Enjoying the journey 🧗 – Mastering complementary strategies to achieve your goals

In this edition, we’re discussing how to make a method for achieving your goals alongside extra strategies to help! Ready? Let’s get started:

So, you have your SMART goals - Excellent! Now let’s make the plan, process, and lifestyle habit to help get us there! How?
First – Through complementary strategies as described in: Swann et al. (2023), and Epton et al. (2017):

Complementary strategy: A method designed to support, reinforce, and sustain a behaviour to improve the likelihood of achieving a goal.

Remember, our goal is like a destination. The process to get there is the journey, and there are stops/milestones along the way. Think of it like taking a train to a far-away city:

• Your goal: The city you want to go to.

• The plan: Buy tickets, get prepared etc.

• The journey: You get started and reach stations (’milestones’ in goal setting) along the way.

So, with that in mind, let’s dive a bit deeper:

👨‍🍳Making the Process👨‍🍳

To make our process, we need a few things:

1. Internal motivation: Part of making our process comes from (Epton et al. (2017); where we need an internal motivation 🔥 to reduce the difference from where we see ourselves being in the future, to where we are now. To do this sustainably, we need to make a plan.
   

2. The Plan/Breakdown: Break the goal down into milestones, e.g., you want to accomplish a large non-work-related project. Well, this is something made of a bunch of smaller parts. Build on each of the smaller parts to complete the project. Each milestone should have a logical flow, like following a recipe. It has to happen in order and have a step-by-step process to get you there.
   

3. The Method/Process: Now that we have milestones, we need a method to get us to that first milestone. How are we going to get there? We are going to tackle this by using what we are calling, “The Lifestyle Approach”:

💡The Lifestyle Approach: Learning and using a skill/process that can be sustained/grown as a regular life habit to reach milestones and accomplish a final goal that can also be used after the goal’s completion (bonus points if it’s enjoyable!)

We need to create a routine! Using the project analogy; find something that contributes to getting us to that first milestone. Let’s say: set aside 4 hours per week to get you to that milestone by the end of the month.

🎯 Now, that we have a milestone target, and a process to trial, we need to get to work! 💪 It could be by doing 1 solid hour of work per day over 4 days, or using the Pomodoro technique (25 min work, then 5 min break. Repeat 3 times. After the 4^th set of 25min work, take 15-30min break to recharge)

KEY POINT 👉 Make the process to the first milestone into something small, manageable, and something you can actually do and stick to! We are aiming for sustainable life habits that work best for YOU! 🫵

🤝 Supporting Strategies 🤝

So, we’ve started our process. Now, we come to how we keep our internal motivation going🔥 in the process. For many, starting the process is a great motivator, it shows we’re actually working towards something. In addition, we can use other ways in longer processes:

1. Visualization:
   Picture that first milestone. Remember why you want to get there, and that because it’s important to you, you will find the best method to put in the work to get you there, and that each step is one step closer to your goal!
   

2. Positive Reinforcement*:
   When you reach a milestone, reward yourself. Even completing the first week of four hours toward your project deserves a reward. Associating good things with your work boosts motivation, especially if you enjoy the activity, turning it into a sustainable habit.
   *Also, sharing good news with a friend can help encourage you. This is something I do, and it helps me be encouraged and stay motivated.
   

3. Mindfulness/self-monitoring:
   Monitoring progress through journals, apps, etc. can be helpful, alongside taking time to just stop and breathe, or meditate. Relieve the stress to help make the habit sustainable.
   

4. Environment:
   Having a space dedicated to what you are working towards, especially to help get you into the right frame of mind, e.g. a home office space, gym, or café.
   

5. Social support*:
   Some people enjoy having accountability partners, such as a coach, or mentor. Some like working with one person or being part of a group as equals with similar goals can be helpful. Check-ins and sharing progress can be motivating.
   *This strategy isn’t for everyone; it depends on your goal and style. I prefer one-on-one workouts over group accountability (introvert 😅). Also, getting feedback too early can feel like achieving the goal and may reduce motivation.
   - My HOT 🔥 tip: Don’t share your goals immediately. Wait at least a month into the process before sharing. Alternatively, reword your goals for accountability, e.g., “I want to run this marathon, so I need to train five times a week and push myself.”

🤔 But, what about setbacks? 🤔

Good question! They will happen, but keep this in mind:

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

Refinement is key. Designing a sustainable lifestyle habit takes time, failures, reviews, and reflections/self-check-ins. Let’s say in our previous example that you couldn’t put in 4 hours because you didn’t have enough energy or time. That’s ok, adjust it down to 3 hours and build from there.

“He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much…” – Luke 16:10

“Don’t focus on what you can’t do. Focus on what you can.” – Shiroe (Log Horizon series)

If you were here when we looked at Optimism (👉 here), we can apply this principle where failures are just opportunities to learn and grow. It helps us build resilience. Analyse and see what went wrong. Why did it go wrong? How can we improve and get better next time? How do we move forward from here? These are important reflective questions and can make great stories for you to be able to help others in their life journeys as well!

Note: Sometimes life will interfere and make it hard to keep up. Be gentle with yourself; some factors are out of your control. Don't be too hard on yourself.

 🎤 Demo time + anecdote: 🎤

Let’s use an example from my life journey to help demonstrate. I’ll use one I am working on:

Goal: Be at least B2 level (according to Common European Framework of Languages, CEFR) in Norwegian by end of 2024

Milestones:

• Take and pass the A1-A2 test (actually didn’t do because of teacher’s recommendation)

• Take and pass the A2-B1 test – passed

• Take and pass the B1-B2 test - to be done

Process:

1. Go to Norwegian course twice per week + do the homework given.

2. Do as many of the online exercises as possible that go with the textbook. Repeat tricky exercises for clarity. I like to incorporate other websites to help test my knowledge as well.

3. Use Norwegian language as often as possible. Ask and have workmates, colleagues, and even members of public correct you to help you learn new words and get better with the language.

Current Status:
I am using this process at the moment, and ultimately, while living in Norway, I want to primarily be speaking Norwegian over English, and fully integrate into Norwegian society. That is my Lifestyle approach to learning the language.

In this example, you can see the long term scale and how the Lifestyle approach works. Milestones were made, and a process was established that continues to be used today.

🫵 Want to try it out? 🫵

From any SMART goal you have made, break it down into smaller goals/milestones that you can achieve over time, then create a sustainable routine and process to get to each milestone, and celebrate your achievements along the way! I.e.: Make a lifestyle approach.

As you near and achieve your goal, remember that these habits can become powerful lifestyle changes, propelling you further than you imagined. Go for it! You've got this!

✍️ Quote to ponder: ✍️

"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."
– Vincent Van Gogh ‍🎨

📖 Want something else to read? 📖

The blog for this edition won’t be so much about one of my current goals, but something different: Getting rid of a bad addiction/habit. This and other blogs can be found: 👉 Here
More newsletters 👉 Here
Sci-Fi Fantasy Short stories 👉 Here 

🎨 Lastly, this edition’s Artwork Alcove design: 🎨

At the time of writing, these are just artworks, but soon, these are going to be made into t-shirts and posters, so watch this space for when they are ready for purchase!)

Before the sign-off for this week:
I hope this two-parter for goal setting has inspired you and helps you get to where you want to be. Once you’ve broken the goal down into something feasible, made the process, and actually started the lifestyle approach, and gotten used to using it, I find it gets easier to do. It’s just the start that can be a little tricky, it’s just time and experimentation! Find what works, and make those dreams a reality!

I would love to hear your thoughts, and anything about what you are doing with goals, and your lifestyle approaches! Also, if you find this useful, please share the content with others! We’d love to make this into a big community that wants to apply and inspire long-term sustainable positive lifestyles to lots of people! If you have any ideas, suggestions, or comments, feel free to leave them here, or you can add them to posts on my Instagram (where I am more active), Facebook, or X/Twitter @the_norskiwi_nz

Until next time!

Much love to you all, and see you in the next one!
🍵Cheers!☕

Norskiwi