How to achieve your aims

In my previous post, we spoke in detail on the fundamentals of a better tomorrow. Aiming for a habit or a target or anything that will improve your tomorrow is the first and probably the most important fundamental of the five.

But we do it a lot anyway. So why do we not actually achieve a lot of our aims? It is simply because we haven’t convinced our minds that it is what we really want.

Our minds and brains are complex mechanisms that have been wired, programmed by years of evolution and survival. Our minds have two levels of consciousness, and our goals need a high percentage of our consciousness to actually achieve them — the kind of capacity reserved for survival.

It is because our minds will always prioritize our survival over everything

Our survival instinct has evolved our a period of time, and we have also evolved our own definitions of survival instinct. In this millennial generation, survival instinct also encompasses what it means to be you. We have our definitions of who we are, and those definitions shape our tomorrow.

The survival framework

Understanding how our survival instinct works hold the key to the untapped potential of our minds. It has a three-point checklist that needs to be satisfied before it is taken on board.

1. Threat

2. Preparation

3. Immediacy

Let us look at each one of our instincts and how we can program ourselves to invoke them.

Threat -

This aspect of our instinct kicks in very quickly when we are in physical danger, but once triggered, it falls the dominoes next in line very, very quickly.

If getting fit is our aim, learning about the hazards of not being fit will help you acknowledge being in danger.

If you aim to be promoted as a manager, acting as a manager at work will help define yourself as a manager to your mind and help kick up this instinct when it senses anything that could hinder you from being a manager.

Preparation -

A prepared mind always reacts to crises very well. That is why we have fire drills, safety procedures read out to us every time we board a flight.

That is why our aims should be precise enough that, by definition, we would know what we need to do.

“I want to lose 5 kilos of weight in a month by running every day” is better than “I want to lose weight”.

“I want to be promoted to a team lead in the next performance cycle” is better than “I want to be promoted.”

Immediacy -

Immediate dangers or actions are always preferred to an imminent danger. Similarly, an aim that can be achieved immediately will be achieved faster than one in the future.

Breaking down our aims into daily achievable bits will ensure that we are on track to achieve them.

“Going to the gym daily to get fit” is a better aim than “Getting fit”. Likewise, “Reading for 30 minutes daily about personality development” is a better aim than “Improving my personality” as it adds an immediacy to the aim and increases the chances of achieving it.

If we can incorporate these three elements into our aim, we will tap the reserve capacity generally reserved for emergencies by our mind and bodies. It brings out prompt and precise responses in our body.

This is by no means something we can do from day one but requires practice. First, we need to know ourselves better to know how to get our minds and bodies to respond to the stimuli.

It is a consistent process, though, and once we learn how to make our aims better, we will achieve more of our goal. It will push us further on our road to a better tomorrow.

On the road to a better tomorrow, remember to look out of the window.

Until next time!