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SCIENCE-BACKED BRAIN HACKS TO CRUSH YOUR GOALS

Kate Rockwood

Often, the hardest part of achieving success is when you transition your goals into habits. Goals tell you where you want to go, but habits give you the discipline you need to get there. It may seem daunting, but the process will get easier with time. All it takes now is persistence, passion, and a little science-backed knowledge to get you over the hump.

Here are seven tips that will help you keep pushing.

1. Get Bold

Want to push your performance to the max? Make a stretch goal, rather than one that’s easily attainable. Stretch goals push you beyond your usual limits. Penn State psychology professors found in a study that big, lofty goals are correlated more strongly with improved performance than small, incremental goals. The higher the bar, the harder we push.

2. Narrow Your Focus

So you want to pitch 20 new clients, build out the product line, and scout a second location? Time to pare down that to-do list. In a study in the Journal of Marketing Research, participants who picked just one goal achieved success at nearly double the rate of those who chased two or three at a time.

3. Grab a Pen

Got a goal? Write it down. In a study at Dominican University, people who wrote down their objectives achieved roughly 50 percent more than people who merely thought about them.

4. Think in Ranges

A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that setting a goal within a range (say, raising revenue 8 to 10 percent) makes you more likely to stick with it than if you aim for a flat number. Even better: “You’ll be more likely to try to set a goal again in the future,” says lead researcher Maura Scott, a professor at Florida State University.

5. Map It Out

A goal is great; a game plan is even better. In a study in the Journal of Applied Psychology, participants who spent two hours mapping out how they planned to achieve specific goals were more likely to find success. The researchers wrote: “Goal clarity increases persistence, making individuals less susceptible to the undermining effects of anxiety, disappointment, and frustration.”

6. Enlist a Friend

An accountability buddy can work just as well in the boardroom as at the gym. Research shows that when people share weekly progress reports with a friend, their likelihood of success at reaching a goal climbs to 76 percent.

7. Cue the Immediate Gratification

Our brains naturally want to put off daunting tasks and let our future selves deal with them (the psych term for this is “present bias”). But a 2016 study in the Chicago Booth Review offers a way around your inner procrastinator: Give yourself small rewards in the near future to spur greater achievement of long-term goals. A slice of cake every time you cold-call an investor? A Friday-night Netflix binge every week you advance the ball on your big goal? Whatever keeps you inching toward the finish line!

8. Get Unmotivated

OK, it sounds completely counterintuitive, but a study by the British Journal of Health Psychology found that trying to motivate yourself to reach a goal was less effective than setting an intention for when and what you want to accomplish. Researchers reported that people who read motivational materials were less likely to get things done, while people who made a plan and followed through were much more successful.

By implementing these strategies into your regimen, you slowly train your brain to think about your goals and success in new ways. What may start off as a marathon eventually becomes a sprint.