Reaching goals: 9 life hacking from SmartProgress
Based on many years of experience with the SmartProgress service, we have developed 9 ways to increase the chances of achieving the goal. They can be combined or used separately. But it is important not just to read them and forget, but try to apply them in your life.
If the goal exists only in the head, then consider that it does not exist.
• In psychology, the concept of exteriorization is the transfer of internal processes (thoughts, plans, goals) to the outside in oral or written format. Writing a goal on SmartProgress , we just carry out this transfer and the goal takes on real form. Yes, and the brain begins to perceive something recorded as already quite real, prompting them to go to the gym, save money, pump over their skills.
')
• Memory and consciousness are not dimensionless. And if you write the goal on paper, then release a certain amount of memory, attention and thinking that you already use to plan actions. Having transferred the action plan to paper, make room for new creative ideas. That is why, thanks to the simple “write down goal” action, we are more successfully moving towards it.
When recording a target on SmartProgress, you will see special tips for clear and specific wording of thoughts. In the process of recording, consider the goal, visualize it from several sides. And when you see a clear end result, you will more easily achieve it.
This is the English abbreviation of SMART, meaning "smart." Each letter is a criterion for the effectiveness of goals.
• Specific
The more specifics, the higher the probability of achieving the goal. Determine the desired result as accurately as possible, for example, "Drop 15 kilograms in one year." Avoid inaccuracies and double interpretations.
• Measurable (measurable)
When formulating a goal, remember that the end result should be easy to measure. Ask yourself “When will it be considered that my goal has been achieved?”, “What indicator or criteria can I use for this?”. Minus fifteen kilograms is an example of a measurable result.
• Achievable (achievable)
If you can find resources to achieve the goal, then the goal is achievable. Resources are knowledge, skills, useful contacts, information, time, money. Starting to achieve the goal, analyze what you already have, what you need and where you take it.
• Relevant (current)
Formulate a goal on SmartProgress and its environmental friendliness (relevance). In a special field to fill in, write why and why you want to achieve exactly this result. Environmental friendliness is external and internal.
External environmental friendliness is the correspondence of your goal to the other goals of your life. For example, you want to breed British cats, but you are allergic to cat fur. In this case, the second goal, which makes it impossible to fulfill the first one, can subconsciously sound like this: “Avoid cats in your apartment.” Internal environmental friendliness - is the compliance of the goal with your beliefs, values, lifestyle. Are you ready to accept the changes? Will you be comfortable? Are you afraid of possible changes? Having decided to climb the career ladder, you should be aware that you will have to change your lifestyle: start working more than normal, constantly educate yourself, more often refuse to meet with friends, choose not to watch the show, but to read professional literature.
• Time bound (time limited)
Set yourself a deadline for achieving the goal. This will help mobilize forces and not waste time in vain. On SmartProgress, you can limit the time target using the “Timeframes” button. After that, the timeline will always be displayed in the goal header, reminding you of commitments and deadlines.
Checking goals by SMART-criteria, you summarize the available information, set adequate deadlines, determine the availability and amount of resources, set clear and specific objectives for yourself or partners.
What phrase will affect you more: “You need to do physical exercises while you are sitting at the computer” or “Stand up and do 10 squats”? Formulating a plan to achieve the goal with the help of active verbs, you help the brain to tune in to work.
To facilitate the work, answer the following questions: where do I start work? What do I need for this, and what do I already possess? For example, if you want to lose weight, the first steps can be as follows:
1. Choose a gym and a trainer.
2. Learn the principles of proper nutrition and popular diets.
3. Buy uniforms and equipment for practicing at home.
4. Allocate time in your schedule to visit the gym, refusing to work overtime.
See how the goal becomes clear, specific and realistic? Writing down every action, it’s as if you are building a ladder to your goal.
The fact of public announcement of the goal helps us to achieve it more actively. Robert Cialdini in his book Psychology of Influence explains why public commitment is so effective.
Having announced the goal of “Losing weight by 15 kg” on SmartProgress, we are committed to achieving it. And, according to Robert Chaldini, the person who made the commitment tends to be consistent. We want society to consider us consistent, and therefore reasonable, worthy of trust and respect. Therefore, the more open and well-known our position is, the more reluctant we are to change it or refuse it altogether. We actively iron, change the diet, trying to be consistent and fulfill the commitment. So the publicity of the statement helps to move towards the goal and ultimately achieve it.
“As soon as an active commitment is made, the desire for consistency starts from two sides to put pressure on a person’s self-image. From within, there is a force that forces this presentation to be brought into line with actions. From the outside, there is a tendency to suitably adjust this view to the perception of a person by others. Oral statements can be forgotten or even begin to deny. Written by his own hand has a certain power and authority over us: it changes our self-image. ”
Here is a huge plus of public commitment - they support us, if we hesitate, working daily on the goal. The “Save 300,000 for vacation” goal recorded on SmartProgress further encourages you to believe that you can achieve what you want (of course, provided that you checked the target using smart criteria). And when you want to buy fashionable shoes at a crazy price, we will begin to hesitate, postpone this amount for a vacation, or please yourself with a pleasant purchase. A public commitment will quickly incline us to the side of the goal.
Important! A sense of responsibility, which influences behavior so strongly, must come from within. If your goal is imposed on you from the outside, then public commitment will not have the desired effect.
At SmartProgress, you can comment on the overall process of achieving your goal or a specific step. What does this give?
• You organize thoughts.
• Plan new activities.
• Make adjustments.
• Constantly focus on the goal.
Well, as it was already written above, if you transfer the main points of the movement to the goal from your head to the virtual pages, then make room for new thoughts and plans.
Describing difficulties and victories in your diary, you are strengthened in your striving to reach the finish line. And if you again want to go the same way in a few years (for example, having learned English, you want to learn Chinese), then the achievement diary will help you remember the main obstacles and be ready for them.
And one more plus in favor of keeping a diary of achievements. American social worker and psychotherapist Ira Progoff first suggested keeping a diary for the purpose of psychotherapy. He believed that splashing out personal joys and experiences on paper allows you to explore your personality. Of course, we prefer to hide our deepest experiences from SmartProgress users, but we cannot but agree with Progoff: systematic keeping of a structured diary helps us evaluate past experience and see new perspectives.
Once a psychologist Norman Triplett noticed that “athletes show better results not when they compete with a stopwatch, but when they participate in collective races (Triplett, 1898)” (D. Myers. Social Psychology). A series of psychological experiments proves an interesting fact: in the presence of other people, a person improves work productivity. This is called social facilitation. That is why users of the service intuitively subscribe to goals that are interesting for them: it motivates them to increase their activity.
What are the benefits of communicating with like-minded people on SmartProgress?
• If you have similar problems, you will find suitable or non-standard solutions.
• If the user has enchanting achievements - you will be inspired by his example and will go forward more diligently.
• If both of you fail, support each other to move in the same direction.
Support from people who are striving for the same, to which we are striving, is a much more significant phrase: “You can!”. And sometimes you can create a team goal to achieve results together. This goal unites people from different cities and even countries.
“Mentors are people who, through their actions and their work, help other people realize their potential” (Mentoring: The Basics of Leadership. Gordon F. Shea).
Do you want to learn some skill or pump skills? Use the mentoring chip from SmartProgres at full capacity. How it works: a mentor expert in a particular topic invites users to a group program. Each participant creates a thematic goal and notes the progress in the diary. Mentor views these entries, comments. Participants also freely exchange experience and knowledge among themselves.
What are the advantages of mentoring:
• Mentor has already passed the path to a specific goal. So, you, going to it, will take into account the experience of others, save time and energy, get interesting, necessary, timely information.
• Phenomena that we perceive through sight (text, video, infographics) are quickly and easily imprinted in our mind, because they do not need decoding and transcoding, as is the case with speech effects. Therefore, when your mentor uploads a training video during a program, conducts a webinar, or gives feedback, remember that you are using one of the fastest ways to learn.
• Feedback from a mentor helps to timely adjust their activities. If he sees an error in your report, he will indicate it in time. So you remember only the right way of action and protect yourself from more serious troubles. In the book about the kaizen method (“Step by step to achieve the goal”), Robert Maurer cites the example of the experience of the Toyota concern. The managers allowed the workers to stop the conveyor whenever they see a defective part or an error during the manufacturing process. The pipeline stopped, the error was corrected, the process started again. As a result, cars of this brand differed excellent quality. “By practicing to identify and solve minor problems, you avoid the more painful subsequent treatment of them,” the author of the book believes.
And for a snack. The most difficult period for a startup is the first year of work. Boris Tkachenko, Head of Mentoring in the ICBM program (Youth Business Russia) cites research results: 75% of young entrepreneurs went through this “valley of death” and maintained their business if they were supported by experienced mentors during the first year.
8. Use the "Price words"
Simply put, take yourself "on the weak." This method works great if you want to achieve some goal, but doubt in success. Naturally, setting such a goal, one should especially carefully check it by smart-criteria. The essence of the price of the word is this: you make a monetary rate, the size of which you define yourself. If the goal is failed, you lose money. So you put yourself in conditions in which nothing else remains but to work hard.
What does psychology say about this? Such a healthy provocation encourages us to more actively go to the goal, because we are reckless and curious. And we tend to doubt our abilities. A person who doubts is more manageable, therefore, if at this moment you call yourself weakly, using the price of a word, you will want to prove that you can handle it.
Following the results of 2015, Mail.Ru Group experts found out that the monthly audience of gamers in Russia was more than 43 million people - about of the total population of the country. In a computer game, a person identifies himself so much with a virtual character that he considers his actions, successes and defeats to be his own. And money for profile pumping is spent nemeryannom, and such virtual success does not add health.
For lovers to pump their skills SmartProgress offers a system of levels. Passing game levels, you get a virtual experience and open different bonuses when working with the service. This system helps to turn goal achievement into an exciting game. With the only difference that this "game" will affect your real, not virtual life.
Well, all lifehacks are exposed, use them and get close to your goals every day. I wish you success!
1. Write down the purpose
If the goal exists only in the head, then consider that it does not exist.• In psychology, the concept of exteriorization is the transfer of internal processes (thoughts, plans, goals) to the outside in oral or written format. Writing a goal on SmartProgress , we just carry out this transfer and the goal takes on real form. Yes, and the brain begins to perceive something recorded as already quite real, prompting them to go to the gym, save money, pump over their skills.
')
• Memory and consciousness are not dimensionless. And if you write the goal on paper, then release a certain amount of memory, attention and thinking that you already use to plan actions. Having transferred the action plan to paper, make room for new creative ideas. That is why, thanks to the simple “write down goal” action, we are more successfully moving towards it.
When recording a target on SmartProgress, you will see special tips for clear and specific wording of thoughts. In the process of recording, consider the goal, visualize it from several sides. And when you see a clear end result, you will more easily achieve it.
2. Check the target by SMART criteria
This is the English abbreviation of SMART, meaning "smart." Each letter is a criterion for the effectiveness of goals.• Specific
The more specifics, the higher the probability of achieving the goal. Determine the desired result as accurately as possible, for example, "Drop 15 kilograms in one year." Avoid inaccuracies and double interpretations.
• Measurable (measurable)
When formulating a goal, remember that the end result should be easy to measure. Ask yourself “When will it be considered that my goal has been achieved?”, “What indicator or criteria can I use for this?”. Minus fifteen kilograms is an example of a measurable result.
• Achievable (achievable)
If you can find resources to achieve the goal, then the goal is achievable. Resources are knowledge, skills, useful contacts, information, time, money. Starting to achieve the goal, analyze what you already have, what you need and where you take it.
• Relevant (current)
Formulate a goal on SmartProgress and its environmental friendliness (relevance). In a special field to fill in, write why and why you want to achieve exactly this result. Environmental friendliness is external and internal.
External environmental friendliness is the correspondence of your goal to the other goals of your life. For example, you want to breed British cats, but you are allergic to cat fur. In this case, the second goal, which makes it impossible to fulfill the first one, can subconsciously sound like this: “Avoid cats in your apartment.” Internal environmental friendliness - is the compliance of the goal with your beliefs, values, lifestyle. Are you ready to accept the changes? Will you be comfortable? Are you afraid of possible changes? Having decided to climb the career ladder, you should be aware that you will have to change your lifestyle: start working more than normal, constantly educate yourself, more often refuse to meet with friends, choose not to watch the show, but to read professional literature.
• Time bound (time limited)
Set yourself a deadline for achieving the goal. This will help mobilize forces and not waste time in vain. On SmartProgress, you can limit the time target using the “Timeframes” button. After that, the timeline will always be displayed in the goal header, reminding you of commitments and deadlines.
Checking goals by SMART-criteria, you summarize the available information, set adequate deadlines, determine the availability and amount of resources, set clear and specific objectives for yourself or partners.
3. Formulate steps as actions.
What phrase will affect you more: “You need to do physical exercises while you are sitting at the computer” or “Stand up and do 10 squats”? Formulating a plan to achieve the goal with the help of active verbs, you help the brain to tune in to work.To facilitate the work, answer the following questions: where do I start work? What do I need for this, and what do I already possess? For example, if you want to lose weight, the first steps can be as follows:
1. Choose a gym and a trainer.
2. Learn the principles of proper nutrition and popular diets.
3. Buy uniforms and equipment for practicing at home.
4. Allocate time in your schedule to visit the gym, refusing to work overtime.
See how the goal becomes clear, specific and realistic? Writing down every action, it’s as if you are building a ladder to your goal.
4. Announce goal publicly
The fact of public announcement of the goal helps us to achieve it more actively. Robert Cialdini in his book Psychology of Influence explains why public commitment is so effective.Having announced the goal of “Losing weight by 15 kg” on SmartProgress, we are committed to achieving it. And, according to Robert Chaldini, the person who made the commitment tends to be consistent. We want society to consider us consistent, and therefore reasonable, worthy of trust and respect. Therefore, the more open and well-known our position is, the more reluctant we are to change it or refuse it altogether. We actively iron, change the diet, trying to be consistent and fulfill the commitment. So the publicity of the statement helps to move towards the goal and ultimately achieve it.
“As soon as an active commitment is made, the desire for consistency starts from two sides to put pressure on a person’s self-image. From within, there is a force that forces this presentation to be brought into line with actions. From the outside, there is a tendency to suitably adjust this view to the perception of a person by others. Oral statements can be forgotten or even begin to deny. Written by his own hand has a certain power and authority over us: it changes our self-image. ”
Here is a huge plus of public commitment - they support us, if we hesitate, working daily on the goal. The “Save 300,000 for vacation” goal recorded on SmartProgress further encourages you to believe that you can achieve what you want (of course, provided that you checked the target using smart criteria). And when you want to buy fashionable shoes at a crazy price, we will begin to hesitate, postpone this amount for a vacation, or please yourself with a pleasant purchase. A public commitment will quickly incline us to the side of the goal.
Important! A sense of responsibility, which influences behavior so strongly, must come from within. If your goal is imposed on you from the outside, then public commitment will not have the desired effect.
5. Keep a diary of achievements
At SmartProgress, you can comment on the overall process of achieving your goal or a specific step. What does this give?• You organize thoughts.
• Plan new activities.
• Make adjustments.
• Constantly focus on the goal.
Well, as it was already written above, if you transfer the main points of the movement to the goal from your head to the virtual pages, then make room for new thoughts and plans.
Describing difficulties and victories in your diary, you are strengthened in your striving to reach the finish line. And if you again want to go the same way in a few years (for example, having learned English, you want to learn Chinese), then the achievement diary will help you remember the main obstacles and be ready for them.
And one more plus in favor of keeping a diary of achievements. American social worker and psychotherapist Ira Progoff first suggested keeping a diary for the purpose of psychotherapy. He believed that splashing out personal joys and experiences on paper allows you to explore your personality. Of course, we prefer to hide our deepest experiences from SmartProgress users, but we cannot but agree with Progoff: systematic keeping of a structured diary helps us evaluate past experience and see new perspectives.
6. Watch for people with similar goals.
Once a psychologist Norman Triplett noticed that “athletes show better results not when they compete with a stopwatch, but when they participate in collective races (Triplett, 1898)” (D. Myers. Social Psychology). A series of psychological experiments proves an interesting fact: in the presence of other people, a person improves work productivity. This is called social facilitation. That is why users of the service intuitively subscribe to goals that are interesting for them: it motivates them to increase their activity.What are the benefits of communicating with like-minded people on SmartProgress?
• If you have similar problems, you will find suitable or non-standard solutions.
• If the user has enchanting achievements - you will be inspired by his example and will go forward more diligently.
• If both of you fail, support each other to move in the same direction.
Support from people who are striving for the same, to which we are striving, is a much more significant phrase: “You can!”. And sometimes you can create a team goal to achieve results together. This goal unites people from different cities and even countries.
7. Work with a mentor
“Mentors are people who, through their actions and their work, help other people realize their potential” (Mentoring: The Basics of Leadership. Gordon F. Shea).Do you want to learn some skill or pump skills? Use the mentoring chip from SmartProgres at full capacity. How it works: a mentor expert in a particular topic invites users to a group program. Each participant creates a thematic goal and notes the progress in the diary. Mentor views these entries, comments. Participants also freely exchange experience and knowledge among themselves.
What are the advantages of mentoring:
• Mentor has already passed the path to a specific goal. So, you, going to it, will take into account the experience of others, save time and energy, get interesting, necessary, timely information.
• Phenomena that we perceive through sight (text, video, infographics) are quickly and easily imprinted in our mind, because they do not need decoding and transcoding, as is the case with speech effects. Therefore, when your mentor uploads a training video during a program, conducts a webinar, or gives feedback, remember that you are using one of the fastest ways to learn.
• Feedback from a mentor helps to timely adjust their activities. If he sees an error in your report, he will indicate it in time. So you remember only the right way of action and protect yourself from more serious troubles. In the book about the kaizen method (“Step by step to achieve the goal”), Robert Maurer cites the example of the experience of the Toyota concern. The managers allowed the workers to stop the conveyor whenever they see a defective part or an error during the manufacturing process. The pipeline stopped, the error was corrected, the process started again. As a result, cars of this brand differed excellent quality. “By practicing to identify and solve minor problems, you avoid the more painful subsequent treatment of them,” the author of the book believes.
And for a snack. The most difficult period for a startup is the first year of work. Boris Tkachenko, Head of Mentoring in the ICBM program (Youth Business Russia) cites research results: 75% of young entrepreneurs went through this “valley of death” and maintained their business if they were supported by experienced mentors during the first year.
8. Use the "Price words"
Simply put, take yourself "on the weak." This method works great if you want to achieve some goal, but doubt in success. Naturally, setting such a goal, one should especially carefully check it by smart-criteria. The essence of the price of the word is this: you make a monetary rate, the size of which you define yourself. If the goal is failed, you lose money. So you put yourself in conditions in which nothing else remains but to work hard.What does psychology say about this? Such a healthy provocation encourages us to more actively go to the goal, because we are reckless and curious. And we tend to doubt our abilities. A person who doubts is more manageable, therefore, if at this moment you call yourself weakly, using the price of a word, you will want to prove that you can handle it.
9. Pump your virtual self.
Following the results of 2015, Mail.Ru Group experts found out that the monthly audience of gamers in Russia was more than 43 million people - about of the total population of the country. In a computer game, a person identifies himself so much with a virtual character that he considers his actions, successes and defeats to be his own. And money for profile pumping is spent nemeryannom, and such virtual success does not add health.For lovers to pump their skills SmartProgress offers a system of levels. Passing game levels, you get a virtual experience and open different bonuses when working with the service. This system helps to turn goal achievement into an exciting game. With the only difference that this "game" will affect your real, not virtual life.
Well, all lifehacks are exposed, use them and get close to your goals every day. I wish you success!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/309986/
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