Four Goals, None Done
Part One
Kevin Hogan
You set 4, 10, or maybe 20 goals last month/year.
It doesn't really matter.
How many did you accomplish?
If you brought one goal to completion, you finished
at or near the top of the class. Consciously created
and set goals of long-term significance are rarely achieved.
Why?
And more importantly, can you "beat the system?"
People aren't wired to accomplish or "finish" long-term goals.
And people aren't hooked up to complete medium-term goals.
In fact, people find that every single day they wanted
to accomplish certain...stuff...and the end result?
Almost Nothing...or None.
It's 2010. You live in The Age of Blame. Is it your
fault? Is it someone else's? How about biology? Neurology?
What about psychology? The Church? The Democrats!
Shoot, it has to be SOMEONE's fault that almost no one
ever reaches their goals.
Maxwell Maltz wrote in his classic Psychocybernetics that
your brain is like a guided goal-seeking mechanism.
So maybe you got the wrong installation.
It turns out that a lot of what Maltz wrote about was
ahead of his time. For example, plastic surgery and little
changes in physical appearance can often make a big
difference in self-esteem and feelings of self-worth.
But he was wrong about one thing as far as the mind being
a goal-seeking mechanism:
Keypoint: The brain seeks goals, but it has no directive to complete
most goals.
In fact, it turns out that in almost all
humans, a few steps toward a one-mile goal are typically
enough for the brain to switch that goal "off."
Oddly, the brain does have a sort of Passive Goal Guidance
System. And it is this system that causes you to reach
almost none of your goals.
A scientific analysis of this
research is presented in journal articles by Juliano Laran
and Chris Janiszewski.
Some people do reach many of their goals.
Is there some kind of "Secret Society" of People who know how to get what they want? 
Continue: Page | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Kevin Hogan
Network 3000 Publishing
3432 Denmark #108
Eagan, MN 55123
(612) 616-0732
Coffee cup photo appears under license with Stockexpert. Article photo appears under license with istockphoto/twilightproductions.
