When was the last time you made another resolution and realized you gave up soon enough?
Has it ever happened that you started your weight loss program with a lot of enthusiasm, acheived your goal and then slipped back to the same place, or even worse than where you started from?
Short term goals may seem quite attractive but here’s why they do not work
Your mind acknowledges every task as a short term/ long term activity
Your brain is subjected to numerous activities and goals every single day.
It is not unusual to forget that first piece of thought we had early morning, as the day approaches an end.
Whatever we do throughout the day, our brain splits these activities into 2 categories
- Permanent – brushing teeth, combing hair, taking bath, driving, tying shoe laces, etc. – these are skills you use for lifetime. so you perform them long enough until they become effortless.
- Temporary – reading a book, playing a sport, new hobby,
If a task is of permanent nature, our mind tries to automate the process by pushing it to the subconscious memory.
and if a task is of temporary nature, our mind allocates the resources to temporarily handle the situation until it is done and closed.
Why do we give up in short time and why short term goals do not work?
Essentially, anything new that we introduce in your life will be associated with an associated habit change.
- Improving vocabulary will be associated with improving reading habits.
- Improving health will be associated with improving lifestyle everyday.
- Losing weight will be associated with improving diet habits.
The real reason why #shorttermgoals do not work is they are temporary milestones Once the milestones are done, our excitement to continue the skill is also gone, and we slip back to the old results.
While we want to change the outcomes, we rarely try to change our #habits essential to accomplish that goal. Your short term goals will work only when it is a part of a long term goal.
We will commit to the goals but not to the associated changes in habits, despite knowing that the associated habits are the ‘actions’ that will derive the results.
Even if we do commit to the habit change, we do not want those habits for the rest of our lives – but we also want the results to stay forever. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work.
So, getting 6 pack abs is about doing the work for 30/60/90 days and presuming that once we get the goal, the results will stay even after we stop doing the ‘changed actions’.
That’s the fallacy of a short term goal.
How can we change the outcome?
We must acknowledge here that the outcomes cannot be separated from the habit change,.
In order to get permanent results, our mind needs to know that the goal we are setting is permanent in nature and we are wanting to do it for the rest of our lives.
- we not only want to lose weight, but also want to stay fit forever.
- we not only want to generate more income, we want to stay wealthy forever
- we not only want to improve our language, we want to speak the language forever.
Simply put – the goal has to sink into your instincts.
Once that happens, your mind programs itself to imrprovise itself and give you triggers. Every new practice needs 30 (continuous) days to become a habit, and 90 (continuous) days to become an instinct.
Which means you practice swiimming for 30 days and you will learn to stay afloat – you do it for 90 days and you will remember it forever. That’s how incredibly our mind works.
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The Great Life 