Dreams of desert sand becomes goals.

People pursue all kinds of goals throughout their lives.

It might be a goal to complete a certain diet program or loosing those extra 10 pounds around the waist. You may want to begin to exercise or pursue a specific academic degree or achieve a certain career.

Goal-setting has been considerably researched and the term GOAL richly defined in literature. Some useful definitions from research of goals can be connected to coaching “a source of motivation, an incentive to action” and as being “internal representations of desired states or outcomes”.

One of my dreams stems back to the early 1990s, where I became fascinated by the Sahara desert. Then, a dream emerged of running in a rugged desert someday to really live a great adventure.

I think it all started, when I began watching some exciting television documentaries about a long-distance runner (Ultrarunner), who ran in the desert. I saw those awe-inspiring photos of desert landscapes and terrain in Magazines, which made me dream about sandy deserts.

When I first came across the 250 km multi-day race Marathon Des Sables in the Moroccan Sahara, I was simply hooked. So, that race quickly became a real stretch goal of mine.

A seed was planted in my mind or perhaps it was in fact a grain of sand.

Erg Chebbi is among the highest and largest so-called Ergs in Morocco. An Erg, also called Sand Sea or Sea of Dunes, is a large desert area that is covered by sand dunes without much vegetation.

Erg Chebbi is formed by the wind and located at Merzouga. The reddish brown sand dunes rise up to 150 meters from the surrounding moon-like rocky desert floor. It is around 28 kilometers long and 5-7 kilometers wide and it spreads around 200 square kilometers (km²) of the Sahara desert.

The valleys or “slack” between the sand dunes can be very deep and extremely warm. Temperatures often reaches a roasting 50° Celsius and the heat comes from the dry air and glaring sun.

So, in the sand dunes, you can actually find different kinds of sand: soft, crisp, deep. Some of the sand has a stable crust making it possible to walk or run without sinking into it like quicksand.

The astounding Erg Chebbi with its enormous seas of sand just absorbs you with its beauty.

Merzouga

However beautiful and challenging, it would take 15-17 years before my dream and goal came true.

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” 

Tony Robbins

Research shows that conscious goals and goal-setting seem to regulate and affect human action[1,2], which means that goals of different kinds affect your ability to act on something, on the goals set.

From literature, we find that dozens and dozens of studies show that setting goals increases performance and productivity by 11-25%(3). Feedback on our actions, behaviors, techniques, ways of working etc. are therefore equally crucial for learning and to improve your performance.

In that way goal-setting can be transformational for your life and well-being on the one hand, but goals and that clear-cut focus on achieving them can also have such side-effects as perfectionism, stress or even burnout.

In the next part, I will therefore walk you through 6 useful goal-setting steps with examples to help you better realize your dreams and achieve your goals in a balanced way.

1. Write down your goals and achieve 42% more of them.

In 2007 psychology professor Gail Matthews concluded an intriguing research among others about how writing down your goals can affect goal achievement. The study involved 267 international participants from organizations, businesses and business networks and of those 149 completed the study.

The participants of the study were divided into 5 groups(4):

  1. Group 1: were asked to think about their goals and rate it on different dimensions such as:
    commitment, motivation, difficulty, importance etc.
  2. Group 2-5: were asked to write their goals and rate them on the same dimensions
  3. Group 3: was also asked to write commitments about actions
  4. Group 4: was asked to write action commitments and to send them to a supportive friend
  5. Group 5: was asked to do as Group 4 and to send weekly progress reports to a supportive friend

What was fascinating about the study was that it found empirical evidence for the effectiveness of three coaching tools, i.e. accountability, commitment and writing down your goals.

“Goals determine what you’re going to be.”

Julius Erving

Actually the study showed that writing down your goals has a positive effect and can increase your goal achievement by 42%(4). Let me share a few examples of where I have written down dreams or goals.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES.

20 years ago or so, I made a kind of bucket list for myself. It was a list of things that I wanted to accomplish in my life, such as dreams or goals. When I look at my crumbled piece of paper with the list today it mentions “I want to learn to speak French”, “I want to study a MSc in International Business” and even that “I aim to become an Officer in the Danish Navy”.

Many of the things on the list, which I wrote down years ago, I have accomplished even though they weren’t very concrete and time-bound. Some of the goals, I have not yet achieved and that is ok. So, for me it has been a funny overview of goals that I once in a while look at. The goals list has helped me accomplish more of my goals, I am sure. Simply by priming my subconscious by writing down goals.

What are the examples from your life, where you wrote down and accomplished your goals?

2. Aim for setting difficult goals to perform better.

For more than four decades Edwin E. Locke has been pioneering the research on goal-setting. His research from 1968 and sports research from 1985 show consistent findings that setting goals improves performance(5,6):

  • Goals affect performance by positively affecting:
    • Your effort
    • Your persistence
    • How you direct your attention
    • Your motivation for strategy development (i.e. your strategies for how to do a task)
  • Specific, difficult goals lead to better performance than vague, easy goals

What that means is, that having specific and challenging goals will lead to better performance than for example being asked “to do your best” or “having no goals” conditions(1,5). We might already know that, but what is interesting is that people actually don’t do their best, when their goal is to do just that(6).

It requires more specificity, commitment and harder goals. Not to the verge of not being achievable, but something that is believably possible.

Some research actually interestingly shows that to use goals to optimize performance they should be set at the 80-90th percentile of difficulty or performance if you have the ability(2,7). That means if you reach such percentiles of performance, you are actually doing better than 80-90% of those who attempted to do the task or activity.

“A good goal is like a strenuous exercise – it makes you stretch.”

Mary Kay Ash

Importantly, however a larger group of people might not achieve these challenging goals and that can lead to stress, burnout (in trying to achieve them), lower self-esteem and even demotivation(7). In the end that can all negatively affect well-being, so goal-setting needs to be well balanced.

Below, I share some common real life examples of setting challenging and concrete goals.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES.

An example from my life was that of pursuing an academic degree, a MSc in International Business, next to my full-time job. That goal was really challenging since it was achieving a goal, but doing so, while putting pressure on my family’s lives and myself. It was a relevant and realistic goal, because I had full support from my family. It was measurable and time-bound, because I knew this could be done in 3-3,5 years and I believed that I would have the ability and could break down the whole education into smaller chunks consisting of each specific coursework and curriculum such as “International Strategy” or “International Marketing”. With a consistent focus and effort, I was able to achieve my goal even with a degree at Distinction level because of the team effort, which such a pursuit is, together with my family.

What are the examples from your life of setting really challenging goals?

3. Set micro-goals to reach your short- and long-term goals.

Many of us know the metaphorical saying of “eating an elephant one bite at a time”, i.e. to break down goals into smaller pieces easier to grasp and perceive. Research shows that taking small steps toward a larger goal, i.e. toward big progress, increases your happiness(8).

That is what micro-goals are all about. They can help create a frequent sense of progress toward a short- or long-term goal, so you feel you approach your end goal by taking small progressive steps towards it. If you frequently experience such sense of progress, you will likely become creatively productive in the long run(8).

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Chinese proverb

So, micro-goals make us feel great, and we can actually trick our brain to increase dopamine levels by setting and achieving micro-goals because we achieve smaller strides towards our goals. That gives us a sense of accomplishment.

They make us able to consistently be reminded about the progress toward our goals. It is important that you know WHY you want to achieve certain goals because it makes the goals more relevant. What the micro-goals can then do is constantly remind you about WHY you want to achieve this particular goal.

Micro-goals also become particularly helpful if you want to minimize procrastination when completing challenging tasks or achieving challenging goals.

Now, let me share some beneficial examples of using micro-goals.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES.

Micro-goals can be useful when you are perhaps overwhelmed by your goals, e.g. writing a book. Instead you can create micro-goals focused on your daily actions: write 2 pages on Monday, then focus on 2 pages on Tuesday. That will make the small sub-tasks easier to oversee and achieve and it creates behavioral change that help you progress toward your goal of writing a book.

An example from endurance sports — back in 2014, I was running the desert race Marathon Des Sables.

I was fortunate to drive with Steve in his jeep. He is an amazing and very experienced race official. We drove from the desert camp to our hotel after finishing the race. He explained that he had spoken to many of the runners, who had decided to abandon the very demanding race. They had trained for between 6 to 12 months to be ready for the rigors of the race in the desert.

It was really interesting to learn more about those human mechanisms.

Often runners would end their race, because they had simply lost the sight of their goal. They would forget WHY they had set out to achieve their goal of running the race. They had lost their motivation.

Steve would speak to the runners to see if he could change their mind. Most times he could not.

Many runners would compare days and efforts, so If they experienced an extremely tough day of running 40 km in the desert heat one day, they would naturally compare with the coming days that would be much longer. They would think “if I felt so bad already today, how will I ever be able to run the longer distances in the coming days”. It made them doubt themselves.

Micro-goals, such as only focusing on the next aid station in the race, the next 10-15 minutes or the next 20 steps to progress toward finishing the whole race worked really well for me. I remember during one of the stages of the race that I felt so nauseous due to the heat and lack of carbs. So, I sat down in the shade at the next water station. I set the small micro-goal of taking one bite of my energy bar with a big sip of water every 10-15 minutes and just walk one step in front of the other until I felt a little better.

What are some examples of micro-goals that you have used to achieve your goals?

4. Work with outcome, performance and process goals.

At least three different kinds of goals, which affect performance, have been identified in research literature(1):

  • Outcome goals: based on outcomes of particular events usually based on social comparison to others — these goals are affected by others
  • Performance goals: specific end products of performance, i.e. success is viewed as achieving the absolute or self-referenced performance standards
  • Process goals: specific behaviours, which the one performing something will engage during performance

Often organizations and corporations tend to focus more on performance and outcome goals, i.e. results-focused goals in their annual performance management cycles, whereas process goals, i.e. behavioral goals or goals based on effort are less prevalent.

These different kinds of goals can be combined.

“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”

Seneca the Younger

In my experience, it is useful to have a holistic view on goal-setting and have certain mental flexibility around goal-setting. Thereby goals become less rigid and thereby you avoid negatively affecting your mindset, physical and mental well-being. An approach to creating that flexible mindset around goals is to set holistic intentional direction for your goals.

So, what does that mean? Well, it means to become less obsessed with and focused on precisely quantitatively reaching your goal metrics every week. As long as your intention and direction is right. Whether you ran 4 days of the week instead of all the 5 days that were your plan is ok once in a while as long as you incrementally progress to achieve your goal.

Next, I will further relate the three kinds of goals to examples from sports and corporate organizations.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES.

In sports outcome goals can be if you win that gold medal or not or that you aim to be among the top ten in a triathlon, i.e. it is affected by the other participants of your sport. In business outcome goals can relate to your career and whether you make that promotion compared to your colleagues. All of these examples are not only affected by yourself, but also by others.

When it comes to performance goals in sports they can involve running a certain time in a trail running event, e.g. aiming to run a 5k in below 20 minutes or a certain gross score improvement in golf. It could also be short-term targets in your job, to increase sales calls by 5% or aiming for a specific timeline for a project or task at work.

Examples of process goals are to learn a new skill at work, e.g. agile methods, and the ways you work (ways of working). A focus on sub-elements of processes to improve, e.g. sprint planning or something similar. In sports these kinds of goals can relate to keeping a certain composure while running, the technique of javelin trow in athletics or focusing on smaller process parts of a complex process such as in pole vault or high jump in athletics.

From soccer practice with my teenage son, I have also noticed how the kids often tend to focus very much on the performance goals, i.e. if they win or not. Then, I try to remind them of process goals of having fun, remind them of their role on the soccer field, technique etc.

How have you used process goals to improve your performance and achieve your goals?

5. How using trigger words will help you refocus as part of self-talk.

Trigger words are well-known from sports psychology research as a tool to help athletes refocus, build positive emotions, motivation and resilience. Trigger words are phrases or words, typically positively framed, that can take the shape of action words, i.e. relating to a certain action.

Often trigger words are words or phrases that you say to yourself, e.g. inner self-talk.

Some interesting research shows how trigger words have shown a significant positive effect on the overall expressive performance of junior high age singers, when they did a pre-performance routine of silently repeating the trigger words bold, confident and free(9).

“Success is the progressive realization of predetermined, worthwhile, personal goals.”

Paul J. Meyer

Research from endurance sports also shows that motivational trigger words and self-talk can significantly reduce the perceived exhaustion by athletes and enhance their endurance performance(10). The study introduced what motivational self-talk is in a first session. Then athletes could select among several motivational self-talk statements that they could use in the exercise sessions(10).

Among the self-talk statements were phrases like “drive forward”, “you are doing well”, “feeling good” or “push through this”.

Really interesting how self-talk used in different contexts and in mental training can elevate your performance.

Systematic literature reviews also show that self-talk divided into positive (making you feel good), instructional (to drive correct attention of focus, techniques, action-based and behavioral), and motivational categories (to increase confidence, effort, energy by creating positive mood) of self-talk have shown performance benefits(11).

Examples of using self-talk in life are various. Let us dive into it in the next.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES.

Self-talk and included in that trigger words are commonly used by people in life. I also use it in different situations. I know that self-talk can also begin to emerge unwillingly when you get older, but that is not the kind of self-talk we discuss here 🙂

At work, examples of self-talk can be situations where you have to make a very important presentation of a new business case for a project. You might feel those sweaty palms, your exaggerated heart-beat and catching your breath. Here positive self-talk of saying “I can do this”, “You are doing great” or instructional self-talk such as “speak slowly”, “keep your composure” “focus on these 3 points” are useful examples.

It could also be before a difficult exam, where you are nervous and wants to better steer that tension or nervousness, here can self-talk and trigger words also help provide the right state of mind.

In sports, I have used trigger words to really refocus and ensure the right state of mind, e.g. in endurance running of running 90 km in extreme conditions, where I had routines of saying to myself “I want to do this”, “I can do this”, “I am doing this” to positively re-focus it I got tired or challenged.

What are some of the challenging situations, where you have used self-talk in sports or organizations?

6. It is about the journey, not the destination.

From what we have already seen, setting challenging goals that are believably possible to achieve is useful to perform better and achieve more. But it is not only about achieving that final end goal, if you really want to reach your full potential.

I recently came across a brilliant article about goal-setting and how our thinking about goals can affect behavior more continuosly also after we have reached a goal.

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

C. S. Lewis

Research conducted by behavioral scientists Szu-chi Huang and Jennifer Aaker at Stanford Graduate School of Business included six studies of 1,600 people across cultures (executives in Africa, people following seven-day diet programs to people following a 14-week exercise program to college students).

Amazingly, the studies shows that if we think of a goal as one step in a longer journey and not as the final destination, we are more likely to keep up the behaviors and practices that led to reaching the goal(12,13).

These findings demonstrate that by creating metaphors of your goal by shifting from focusing on the destination as part of a completed path to focusing on the journey it can lead to significant changes to perceptions and behaviors(13). All of that can affect positively your performance.

It also relates well to the previously explored micro-goals, step-by-step thinking as part of a journey. In addition, it combines well with the so-called process goals that are typically behavioral goals.

Here below is an example from military training.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES.

In the 2000s, I pursued my Tactical Officer’s training at the Danish Naval Academy. The first years aimed at making us shipmasters with a maritime understanding with several courses and practice in navigation and leading and steering warships.

I flunked a written exam in navigation, which is quite crucial when you want to become a navigator 🙂

After an evaluation of me and two other cadets, the consequences were that we had to re-do the entire year again. It was a defeat, emotionally challenging and then my first thought was, let’s think about how I can positively learn from this, grow and see it as a part of the journey to become a Naval Officer. During that time, I used framing a lot to see each step as a part of the journey.

In the end, I made it and became successful with the help and support of my peers, friends and family.

What are your experiences with achieving goals and then returning again to old habits and behaviors?

So, all of the 6 goal-setting steps, I have now walked you through can help you become better, achieve your goals and realize more of your incredible dreams in life.

Are you open to having any help with that, then I am 100% confident that I can help you.

Please contact me to experience Coaching.

When we work together, we will work in a partnership to..

* Set clear, exciting goals that will motivate you to take action and realize your wildest dreams.
* Create new perspectives and patterns to stop procrastination and give you confidence to achieve your goals.
* Become aware of where you need to be accountable to create action and get things done, so your performance increases.

Resources.
(1)Kingston, K. M. and Hardy, L. (1997) Effects of Different Types of Goals on Processes That Support Performance, The Sport Psychologist 11: pp. 277-293.
(2)Locke, E. A. and Latham, G. P. (2002) Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation: A 35Year Odyssey, American Psychologist 57(09): pp. 705-717.
(3)Diamandis, P. H. and Kotler S. (2015) BOLD: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World, Simon & Schuster’s Paperbacks, New York: p. 74.
(4)Matthews, G. (2007) The Impact of Commitment, Accountability, and Written Goals on Goal Achievement, Department of Psychology, Dominican University of California, Psychology | Faculty Presentations. 3.
(5)Locke, E. A. (1968) Toward a theory of task motivation and incentives, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 3(2): pp. 157-189.
(6)Locke, E. A. and Latham, G. P. (1985) The Application of Goal Setting to Sports, Journal of Sport Psychology 7: pp. 205-222.
(7)Welsh, D. T. and Ordóñez, L. D. (2014) The dark side of consecutive high performance goals: Linking goal setting, depletion, and unethical behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 123(2): pp. 79-89.
(8)Amabile, T. M. and Kramer, S. J. (2011) The Power of Small Wins, Harvard Business Review 89(5) May 2011.
(9)Broomhead, P., Skidmore, J. B., Eggett, D. L., and Mills, M. M. (2012) The effects of a positive mindset trigger word pre-performance routine on the expressive performance of junior high age singers., Journal of Research in Music Education 60(1): pp. 62-80.
(10)Blanchfield, A. W., Hardy, J., De Merree, H. M., Staiano, W. and Marcora, S. M. (2014) Talking yourself out of exhaustion: the effects of self-talk on endurance performance, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 46(5): pp. 998-1007.
(11)Tod D., Hardy, J. and Oliver, E. (2011) Effects of self-talk: a systematic review, Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology 33(5): pp. 666-687.
(12)Aaker, J. (2022) Step by Step: Think of Goals as part of the journey, not the destination. Available at: https://characterlab.org/tips-of-the-week/step-by-step/ (Accessed: 1 August 2022).
(13)Aaker, J. and Huang, S-C. (2019) It’s the Journey, Not the Destination: How Metaphor Drives Growth After Goal Attainment, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 117(4): pp. 697-720.