00:10:11
people who just take a small amount of
00:10:12
time to regularly monitor the progress
00:10:14
of their goals are significantly more
00:10:16
likely to actually achieve them and that
00:10:18
is why that is point number three
00:10:19
monitor your progress again super easy
00:10:21
super simple doesn't take very long if
00:10:23
you are not monitoring the progress of
00:10:24
your goals you are leaving a lot of free
00:10:27
kind of goal attainment points on the
00:10:29
the table and you just might as well
00:10:30
start doing it because why not all right
00:10:32
let's move on to fairly simple strategy
00:10:33
number four and this comes from a
00:10:35
psychologist called Gabrielle tingan and
00:10:37
it's a strategy called mental
00:10:39
contrasting now mental contrasting is
00:10:40
the idea where you basically visualize
00:10:42
something that you want in the future
00:10:44
but it's not just about visualizing the
00:10:45
outcome we find that people who spend
00:10:47
too long visualizing having already
00:10:49
achieved their goals actually in some in
00:10:51
some studies are less likely to achieve
00:10:53
those goals but if you visualize
00:10:55
achieving your goals and you also
00:10:57
contrast it with the obstacles that you
00:10:58
might encounter along the way that is
00:11:00
mental contrasting and that really seems
00:11:02
to boost people's goal attainment and so
00:11:04
this psychologist Gabrielle tingan came
00:11:05
up with a fairly simple technique called
00:11:07
the whoop method which stands for wish
00:11:09
outcome obstacle and plan now the wish
00:11:11
and the outcome is where you are
00:11:13
basically setting the goal there are all
00:11:14
sorts of different ways for goal setting
00:11:16
you can use the GPS system which is my
00:11:18
personal favorite you can think in terms
00:11:19
of facts feelings and functionality you
00:11:21
can think in terms of wish and outcome
00:11:23
like what is the thing that you wish for
00:11:24
and what is the outcome that would that
00:11:26
would happen as a result of you
00:11:27
achieving that goal but then the key bit
00:11:28
of the method is this obstacle and plan
00:11:31
you are visualizing the obstacles that
00:11:33
might stand in your path let's say you
00:11:35
know I've set the goal of I don't know
00:11:36
writing my next book uh by halfway
00:11:39
through next year all right cool what
00:11:40
are the obstacles that could get in my
00:11:42
path well one obstacle is I might not
00:11:43
make time for it another obstacle is I
00:11:45
might run out ideas and other obstacle
00:11:46
as I might feel demotivated when I sit
00:11:48
down to try and right and then the final
00:11:49
component of the who method is plan what
00:11:51
is my plan for addressing those
00:11:53
obstacles so I might say okay cool I'm
00:11:55
going to put in 3 hours of my calendar
00:11:56
block every single morning to focus on
00:11:57
writing I might do a few brainstorming
00:11:59
sessions with my team to avoid the
00:12:00
problem of running out of ideas and I
00:12:02
might use an app that me and my team
00:12:03
have built called voice pal to make
00:12:04
writing more fun because then I can
00:12:06
write the book while talking rather than
00:12:07
while simply typing on a computer and so
00:12:09
strategy number four that we have here
00:12:10
is visualize obstacles and to make a
00:12:12
plan again doesn't take very long to do
00:12:15
each time you set a goal you can just
00:12:16
spend literally 3 minutes thinking to
00:12:18
yourself okay cool wish outcome wo
00:12:20
obstacle plan what are the obstacles
00:12:22
that could get in my way and what's my
00:12:23
plan for overcoming those obstacles and
00:12:25
again according to the research this
00:12:26
will drastically improve your odds of
00:12:27
actually achieving the goal and then
00:12:28
finally we come to fairly easy strategy
00:12:30
number five and that is to tie them to
00:12:32
an identity now the classic example of
00:12:34
this is that there was this study where
00:12:36
they looked at um voting so for some of
00:12:38
the people in the study they asked will
00:12:40
you vote in this election and for the
00:12:42
other half they asked will you be a
00:12:44
voter in this election and they found
00:12:46
that the people who were asked the
00:12:47
question of will you be a voter were way
00:12:49
more likely to vote than the people who
00:12:50
were simply asked will you vote will you
00:12:52
vote is an action will you be a voter is
00:12:55
an identity so the key thing here is
00:12:56
wherever possible when you've got your
00:12:58
goals you want to just sort of spend an
00:12:59
extra 20 seconds to tie them to an
00:13:02
identity for example one of my goals is
00:13:03
to reduce my visceral abdominal tissue
00:13:05
because you know genetics and stuff and
00:13:08
I want to live longer and healthier and
00:13:09
I've been reading outlive by patri here
00:13:11
now setting the goal of improving my
00:13:12
bench press or reducing my viseral
00:13:14
adapost tissue or all that all that kind
00:13:15
of stuff is all well and good but if I
00:13:17
were to take the 20 seconds to tie them
00:13:19
to an identity of I am a healthy person
00:13:22
that will make it more likely that I'll
00:13:23
actually achieve the goals and I'll
00:13:24
actually stick with it when the going
00:13:26
gets tough because I've resonated with
00:13:28
that identity similarly I found when I
00:13:29
was working on my YouTube channel when I
00:13:31
gave myself permission to lean into the
00:13:33
identity of I am a YouTuber that was
00:13:36
what allowed me to stay consistent with
00:13:37
making YouTube videos in the tough times
00:13:39
for ages I did not identify with the
00:13:41
identity of being an author or being a
00:13:42
writer because I had all sorts of
00:13:44
imposter syndrome around it who am I to
00:13:45
write a BG any of this sort of stuff but
00:13:47
when I lent into that identity of being
00:13:49
an author and I start of this video I'm
00:13:50
a doctor turned entrepreneur and author
00:13:52
leaning into the identity of being an
00:13:54
author you know what does an author do
00:13:55
an author writes what does a writer do a
00:13:56
writer writes that makes it a lot easier
00:13:58
in the mornings when I'm figuring out
00:13:59
what do I want to do with my day what do
00:14:00
I want to do with my week oh yeah I'm a
00:14:02
writer I guess I should do some writing
00:14:03
and these and this is often in line with
00:14:05
the goals that I have for myself so the
00:14:07
question would be for whatever goals
00:14:08
that you're setting for yourself how can
00:14:09
you tie them to an identity because you
00:14:12
know there's a quote that I really like
00:14:13
from Tony Robbins which is that the
00:14:15
strongest force in human personality is
00:14:17
the need to stay consistent in how we
00:14:19
Define ourselves if you label if you
00:14:22
define yourself as a procrastinator you
00:14:24
actually will stay consistent with that
00:14:27
if you define yourself as a YouTuber
00:14:28
you're more likely to stay consistent
00:14:30
with that if you can get over the
00:14:31
Imposter syndrome and Define yourself as
00:14:33
a high performer or as an entrepreneur
00:14:35
you are more likely to do the sorts of
00:14:37
things that high performers or
00:14:38
entrepreneurs or healthy people or
00:14:39
whatever the thing might be you're more
00:14:41
likely to actually do those things
00:14:42
therefore you are more likely to achieve
00:14:44
your goals in that domain now if you
00:14:45
incorporate all these five things which
00:14:46
I hope you do because they're super easy
00:14:48
to do and you might as well and they're
00:14:49
evidence-based and they work if you
00:14:50
incorporate these five things there is
00:14:52
still one mistake that you might run
00:14:53
into which is the idea of setting too
00:14:55
many goals and here I want to link you
00:14:57
to that video which is my summary of Cal
00:14:59
newport's new book slow productivity
00:15:01
that makes a really strong case for
00:15:02
doing less but better and doing it in a
00:15:05
way that doesn't Foster burnout so if
00:15:06
you haven't yet read slow productivity
00:15:08
by Cal Newport you can check out that
00:15:09
video over there where I summarize kind
00:15:11
of the key learnings from the book and I
00:15:12
hope you find that useful thank you so
00:15:13
much for watching and I'll see you later
00:15:14
bye-bye
