Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of Sniffing Out the Bullsh*t where I will be talking about goal setting bullsh*t!

Now, it seems strange that I’m referring to goal setting as bullsh*t, because I love creating goals myself and that amazing feeling of smashing them.

But the problem is, there is soooo much bullsh*t around setting goals and for many people, you are already set up for failure from day one.

That’s why this podcast is all about how to make goals correctly, and in some cases, maybe making goals may not actually be right for you!

Yup – you heard me. I may actually be suggesting that you don’t create any goals. Now, this is coming from someone who barely functions without something to work towards, so you gotta stay with me for this episode so you can understand my reasoning.

So, it’s February 2024, which means that just over a month has gone since people made their new years resolutions. How many resolutions do you think have been kept?

Now according to very recent research… I’m talking, updated this week… only 36% of people will have made it this far. 23% will have already given up in the first week! And how many people successfully keep their resolutions? 9%! That’s it.

So that’s pretty ridiculous to me. Only 9% of people keep new years resolutions, so what is the point??

Well, they usually mean well. People make goals because they want to create some sort of change in their life, but then they don’t actually make any steps to achieving them.

You’re listening to this podcast episode, which means you’re already taking step to achieve your goals!

So let’s start with some of the bullsh*t about goal setting as I believe this is why the numbers are so ridiculously low.

First of all, people have NO FREAKING CLUE how to set goals.

Try Googling “How to set goals”. OMG the results are disgusting. My top hit… and I’m not even joking here, is:

WHAT. A. JOKE.

Next, it starts banging on about SMART goals.

Now, SMART goals have been around for what my parents would call “donkeys’ ears”. But I just don’t think they’re a smart way to set goals. See what I did there? Pun totally intended.

First of all… let’s explain what SMART stands for, in case people did not actually get my previously hilarious pun!

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Relevant
T – Time-bound

So, looking at this framework, it looks like a great way to create goals, right? So, what’s my issue with them?

OK, so I love many components to this as it addresses where many go wrong – for example, measurable. Many people may say “get better at the piano”. I mean, what does this mean? How much better? 1% better? Compose as good as Mozart?

And achievable is a huge one, because many people pick this lofty goals because you get told that you gotta shoot for the stars… go big or go home.

There are soooo many quotes that start with “set goals so high that…”

Well, I think it should be the OPPOSITE of all this. You should undershoot on your goals. Yup – you heard me. I think you should start small. OK, I’m not suggesting that if you want to lose weight you say “right, I’m gonna lose 1kg by the end of the year”, as that’s quite silly. But maybe don’t say “I’m gonna go to the gym 5x per week and also do this diet and intermittent fast too, so I can get my goal weight in 3 months”.

Maybe try starting small – say you want to just go to the gym for a few minutes per day, but make a habit out of it. Start small and work your way up.

Don’t go on a crazy diet but maybe start by cutting out desserts and then once you can do that, replace other bad foods.

Healthy habits are much better than crazy goals. Which is essentially the essence of this episode. But I will come back to that later.

Let’s also address the T, which is time-bound. Now, people set themselves an arbitrary deadline for their goals, which is just plucked from thin air. All this does is cause undue stress to achieve this goal by a time that is not necessary.

Then, you may even cut corners, cheat your way or do things sloppily just to achieve your goals by the deadline. I see this in business a lot and you end up with sub par work instead of quality because of some silly deadline.

I think you absolutely do need to be held accountable to making things happen or they won’t ever happen, but you need to be care that you don’t accidentally self-sabotage by fulfilling the T in SMART.

Now, I wanna refer to a piece of research that was conducted in the University of Oregon – the Centre of Translational Neuroscience. I know, fancy title right? Must be good research! So, this guy is called Dr. Elliot Berkman and he studied the most important elements of success for achieving goals.

First of all, I want to analyse his definition of what a goal is:

“Any desired outcome that wouldn’t otherwise happen without you doing something.”

Now, let’s think about that for a moment.

So, what counts as a goal and what doesn’t?

Going back to the weight thing, because the top three new years resolutions are health-related, and 48% of people want to exercise more as their goa.

So, a goal here would be to lose 10 pounds by embarking on a healthy diet and a new exercise regime.

Saying you want to win the lottery is not a goal because even though it does require you to buy a lottery ticket, it’s all down to luck and it’s not propelled by action on your part to achieve it.

OK, let’s do another.

Launching a successful podcast by consistently producing high-quality content and promoting it to the target audience is a goal. It involves a desired outcome and it requires specific actions to achieve this.

That goal was not picked coincidentally btw. So, let’s hope I keep this up!
OK let’s pick a more complicated non-goal. I’m gonna go with “being happy”. Now, you’re probably thinking that this should count because most people desire to be happy and you need to do something to be happy.

The thing is, there are soooooo many factors that lead to happiness – it’s not just a simple action plan that creates happiness. It often results from a combination of factors, including personal relationships, fulfilment in work and overall well-being. So, you’d have to tackle each of these areas and perhaps find the concoction that leads to happiness.

And this is an area where SMART goals actually make sense, as it needs to be specific and measurable to make sense.

OK so anyway, this guy – Dr. Elliot Berkman basically decided that in order to be successful at achieving your goals, you need to fulfil two components.

The Will and the Way. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, right?!

So what is the will and the way? Well, essentially, that’s a why and a how.

And I’m gonna go against Simon Sinek’s advice here for a moment and not start with the why!

Let’s just address the how, because I want to talk about the why in a lot more detail.

The “how” refers to the cognitive dimension of behavioural change, involving the skills, abilities and the knowledge to carry out a specific goal. So, the way will provide a practical means to carry out the behaviour, mapping out the steps needed to achieve a goal and the cognitive processes that support it.

Dr. Berkman discovered that you need BOTH components – the will and the way to be successful at your goals, because the brain functionality involved in the why and the how parts are completely different.

The how is the executive functioning, so that involves the pre-frontal cortex. And the why activates the dopamine reward system within the brain, making it more chemical.

Now, if someone wants to learn a new language, the cognitive processes involved in acquiring vocabulary, grammar rules, and practising speaking constitute the “way”.

However, you still need a why.

So many people do things to impress others. The requirement of social validation is absolutely insane right now.

But let’s think about the social validation of learning a new language. OK, you’re at a party, or a networking event and you flex your language skills.

Everyone is like “Woooahhhhh, you speak Chinese?” And you’re like “Yeah man – I’ve been learning for three years.”

They’re like “That’s sooooo cool dude. So, what stuff are you working on at the moment? Any cool projects?” And it’s forgotten about in the next sentence.

Now, work out the cost-benefit analysis of that! Three years of learning a new language for about 5 seconds of social validation – worth it? I think not.

BUT, if you’re learning it for YOU, then it becomes a different matter.

So, you need to ask yourself “Why is the behaviour change important to you? Why now?”

Because this is what will motivate you to sticking to your goal.

And let’s address that for a second because I am talking about a behaviour change and not just a goal. Because that’s what it is – achieving goals is not just about checking off some boxes, it’s actually a completely identity change.

James Clear talks a lot about this in his book Atomic Habits. He says that if you want to stop smoking, you need to say that you’re not a smoker.

Imagine if someone offers you a cigarette and you say “No thanks, I’m trying to quit”. That’s OK, but there’s part of you that still wants to do it as it’s part of your identity but you’re just trying to resist.

Will power is simply not enough.

Now try saying “No thank you – I don’t smoke”. You’ve completely changed your identity. Why would you need a cigarette now if you don’t smoke?

These little changes completely shifts your mindset, but it’s so powerful.

So for me, I’m now a healthy person. What that means is that I eat better foods, drink less and exercise more. I am not going crazy and cutting everything out as that approach does not work, as I will explain in a minute.

I will still go out and enjoy vino with my friends, but I’m not going to go crazy with it, nor will I do it too often because healthy people don’t do that!

So yeah, back to throwing everything at a goal – I’ve seen many people do this and it never seems to work. I’ve seen the strong-willed last a few months doing this to be fair, but then they’re incredibly miserable, which is no good for anyone.

So, it’s better to do things in small doses… or Atomic Habits! James Clear talks about people who want to try and go to the gym a lot more. Instead of saying “OK I’m gonna get up at 6am and use the gym each day.” He suggests saying you’re gonna go for just 5 mins a day. But you have to go each day. Once you’re there, you probably end up doing more than 5 minutes anyway, but you can choose to go home if you want after 5 minutes. The important thing is not to miss a session.

Well, you can miss one session, but NEVER two.

So, you’re creating a gym habit. How long you workout for is the next level. In fact, he even creates a level before that.

When you come home, change into gym clothes. That’s it. But once you’re in gym clothes, you may as well work out.

But you see, it starts off reallllllllly small and works upwards.

What I think people don’t realise is that behavioural change requires so much energy and effort… and a lot of patience. This is exhausting to do, so you need to do it in a way that’s right for you.

And this goes back to the bullsh*t of goal setting. People pick goals based on other people’s goals or what is trendy or “cool”. For example, getting up at 5am and going for a run and doing all this stuff before 8am.

That’s sooooo not me and I don’t think it ever will be.

Just because others are doing it and are super productive and they may even genuinely enjoy that, I’m not going to do that.

I’ve tried the 6am workout and I wanted to throw up. And I did this when I was in the best shape of my life and competing at a high level. I still hated it.

I much prefer an afternoon workout or evening workout. I actually enjoy that. I can then come home and relax and feel good after it. That may not work for others and that’s OK.

Personalise your goals to your lifestyle or you won’t stick to them.

So, let’s talk about the WHY section, as I seemed to have rambled on and diverted away from the second component of goal success.

You need to work out the value or motivation behind the goal. If you’re the type of person who gives us on lots of goals, then they’re probably not linked to something that you value.

Now, there’s two types of motivation – there’s intrinsic and there’s extrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is commonly what you will see online. People want to achieve things for status, recognition or money.

Intrinsic, however, comes from within – it’s passion, it’s a sense of mastery, it’s personal growth.

Now, many will say that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is probably a good recipe for success, but I think that extrinsic motivation will only last a certain amount of time.

Think about what it’s like to get stuck in a job that you absolutely hate, but you’re getting paid a decent amount for it. There’s only so much of that you can take, or you have to compromise on something else – your happiness.

Well, intrinsic motivation is true drive. Which incidentally, is the book I got this from. If you haven’t read Daniel Pink’s book, Drive. You absolutely need to.

He discusses all the research around motivation and which is better. It’s a fascinating read, especially if you have employees!

Those are my two book suggestions today – Daniel Pink’s Drive and James Clear’s Atomic Habits. Both will hammer home a lot of the points I’ve made today.

I actually read Atomic Habits every January, to get me into a good mindset for the year. This is because I think goal setting is kinda bullsh*t and I prefer to actually now create healthy habits.

I still like to write out things I’d like to achieve as it will help me roadmap it, but I do so in terms of habits. For example, I’d like to write a book soon – maybe not necessarily this year, but maybe! However, I would like to create a well-read blog. Now, in order to do so, I need to create a healthy writing habit. Which is what I am doing.

I write a minimum of 750 words per day now. If I don’t, I have to give my fiancé £10 each day! We started this a couple of weeks ago and I’ve not paid him yet!

I think creating this kind of accountability or making something challenging is more likely to help you achieve your goals. It definitely depends on the kind of person you are, but most research shows that telling someone your goal helps you achieve it.

I love gamification, and so I’m currently trying to gamify my goals. It makes it more fun – which is the 4th Law of James’ Atomic Habits. I told you it was a good book!

This 4th law is all about making it satisfying, which for me is the competitive element and making it intellectually stimulating. Tracking your progress is a great way to do this, which is why calorie counting has proven to be a successful technique in weight loss.

I have actually created a habit tracker on Notion, where I can track all the data from my habits.

You can track anything – calories for weight loss, workouts for fitness, expenses for financial goals. Language apps like Duolingo have streaks which you don’t want to break so it creates that competitiveness. I use a reading app that has this same streak and it definitely helped me create a reading habit.

Anyway, I think we covered a lot in this episode and I hope you are liking the new format. It’s definitely a lot less ranty!

I have declared that my word of 2024 is HEALTH and so all my habits are to do with health – not just physical health, but mental health too.

So, I don’t think ranting into a microphone is too healthy, as I’m only focusing on the bullsh*t.

Instead, I’ve sniffed out some of the bullsh*t and brought you some research and actionable points around goal setting.

Now, this episode should be coming to you at a timely point. You’ve probably created some goals in Jan – how are they going? It’s time to reflect.

Do you think you set them correctly? Are you putting too much pressure on yourself for these goals?

What is driving you to achieve these goals? Is it because your competitors are doing the same things? Everyone else is writing a book, I must write one too!

I kept seeing people doing TEDx talks on socials last year, I need to do one too! I say that one because I’m bombarded with requests every single day, because I organise a TEDx event. People are not interested in me in the slightest – just for the fact I can put them on a TEDx stage.

If you are driven by the success of others or social validation, then your drive for achieving these goals won’t last too long.

Also, let’s say you do achieve them. How will you actually feel? The moment will probably be extremely anti-climatic and you will want to move on very quickly to trying to achieve another goal that you saw someone do on social media.

I challenge you to review your 2024 goals, or your Q1 goals.

Do they have a Will and a Way? A How and a Why?

Do you know what they are?

I hope you’ve enjoyed the episode today and find lots of value in this new podcast format.

I will back next week with the same new format, so until then… keep sniffing out that bullsh*t!