Tools For Goal Setting

As physical therapists, our primary purpose and joy is helping patients reach their functional goals. After working in PT for five years, I have noticed that people tend to struggle with how to set goals for themselves. However, a thoughtful approach to goal setting rooted in evidence-based research can make all the difference. Using the latest research from Dr. Emily Balcetis’ lab¹ at New York University (NYU) and information from the Huberman lab podcast², I have compiled a list of  exercises and tools to help you better set and achieve your goals. The first three tools can help you meet your short-term goals, and the rest are more appropriate for long-term goals.

1. Visual aperture techniques

Try focusing on a dot or a line placed on the wall or on the computer in front of you for 30-60 seconds and then move into some dedicated work where you need to focus. Studies have shown that just looking at a narrow piece of the visual world for some period of time and forcing yourself to hold that gaze on a location as best you can may increase your level of cognitive ability to focus and stay focused. This is also a great tool during a workout or endurance event like running or biking where you narrow your visual field to a point on the horizon — a technique many athletes use to increase their performance. One study found that when runners were cued to focus on the end point during the race as best they could, they reported less effort and improved performance compared to the control group that didn’t have the same cuing. 

2. Multi-tasking or task switching 

Doing a menial task around the house before engaging in a focused activity like goal setting has been shown to actually improve one’s attention. The brain releases the neuromodulator norepinephrine when we regularly switch between tasks, which improves focused attention. Surprisingly, most people can only hold their attention for about three minutes at a time before they need to shift their attention to something else. So try cleaning your sink, taking out your trash or responding to that message from your friend before sitting down to write out your health goals for 2022.

3. Visualize failure 

Studies have shown that visualizing failure is a more powerful motivator than visualizing one’s success. There is a near doubling in the probability of reaching one’s goal if they focus routinely on foreshadowing failure. For example, if you think about the ways in which you could fail at getting rid of your low back pain before your big vacation abroad, you are twice as likely to not have pain on your trip than if you just rely on focusing on success. This is a practice of leveraging stress to lean into the correct behaviors and eliminate incorrect behaviors. Please keep in mind that this does not mean seeing yourself as a failure, which has been shown to decrease motivation and goal attainment. It is simply a mechanism to help motivate you towards success.

4. Aged self images to self motivate

Try visualizing yourself in the future; what do you want your 50, 60, or 70 year old self to look like? What sorts of activities do you value being able to do in your later life? Studies have shown that this can be a powerful tool to help people start preparing for the future, however, this tool is only effective in the beginning of one’s goal pursuit. This is not a helpful tool in the day-to-day maintenance of one’s goals.

5. Make goals moderately lofty

Achieving a challenging goal has been shown to increase your systolic blood pressure, which increases the recruitment of a variety of neural networks in our brain. This provides a healthy stimulus to our vasculature, brain and hormonal levels among other physiological responses. This effect leads us to a greater capacity to maintain our goals. Alternatively, if the goal is too lofty, there is no beneficial physiological effect and we lose motivation. So consider this when writing out your new year resolutions. If you want to stick with the goal, make it sufficiently challenging.

6. Ensure specificity of goals

Create your goal list with identifiable ‘finish lines’ that you can check off a list weekly. This physical act of checking something off a list has been shown to activate our brain’s reward system further increasing the release of dopamine. Dopamine in our system has a myriad of beneficial effects including increased motivation, focus and attention. This effect provides the impetus to both initiate a challenging goal and persevere when the going gets tough. 

7. Avoid goal distraction — focus on 1-2 major goals per year

We can have daily, weekly or monthly goals that vary quite a bit, but it’s important to keep our major goals to a small number. For example, if you want to purchase a house or be able to run a marathon and you’ve never done one before, make sure to limit these larger item goals to just 1-2 per year. Similarly to the visual focus practice, we can only effectively work on a few major goals per year before losing focus or getting distracted. 

8. Make the goal something that you are excited about

This sounds intuitive, but many people get this one wrong. Simply setting a goal because someone else wants you to do it or you’ve heard it’s a ‘healthy’ thing, results in poor outcomes. Researchers have found that voluntarily performing an exercise vs being forced to do the same exercise, actually produces different physiological responses. When we engage in something we want to do, we have an improved blood pressure response and a decrease in lipid profile and stress hormones. Doing something we feel forced to do actually has been shown to produce a negative impact on blood pressure, lipid profile and stress hormone release. So make sure you have a compelling reason or are sufficiently excited about training for that half marathon next year, because your body can tell if you try to force it.

Finally, think big, get creative and don’t limit yourself. Our bodies have an incredible capacity to change and adapt, so try not to put yourself in a box by assuming what your limits are. Summiting Mount Rainier may sound impossible now, but with regular training and milestone attainment, you could find yourself finally reaching the top of one of Washington’s most iconic peaks. We are here to help you reach your goals, so contact one of our eight clinics and get the support you need.

References

1 Balcetis, E., Riccio, M. T., Duncan, D. T., & Cole, S. (2020). Keeping the Goal in Sight: Testing the Influence of Narrowed Visual Attention on Physical Activity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 46(3), 485–496. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219861438

2 Huberman, A. D. (Host). (2022, January 17). The science of setting and achieving goals(No.55) [Audio podcast episode]. In The Huberman Lab. Huberman lab podcast. https://hubermanlab.com/the-science-of-setting-and-achieving-goals/