Three Ways to Achieve Your Goals

Are you making good progress toward the goals you set for the new year of 2023? To make 2023 a year of growth, I was drawn in by the tagline “a diary that changes your life” and splurged on a 35,000-won diary, but most of my plans are moving more slowly than I expected. So it got me thinking. What am I doing wrong right now? And if I’m not doing anything wrong, what should I do, and how? What can I do? I took some time to ask myself these questions.

If you want to change the habit of putting off your to-dos and hesitating instead of starting, let’s look at some ways to do it together.

1. Change your thinking first

To reach a goal, you set detailed objectives and then act on them repeatedly. But the step up to taking action is so hard for us. At times like this, start with something simple. If your goal this year is “earn 1 million won a month on YouTube,” think, “I already earn 1 million won a month on YouTube.” Instead of focusing on what you lack, focus on what you “have” right now, in this moment. When you focus on lack, you become impatient, anxious and on edge. But when you focus on what you “have,” your shoulders relax first. Let me briefly share a passage on thinking about what you have from author Kim Sae-hae’s book The Money Secret, Learned From the God of Money.

“What you look at doesn’t matter. What matters more is your emotion and feeling in that moment. Two people are sitting in a restaurant. One is hungry, and the other is full. Which one stares intently at the food photos on the menu, the full one or the hungry one?”

“The hungry one, of course.”

“That’s right. And what’s your state of mind like when you’re hungry?”

“All I can think about is eating. I’m impatient, anxious, on edge, even angry.”

“Having a craving means you’re lacking something; it’s scarcity. You always focus on what you don’t have, what you need, what you have to become. The principle by which reality is created is very simple. A mind of scarcity creates a reality of scarcity, and a mind of abundance creates a reality of abundance. The place you spend the most time is your home. In the same way, the emotion you feel the most becomes your reality. Life simply reflects your mind like a mirror.”

When your thoughts change, your actions change; when your actions change, your habits change; when your habits change, your character changes; and when your character changes, your future changes.

2. Put neuroplasticity to work

I’ve already covered neuroplasticity in an earlier post, but when you keep up focused, sustained effort in one area, the nerve cells in that area increase and their bonds grow stronger. When we do or learn something new, new synaptic connections form, carving new paths into unknown territory in the brain. In other words, the brain has the property of physically changing, like plastic, depending on our environment and actions. To change something by working with this property of the brain, think “I can,” “I’m able to,” and keep up focused, sustained effort, and a lifestyle habit will form. We inherit about 20,000 genes from our parents, but there are about 200 trillion connection points between neurons, a difference of roughly 100 million times. That means our potential to change things after birth is 100 million times greater than what we’re born with. Let’s lead our brains in the direction we want.

“The fact that the hippocampus grows and becomes physically larger through learning means the brain can change; in other words, it has good plasticity. Today, researchers are beginning to understand why the hippocampus grows when trainee taxi drivers learn the streets of London. When you drive in an unfamiliar environment without GPS, both the hippocampus and the frontal lobe are activated. The hippocampus is important for memory and spatial awareness, and the frontal lobe is important for making decisions. (…) But when you follow directions (…) while looking at GPS, the hippocampus and frontal lobe aren’t activated. That’s because the brain, to save energy, doesn’t waste effort on what it doesn’t need. This means that if we don’t use some of our mental abilities, we may lose them.”

Evidence for neuroplasticity: Anders Hansen, Insta-Brain

3. Exercise (move your body)

Let’s not get frustrated when we keep taking action toward our goals but see no progress. When we’re frustrated, anxiety narrows our view, and with a cramped way of thinking, we become even less able to see what needs to improve. At times like this, simply moving your body, whether it’s a walk, yoga or the gym, supplies blood to the brain and brings it to its optimal state. Exercise also helps the brain work at its full capacity in other ways:

First, it brings out confidence, vitality and positive emotions.

Second, it lays the foundation for learning ability, such as memory, focus and classroom attitude.

Third, it speeds up learning.

In the Korean drama Misaeng: Incomplete Life, the main character, Jang Geu-rae, hears this from the teacher who taught him baduk (Go) as a child: “If your stamina is weak, you quickly look for comfort; then your patience drops, and if you can’t endure that fatigue, you reach a point where winning or losing doesn’t even matter. If you want to win, first build a body that can fully endure your struggles. Without the protection of stamina, willpower is nothing but a slogan.”

I hope you achieve every goal you’ve set for 2023 by putting to work positive self-belief, exercise, and the neuroplasticity built through repeated learning.

A photo of a to-do list written to achieve my goals

• #achieving
• #goals
• #exercise
• #neuroplasticity
• #self-belief
• #positive
• #thinking