Goal setting is a crucial tool for increasing workplace productivity and employee efficiency. It involves five rules or criteria, known as the S-M-A-R-T rule, which emphasizes the importance of conscious goals affecting action. Goal-setting theory, coined by George T. Doran in 1981, suggests that conscious human behavior is purposeful and regulated by individual goals.
Setting clear, specific goals helps employees stay motivated, focused, and on track towards achieving objectives. This leads to increased engagement, motivation, and productivity, which in turn helps the business grow. Challenging goals stimulate innovation, resilience, and continuous self-improvement, propelling individuals toward heightened productivity.
To effectively set goals and improve productivity, focus on small and actionable goals and use the SMART method. Research suggests that individuals can achieve an improvement in work performance by as much as 20-25 simply by goal setting. Effective goal setting methods can improve efforts and performance on all tasks and empower employees to learn and grow.
Companies that set quarterly goals achieve 31 higher returns than those with annual goal-setting practices. Goals help employees organize tasks, optimize time management, and stay focused on activities that matter most. This enhances team communication and collaboration, increases the chance of achieving objectives, and enables employees to develop skills. Even without financial incentives, goal-setting improves worker performance by 12 to 15 compared to the situation where no goals were defined.
📹 The Science of Setting & Achieving Goals
In this episode, I discuss the science of setting, assessing, and pursuing goals. I explain the neural (brain) circuits that underlie …
What increases productivity growth?
Productivity in economics refers to the output produced with a set of inputs. Factors affecting productivity include workers’ skills, technological changes, management practices, and changes in other inputs like capital. Multifactor productivity (MFP) is output per unit of combined inputs, which can include labour and capital but can also include energy, materials, and services. Changes in MFP reflect output that cannot be explained by input changes. This Explainer explains how productivity is measured, what drives growth, and how it contributes to the economic prosperity and welfare of all Australians.
How is goal setting effective?
Writing down goals is a proven method for increased goal achievement, with studies showing a higher success rate among those who write down their objectives. Start each goal with “I will” and use positive language to encourage action and motivation. Choose goals that inspire, motivate, and challenge you, as losing momentum can be easily if the goals are not exciting. Completing challenging goals can feel rewarding, push you to learn, grow, and hone your skills. Overcoming a challenge can give you motivation to work on other goals, provide a sense of pride, and build confidence for bigger, more challenging goals in the future.
How to increase productivity?
To improve business productivity, it is essential to have a simple and effective productivity strategy. This can include setting reminders, reviewing goals regularly, minimizing time-wasting activities, using productivity apps, motivating your team, avoiding multitasking, and offering a wellness program. A clear plan and talented employees are crucial for achieving goals. Prioritizing a productivity strategy requires time, patience, and flexibility.
Key performance indicators (KPIs), motivation, and physical wellness can all contribute to increased productivity. Business productivity is directly related to employee engagement with their work and employer. A Harvard Business Review study suggests that people work harder when someone shows appreciation for their efforts. Managers and company leaders should create a motivating environment to keep employees focused and engaged.
What does goal setting increase?
Goal setting is crucial for improving performance by increasing motivation, efforts, and feedback quality. It provides a long-term vision and short-term motivation, focusing on acquired knowledge and organizing time and resources for optimal life use. Setting goals also provides a challenge, and achieving them brings a sense of achievement. Therefore, setting goals is essential for personal and team success.
Why is goal setting powerful?
Setting goals is crucial for personal growth and personal accountability. They provide a roadmap to follow, define our true desires, and help prioritize tasks. While it’s possible to live life without a plan, setting goals can help us live the life we truly want. While not everyone needs every moment planned out, those with clearly defined goals may enjoy their downtime more than those without. Ultimately, setting goals helps us navigate life and achieve our goals, ensuring we live the life we truly desire.
How effective is goal setting?
Writing down goals is a proven method for increased goal achievement, with studies showing a higher success rate among those who write down their objectives. Start each goal with “I will” and use positive language to encourage action and motivation. Choose goals that inspire, motivate, and challenge you, as losing momentum can be easily if the goals are not exciting. Completing challenging goals can feel rewarding, push you to learn, grow, and hone your skills. Overcoming a challenge can give you motivation to work on other goals, provide a sense of pride, and build confidence for bigger, more challenging goals in the future.
Does setting goals make you more successful?
Goal setting is a crucial tool for personal and professional success. It provides clear direction, boosts motivation, enhances focus, facilitates planning, promotes accountability, measures progress, improves time management, and fosters personal growth. Goals provide a clear understanding of where you want to go, enabling you to make the right decisions and move closer to your desired outcome. They also boost motivation by providing a point of focus, allowing you to concentrate on what’s important.
Goals also break down large ambitions into manageable tasks and milestones, making the path to success more achievable. Sharing goals with others fosters accountability, encouraging consistent action and commitment to objectives. Goals also offer a way to track progress, providing valuable feedback for future goal setting. Prioritizing tasks based on importance and urgency leads to better time management and productivity.
The process of setting and achieving goals fosters personal growth, as it helps you learn new skills, overcome challenges, and build resilience. To ensure success, it’s essential to make your goals SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound), ensuring they are clear, realistic, and within your control to achieve.
What are 3 benefits to using goal setting effectively?
The establishment of particular and quantifiable objectives has the potential to facilitate enhanced direction, concentration, productivity, and motivation. This is due to the fact that they have the capacity to transform habits, mindset, confidence, and daily actions.
What percentage can goal setting increase your productivity?
Goal setting has been proven to positively impact productivity and performance, with studies showing that it can increase productivity by 11-25%. This is especially important in today’s remote-centric workforce. Workplace productivity is calculated by dividing the total labor output by the total input, where output is the money a company generates by providing goods and services, and input is the labor required to produce the output.
For example, if a company made $500, 000 in 2020 by utilizing 15, 000 hours, its labor productivity would be 33. 3. Other factors affecting productivity include technology, overhead costs, and efficiency.
How does goal setting improve productivity?
Achieving maximum productivity is crucial for our daily schedule and requires dedicated effort and meticulous planning. Clear goals are essential for unlocking our potential for productivity. To achieve maximum productivity, focus on what truly resonates with you and align your goals with your passions and aspirations. Develop balanced goals across key areas of life, including family and home, financial and career, spiritual and ethical, physical and health, social and cultural, and mental and educational. This approach empowers holistic growth and overall well-being.
In summary, achieving maximum productivity requires focusing on what truly resonates with you, aligning your goals with your passions, and developing balanced goals across various aspects of life. By following these rules, we can achieve our potential and achieve greater success in our daily tasks.
How does goal setting improve performance?
Goal setting is of paramount importance for athletes, as it provides them with clearly defined, quantifiable objectives, which serve to maintain motivation and facilitate the attainment of optimal, consistent, and confident performance.
📹 Goals Toolkit: How to Set & Achieve Your Goals
In this episode, I describe science-based protocols to set and achieve your goals in a way that maximizes the likelihood of …
– failing 15% of time = optimal for learning – much of goal directed behavior is to avoid things which cause fear – four areas which effect goals – 1. anxiety fear – 2. action and inaction – 3. planning and thinking 4. emotionality (where we sit at emotionality right now and where we think we will be upon accomplishing goal) – two primary components of goals: 1. value information – understanding if something is worth pursuing and which actions to take and 2. which actions not to take given the value of a goal – one neurotransmitter which governs goals, assessment, and setting value of pursuits = dopamine – 3 things for goal pursuit – 1. goal setting 2. assessment 3. goal execution. – tool 1for goal accomplishment – understand difference between peripersonal space (all space within inside of body and immediate environment) and extrapersonal space (everything beyond the confines of your reach / internal and immediate environment) – moving towards any goal means setting thinking towards extrapersonal – human beings have to make evaluations if they are on the right track – multitasking is good but has to be placed at a specific time within goal seeking behavior to be effective – most people can hold attention for about 3 minutes at a time – when we multitask, there is an increase in adrenaline. doing multitasking prior to goal directed behavior is useful because it gets us into action. – don’t want to multitask during goal pursuit behavior – visual focus, and contracting visual window to a fine point can increase clarity of goal seeking and chance you will pursue your goals – looking at narrow piece of visual world and forcing self to hold that point increases cognitive ability and focus – when we focus on an external point, we focus on the extrapersonal space.
Basic terminology : 1. Amygdala is associated with fear. 2. Goals are directed to escape from financial loss, embarrassment etc. 3. Go and no go circuits which initiates action. Basal ganglia 4. Cortex. Lateral prefrontal for hinking under different time scale and orbital frontal cortex for relating where we are what we want to be. 5. anxiety and fear, emotionality, planning and thinking and action and inaction. What’s a goal? 1. Value information. Whether or not something is really important to pursue at this moment. Placing a value. 2. Action. Which actions to take and which actions not to take. 3. A goal should be achievable, believable, rewarding and the person should be committed to it. 4. It has to be a big goal, concrete description, action oriented, inspirational, time bound, realistic. How you act? 1. Peripersonal space : you and your surroundings and consuming those things governed by oxytocin and serotonin. 2. Extrapersonal space : everything beyond your reach at that location. Lead the thinking by dopamine. 3. You need to move back and forth between them. Attention and focus : 1. A person can hold attention for 3 minutes at a time. Doing multitasking releases adrenaline and doing it before the goal oriented task initiates action. 2. Contracting your visual window to a very fine point can increase the clarity of goal seeking and the likelihood. 3. If you see yourself wondering around, focus on a tiny little dot or a line for 60 seconds. 4. Looking at the goal line clearly can decrease the time by 25% and effort by 20% because it makes you alert and ready.
I’m a recovering meth addict…3 months Sober today! Thank You Doctor Huberman for giving me the tools necessary to get my “Happy” back. Your articles on addiction and dopamine have delivered the skills I desperately sought to remain an inspiration to those I deeply care for who still suffer from addiction and who WERE too scared to take the initial steps necessary to a longer, healthier and happier future. Seeing how much happier I am and how fast my life is blossoming at 44-after doing Meth Since I was 15-is blowing minds and helping people I know who had given up rethink they’re potential. Your Amazing and I want to thank you for changing peoples lives in such a noble, infectious way. Sir you are a blessing! Thank you for saving my life!
What a saint this man, he’s doing an incredible service in a time when we need people like him most (western culture at least). Dr. Huberman I am highly appreciative of your impressive work in providing information that most would take out a large loan just to attend. Thank you internet and if you’re reading this I wish you well in your journey!
Andrew, I just wanted to say that your podcast has truly changed my life. I have struggled my whole life with mental health and undiagnosed adhd and a slew of other things. I’ve felt broken for so long, like I’ll never be able to achieve my goals or be successful. Listening to your podcast, learning about neuroscience, understanding how the brain works and learning how to work WITH it and change it… this has given me so much hope for my future. Knowing that I really do have the power to change my life by changing my brain (neuroplasticity is SO exciting!!) is so motivating. It’s not an easy journey, but I will reach my true potential if I just stay the course. Thank you for being a true teacher and mentor. You are helping so many people, and we are so grateful. <3
In 2020 I decided to learn a sport because I had extra time on my hands. I’d show up on the tennis court every day and hit with strangers..and then ask how to hit properly and closely observe them. I was so bad and was often frustrated…it was 80% frustrating and 20% fun. But I knew I was learning every single time I would show up on court. Even though I annoyed people I’d show up. Six months later I got asked to join a league. 1 year later I got asked to join multiple leagues and at a high level was winning all teams I was on. If I didn’t push through the frustration and completely humble myself to constantly take advice from people, I wouldn’t be enjoying my life the way that I am
I know this might be a bit of an odd one, but maybe a podcast on the neuroscience /neurobiology of Grief and Loss and the best way of coping and ‘healing’ as time goes on,? Many have lost people during the pandemic and in general, Thank you for reading my suggestion and possibility of the topic being a future podcast. Thank you Prof. Huberman for sharing your world class knowledge with society!
This podcast has fundamentally shifted the trajectory of my life and career over the last 12 months. I have adapted many of the protocols myself and share them with inmates in custody and offenders in the community and they are benefiting by taking ownership of the influences of their internal states. Stay tuned for my contribution to behaviour change, further thoughts and experiments inspired by this amazing human and his work.
I love achieving financiaI GOALS. I wasnt financial free until my 40’s and I’m still in my 40’s, bought my second house already, earn on a monthly through passive income and got 4 out of 5 goals, just hope it encourages someone that it doesn’t matter if you don’t have any of them right now, you can start TODAY regardless your age INVEST and change your future! Investing is a grand choice I made. Great article! Thanks for sharing! Very inspiring! I love this
Fantastic pod cast as usual. I agree with the sentiment that “fake it ’till you make it” is bullshit. Being in the military I hear “failure is not an option” guess what? Failure is always an option and unless you foreshadow failure, you will mess up badly when shit goes sideways. And there is no end of military examples of shit going sideways. The other saying that makes me want to punch an officer in the mouth is : “perception is reality” as in, judge a book by it’s cover, but I digress.
The truth is more important than the facts. Access to productive information is what we all need to become successful in life. To possibly create wealth good enough to retire, proficiency is indeed necessary; causing most affluent entrepreneurs to acquire the synergy of wealth managers that offers high-net-worth operations that encompasses all parts of a person’s financial life. Get yourself an aid.
This is fabulous! As a middle school literacy teacher of 22 years, I can safely say we have seen so much reconstruction in various areas of society, but education has arguably stayed the same (with the exception of technology). Particularly after the pandemic, we need to help kids understand HOW they learn. I’ve been adding little fun facts to my weekly presentation slides from Dr. Huberman’s podcasts, and the kids love it! They’re eager to try different things. Although their social skills still need quite a bit of support, they very much want to please us and succeed, and we need to continually giving them the opportunity to do so. Thank you for creating this space for those of us who love our teaching jobs! It’s super helpful.
Dr. Huberman can you contextualize the focusing on potential failure as a means to achieve goals? I heard you say in an interview that you had set goals to do your PhD, a postdoc, and lead a lab by certain ages, which you successfully achieved. At what point along those trajectories did you focus on potential failures? I can understand the importance of acknowledging potential failures as a method of plotting optimal pathways to pursue goals (as I think the study suggests), but the focusing on failure to scare one into constant action is going to paralyze those prone to any level of anxiety or depression and keep cortisol releasing at unhealthy levels. If you can corroborate that this works from your own experience that might help.
focusing on the visual goal line helps in achieving the goal. Think how bad it is gonna get, if you don’t reach your goal. It will more likely motivate you towards the goal. Action steps in detail. Very detailed and concrete goals. Goals should be exquisite and action steps should be details and should be reiterated over time.
If I was 16, I would have studied hard and would have done everything to be in your class to learn from you. You are a great teacher. Being an engineer, I’m fascinated to learn more science about my own body, brain, hormones and emotion in your podcast with all the valuable tools to help me in my day to day life. I wish you were my professor. Keep up the good work. We need more teachers like you..
WOW! I’ve been the rat who was forced to run on the wheel all my life – until today. I think of ALL the work Dr. Huberman puts into these programs; preparation, presentation with his OH SO effective instruction style and manner, and post-production. Expressing my gratitude does not seem to be enough until I read the comments below. Now I understand his WHY behind his work. Looking forward to making 2022 my best year yet in the company of many others who have also viewed this program.
Hi Andrew. Incredible podcast episodes lately. Thank you a lot. Haven’t watched this one yet. Since you always encourage us to let you know the topics we would like to see you cover, all I can do is tell you what I struggle with at the moment: – Procrastination – Overthinking – Decision making – Decision fatigue – Sudden Crashes (Mental / Neural Shutdown) I don’t know if there is a science behind them, but if there is it would be awesome to hear it from you.
There is basically nothing on YouTube of any credit worthiness about how to overcome or set yourself up to prevent COGNITIVE OVERLOAD. I would LOVE to see something on this from this website. Before Christmas, I was a student teacher of maths (I hope to be allowed to re-start in August). One say during the 2nd week I was due to give my first 2 maths classes by myself, and I had an anxiety attack that ended my course 🙁 BUT, I think that what lead up to this was cognitive overload – during the school placement, instead of the University just allowing us to do the school placement, we also had to attend 2 different weekly meetings, 2 seminars 2 hours long, and write both the University lesson plans AND the separate (but linked) school lesson plans, then complete each on after the lesson with comments on performance. I was affected with severe cognitive overload because my focus was just knackered, I couldn’t concentrate, and in writing just ONE maths lesson I couldn’t think of just SIX maths questions. It was as if my brain had literally STOPPED working and didn’t respond to anything I asked it. It literally shut down .
I’ve been working on a philosophy called “the trichotomy of goal orientation.” Basically, everything we do is either in pursuit of someone else’s goals (working at a job we hate), engaging in the end result of someone else’s goals having been met (videos/binge perusal, music, etc.) or pursuing our own goals. Ideally, we should be focusing on balancing all 3.
Just sharing my notes. Steps: \t- Goal setting \t- Assessments \t- Goal execution: action steps Learn faster – 85% rule: • All forms of learning involve reorganization of connections in the nervous system. • Making errors is good for neuroplasticity. When we make an error, the state of frustration is key to learn. • The errors make the brain more plastic. • Rate of errors? How hard should the task be? 85% rule: \t- Make the difficulty like this: you get things right 85% of the time, make errors 15% of time. • Setting and achieving goals \t- Humans are unique in our ability to orient our action toward long term goals. \t- We have multiple goals interacting at once. \t- It doesn’t matter what the goal is… it involves a common set of neural circuits. \t\t○ Amygdala: goal is to avoid punishment of any sort through fear and anxiety. \t\t○ Basal ganglia: generates action and inaction(Go-no go). \t\t○ Cortex: \t\t\t§ Lateral pre frontal cortex: planning ant thinking \t\t\t§ Orbital frontal cortex: emotionality • Value of goals \t- Given the value of a particular goal, you decide what to do. \t- Dopamine is how we assess the value of our goals. • Peripersonal space vs extra personal space. • Peripersonal space: things that are immediately available. Serotonin associated. \t- We evaluate our progress in this space. Even though the goal is in the future. • Extrapersonal space. Everything beyond the confines of my reach, in space & time. Dopamine associated. • Multitasking: increases epinephrine (adrenaline).
I am an art student who has no medical education history at all,I ve just found myself being quite interested about it. I have been perusal every episode since the beginning and I had absolutely no troubles keeping up or processing the knowledge efficiently. It is a beautiful and inspiring thing what you do, and even above all the informative tools and datas,it also effected my daily perception on life tremendously. Thank your for all your efforts and works Dr. Huberman.
Brilliant stuff, as usual. I have an alternate name for space-time bridging – I suggest calling it Focus Shift Training. I work with students who have learning disabilities and ADHD, which severely limits their executive functioning ability. Most of my work with students is around supporting them to effectively shift their focus from things that are distracting to activities which are productive. I can imagine using Focus Shift Training to make the process of building new habits more explicit and productive. Very inspiring stuff! On a more personal level, I’m an improvisational dancer, and I very much enjoyed trying Focus Shift training (space-time bridging) as a movement exercise, as follows: 1) Put on some music and move with your eyes closed (full interoception) for three breaths. 2) Open your eyes and focus on a part of your body as you continue moving. 3) Shift your focus to an object 5-15 feet away and continue to move/dance (this is your audience / full exteroception). 4) Choose a move or skill that requires intense focus and practice that skill until you notice incremental improvement. 5) Move into wide-open visual awareness, with movements that are wide, sweeping, and expansive. 6) Gradually slow your movements and return to step 1. Wow, I was very impressed with the results when I tried this as an improvisational dance exercise. It’s an excellent format for moving towards a movement or fitness goal. I will be using it daily in the future. By the way, all of this aligns quite nicely with James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits.
Yet another note heavy episode, based on note taking app I took around 19k characters which isn’t very uncommon with this podcast… 😅gotta organize and “sculpt” it down, thanks a lot for all this information, your podcast’s literally saving us all from all the misconceptions we may get to by researching this things on our own in google…
Interesting 10 years ago I wanted to lose weight and basically I was telling to myself everyday “If I don’t do it today I will regret tomorrow” and I lost 10 Kg. It worked in the past. But I picked the wrong goal, I just wanted to lose the weight and I did it… so after that I lost focus on the healthy life and got all weight back, even worse. Now during the lockdowns, I just said “it is enough” and “I did it in the past I can do it again”. Lost 28 Kg already but, because of my journey was bigger, in the middle I realize that if I stop this healthy routine I will get all back. So my goal is to have a healthy life, no to lose weight. Yeah I want the “30 kg” mark, just to tell myself “I did it” but I now that… the goal a no ending goal, it is a journey goal not a destination. Love your articles, btw.
I started thinking of effective motivation to achieve goals as an all-wheel-drive car. Rear wheels push you away from a current state you’d like to not be in, front wheels pull you towards a future state you’d like to be in. They don’t have to be rolling at the same time, but it sure as hell helps. 😉
Making predictions to track targets, goals & objectives is a syntropic process — teleological. From a divergent (entropic) perspective everything is convergent (syntropic). From a convergent (syntropic) perspective everything is divergent (entropic). Teleological physics (syntropy) is dual to non-teleological physics (entropy). Syntropy (prediction) is dual to increasing entropy — the 4th law of thermodynamics! Concepts are dual to percepts — the mind duality of Immanuel Kant. Gravitation is equivalent or dual to acceleration — Einstein’s happiest thought, the principle of equivalence (duality). The concept of gravity is dual to the concept of acceleration — Einstein. “Always two there are” — Yoda. Teleophilia is dual to teleophobia. Physics is currently dominated by teleophobia — this is why you need a fourth law. “The brain is a prediction machine” — Karl Friston, neuroscientist. “We predict ourselves into existence” — Anil Seth, neuroscientist. Reality is predicted into existence — a syntropic process! Mind (the internal soul, syntropy) is dual to matter (the external soul, entropy) — Descartes. My mind is your matter and your mind is my matter — duality!
Andrew, I started studying this episode for my own personal goal-seeking and achieving. I actually listen to it first but I realise that all your episodes are lectures that need to be studied (if you really want to learn what is explained). I found these topics extremely interesting. I was curious to ask you, how long does it actually take you to film an episode? I’m impressed with your ability to talk to the camera and explain things without pauses or recurring to umms and ahhs. Is remarkable your ability to be precise when you’re talking. I really appreciate it.
I love how in huberman podcasts we aren’t just listening to the opinion of some dude like many other podcasts, which can really be biased, but all of it comes from studies and even the ones that contradicts his own inicial beliefs as he admitted in this podcast. It’s really awesome how objetive Huberman tries to be in everything
Great point in the year to get started thinking about 2023. Question on Space-Time Bridging: Is this your take on extracting scientifically useful stuff from meditation? I’m a fan of Sam Harris and meditation more broadly, but I can’t help but sometimes wonder if meditation can be adopted to be used more efficiently.
Dr. Huberman, does the change in perception of time and goals due to one’s current field of view mean that those with computer-based jobs or excessive screen time (where their gaze is toward a tiny rectangle 8+ hours a day) may perceive their goals/time differently consistently? If so, could this change carry over to the rest of their day, causing a feedback loop of narrow perception of 3D space and thus restricted or stilted goalsetting in work and life in general?
BTW This also means that older people with ADHD are doomed… As dopamine is “one neurotransmitter which governs goals, assessment, and the setting value of pursuits”… But dopamine levels are low in ADHD persons and also DA levels decrease with age… i.e. older ADHD adults have almost no dopamine… 🙁
Great presentation. At approx 1h 25 min you made a comment about how disappointment actually changes the brain’s dopamine setpoint/baseline. This immediately made me think about how this plays into the “mindset” of abuse victims and why many tolerate their abusers/abusive situations for so long. Would you be willing to do a presentation on how abuse (physical or non-physical) changes brain chemistry and resulting behaviors?
Your discussion around space-time bridging was fantastic… For years I have been talking to people about this concept of time awareness and how important it is to train this internally. I have searched high and low trying to find something concrete to help people practice this concept and low and behold you detail this very well in the space-time bridging discussion. This is such a vital component of motivation and goal setting… Thanks so much for validating and providing a tool that makes this more digestable. BOOM… 💣💣
Question : Wouldn’t negative visualisation lower the probability of success when the “follow through” goals are to perform specific motor skills, eg golf. In addition, whilst its granted that negative vis. increases systolic BP to light the fuse of goal oriented action, given the prevalence of nueroticism, wouldn’t one predict inhibition of goal oriented actions/ follow through if one visualises failure exclusively or even preferentially. I wouldn’t be surprised if the more nuanced takeaway would be to visualise the overcoming of failure, a component of which is visualising failure ofc, as compared to visualisations where failure points are not anticipated deliberately
Hi Dr. Andrew, I have been perusal your podcast since it started. I have a problem that I couldn’t really fix on my own. I was depressed and I am better now but I feel no energy for the things I love. I’m failing my masters because I can’t do any of the work well enough. I can’t maintain drive or motivation for an extended period. I find cold showers help me get that energy sometimes. Could this be a problem with my adrenaline system not kicking in when I have exams or assignments? Noting that my master’s is exactly what I wanted to do. It’s so frustrating and I feel so lost in this. What would you recommend I do? Thank you Huberman Lab staff and Dr. Andrew you all helped me overcome depression. I share your website and podcasts with everyone who I think needs it
Indeed seeing my body shrink a bit made sticking to my dietary changes (went plant-based, not quite vegan) that much easier—even caught the attention of all three of my diabetic, carnivore housemates who have reduced their meat intake and opened up to experimentation with alternatives. Seeing change made it easier to visualize more change and appreciate my accomplishment(s) thus far. Also, finally SEEING how much muscle mass I lost ten years ago due to aggressive chemotherapy followed by sternotomy for tumor resection (7 months ultrasedentary and filled with antibiotics led to regaining all that weight as fat) has made an enormous difference in my decision-making, weighing physical chores vis-à-vis potential injury; so I’ve not injured myself lately as I had so frequently in the interim 9 years due to believing myself still as capable as before the cancer treatments. The visuals are far more powerful than mere logic for my setting reasonable goals and my willpower/determination.
If you are trying to free yourself from addiction and it seems harder than you expected, you are not alone. People don’t quit doing something because they ‘want’ to quit. They only quit once their mind is ready to quit. If you would like to start making your mind ready, I can show you the path. Stay strong and keep your chin up.
What a great episode! I wonder if the space-time perception theory explains why we find it difficult to go after goals after spending too much time on our phones. Some people, like Elon Musk, claim that we’re actually cyborgs because our phones are a bionic extension of ourselves. Which means spending a lot of time looking at our phones, could be a type of interoception.
Another episode loaded with scientific and actionable information. Thank you. I have seen many people using NLP ( Neuro-Linguistic Programming) techniques to help them reach their goals in life. Would be great to hear your thoughts on those techniques and whether or not there is science-based evidence to support their effectiveness Thank you!.
At 59:51 you mentioned the contrast between focal point and multitasking, but I wonder if you think they could effectively be used in tandem? The thing that immediately comes to mind is every 3-5 minutes, looking away from your goal and focusing on a point for 15-45 seconds. I wonder if that would gather the benefits of both focusing on a narrow point and multitasking.
ı would like to harness all of the articles. 2022 is the year I restricted myself from social media and other stuffs which are useless and waste my time and wanna achieve some goals that I set begining of the 2022. I have many must to watch podcast websites and you are one of them. Frankly, you are on top of the my list. I enjoy learning new thngs. thanks for your all efforts. Keep doing it. 23 Ocak 2022
Everyday during my daily routine I walk past McDonalds. I also tend to be hungry during this time of day. I usually have the willpower to abstain of going there, but today I felt weak, and so I walked in its direction. But then I realized what I had just learned on this podcast, and visualized myself fat, ugly, and unhealthy. And guess what. I automatically made a U-turn and headed back home. There wasn’t even any impulsive to continue going there. It just went against my values, of which I reminded myself, and it became effortless. Great, great information. Thank you Mr. Huberman.
Dr. Huberman, thank you! To add to your description of how to visualize failure to achieve success, I found this explanation from Dr. Balcetis poignant: “When planning for a new goal, we have to carve out time to consider the ways we might fail. This is why, for example, flight attendants always tell us where the life preservers are located. If the plane is going down, that is not the time to figure out an action plan—passengers should already know where to find those life jackets. So in advance, craft vivid, tangible images in your mind of all the ways your plan might go wrong. Then devise solutions, so that if disaster does strike, you’ll know exactly what to do.” (from a podcast Dr. Balcetis was on) I would also parallel this with the concept of “implementation intentions” which I learned about through Dr. Judy Ho and her book, Stop-Self Sabotage. The book is essentially a 6-week workbook for discovering how one self-sabotages and how to recognize and get past what triggers self-sabotage in the moment to achieve goals, oftentimes via the use of implementation intentions.
With less than 3 months in hand, I’ve started preparing for the CAT exam. It going to be pretty hard considering my current knowledge and the time left, But I promise to give it my all. We’ll meet here exactly after 3 months, where I update about how the exam went. And the next comment will be about my score after the results are out. I wanna achieve 99+ percentile which feels pretty unachievable to me at the moment. Idk If I will be able to achieve it. But I’ll never know if I never try.
I am turning 45 today…I grew up in addiction and trauma…I became that same victim mindset for about 30 years..mom still won’t speak to the ten of us…dad still has to be drunk by 7 pm….I was GIFTED a spiritual awakening and inside that awakening I found this man…had I not I’d be 3 full years behind what I am now cuz I’m one who needs the proof. I’m trying to have faith but doc huberman makes it easier not to have to qork out of faith alone
Would it be fairly easy to correct a typo in the transcript at 1:43:44? 😀 With the space-time bridging exercise, I’d like to ask those with ADHD – does it help with time blindness/myopia? ADHDers struggling with longer-term goals will no doubt benefit from the science Prof Huberman is sharing, but I am particularly interested in the time perception/measurement aspect. From all my reading thus far, ADHDers aren’t impaired with spatial perception. I know – easily distracted by changes in the environment, and oblivious to them during hyperfocus – but those are due to impaired regulation of attention and not necessarily spatial perception. If this perfectly functional ability can be harnessed to “cure” or at least alleviate time blindness/myopia, this would be huge for the ADHD community. Now combine this practice with the science on neuroplasticity that Prof Huberman has also shared… Thank you, Professor!
Thanks so much for your effort, clear content and service. In this very interesting and clear chapter however I think the MOST IMPORTANT question is not addressed: – WHO IS REALLY CHOOSING MY GOALS? – From what “inner space” am I deciding? What is really my intention behind what I say I want? – Are “my goals” really “my goals”, or are they just the natural outcome of the values, mindsets and unresolved matters of my childhood experience? Or even more so, are they just the mandatory values of my family lineage? How much do we really know ourselves to answer the question: “Who is choosing my Life Goals?” Thank you very much for you solid and kind work. Cheers form Argentina
Excellent podcast. I may have missed – but I don’t think I heard anything about the vital/critical role of sociological connections (both negative & positive) in achieving goals. Given the fact that many goals in life are accomplished within sociological groups/teams/families (where vision casting is vital especially in leading). Perhaps a blind spot by Dr. Huberman or the literature consulted. With an open-limbic neurological design, it could be argued that goals cannot be achieved & sustained without others in our lives -an important fact that western cultures seems to ignore or miss with our exaggerated emphasis on personal autonomy.
Thank you @Andrew Huberman for yet another piece of information explaining how things work, which allows us to utilize this knowledge in tools, thus improving our lives. While listening to this episode I’ve got a couple of thoughts (rather one observation and one question) which I’d like to share here: \t1. Observation. I noticed interesting correlation between recommendation to set meaningfully hard (but not impossible and not too easy) goals and the level of procrastination I personally have to deal with when approaching these two extreme types of goals/tasks. For very hard goals I often end up dragging my feet because I don’t have even vegue picture on where to start, how to approach, how to define the specifics of measurement and other “operational stuff”. At the same time procrastinating on simple and easy goals/tasks is happening because I know how to do them down to the very little detail, I know what it takes to complete them and I can do them any time. At the same time I DON’T do them, because they’re too easy and don’t bring a feeling of accomplishment that harder goals/tasks do. So I find it rather peculiar this parallel in goal setting and procrastination – it’s much easier to start working and achieving results on goals that you know something about (but not everything) – have enough knowledge on the domain to start and navigate through, understand roughly the complexity and the level of unknowns, etc. – than on goals/tasks from the extreme sides of the complexity/achievability spectrum.
Topic that seems interesting after listening to your episode on Brain function and food choices. Any and all information on the relationship between mouth breathing and the insular cortex and how it could possibly change the way we look at mental disorders of fear and anxiety in our current landscape.
My wife and I did the space-time bridging exercise while taking a stroll in the park one day and we both fellt its effect immediately. It does something to one’s attention, akin to what a warm-up exercise does for muscles and joints before a training. We even asked our 12 & 10y.o. kids do it. And they felt pretty much the same effect themselves. Now, I am really not particularly impressionable a person (being a psychiatrist myself) and I tend to subject mind-tips and interventions to a good measure of critical scrutiny and skepticism. After all, there’s a lot of mumbo-jumbo on the internet these days. But this one and the NSDR protocol are something I can (and do) recommend people try, with good conscience, out of my own first-hand experience. Last but not least, I would like to thank Dr. Huberman for sharing his knowledge and experience with the world!
I understand from a primitive perspective that fear inherently motivates more strongly than rewards to learn and achieve behavioral change. However I feel if I focus on potential failures towards reaching a goal, I begin to be motivated by fear and anxiety, which then dominate my drive. This may help me achieve the goal, but I must question whether if the goal worth pursuing in this way, if the path it is dominated by fear and anxiety rather than reward. Can you offer some nuance to your point here and better yet, some way to harmonize experiencing reward while using visualization of failure and subsequent anxiety while pursuing goals.
Much as I admire your knowledge,I strongly disagree with the “foreshadowing fear” theory ..the Japanese call it Negative Visualisation and have been practicing it for a while now. However,to balance it with positive visualization is key because for most people anxiety and fear can be totally paralyzing and stun them into complete inaction .Also,there is an element of faith that definitely works for those who believe in a Higher Power. To refute that completely is not valid for most of us who have experientially lived the reality of what faith can do .I think a rational analysis of failure is imperative but to also unwaveringly believe in your ultimate goal is equally important.
I’ve been reading books about the brain and i’ve been reading a lot of psychology. This neurologic approach and analysis of the decision making ciruits is the best scientific explanation i’ve found so far. Thank you. Now…. i have one question, the answer might be so logic, so easy… but still i don’t get it because of upbringing. What makes you want something? So what i mean is, you set a goal… yes… but how do you define the goal?? In your podcast you talk about “how you feel now, and how you feel when you achieve the goal”. So, is that it? How i could feel about something in the future? A positive feeling? A positive outcome? Improve my situation and at the same time feel good about it? for example: I could become an accountant to have a good stable income but i feel bad about the idea of sitting at a desk all day so instead i could be a teacher because i would feel good about working with teenagers, passing knowlegde but making less money. My question might be obvious but please i don’t have a clue.
From the study report he mentioned, “Keeping The Goal in Sight” “Narrowed attention may not improve exercise in all situational contexts. The utility of narrowed attention is likely constrained to natural environments rich in visual cues. We do not expect, for instance, that narrowed attention would prove effective for individuals exercising on a treadmill or stationary bike, or in scenarios in which no visible goals or targets are present. In instances where surroundings are unchanging, alternate strategies, such as cognitive distraction, might be more effective (i.e., Annesi, 2001).”
Hi Andrew, first of all, you are doing a fantastic job and I can only hope that you are somewhat aware of how much influence your podcasts have on people! Really appreciate. Now, I have a question. Listening to this episode and understanding the relationship between the visual focus and an increase in upper blood pressure, can one claim that our excessive focus on our cell phones and such can bring about a higher than normal blood pressure and that in the near future a lot of us can suffer from chronic blood pressure because of that? Please answer, for I am about to write about our biggest pandemic, namely our electronic pacifiers/gadgets. Regards Ray P.S. the other day, I was talking to my 15 years old daughter about me not having many friends and she went, “dad you love Andrew Huberman, right? why don’t you become friends with him?” There we go, here I am writing you this lengthy comment.
אם נניח המטרה כן מגיעה מאיתנו נשיג אותה אנחנו נהיה יותר בריאים אם זה לא מגיע מאיתנו זה פוגע בנו. עכשיו אנחנו יכולים לתגמל את עצמנו באופן שבועי / יומי. לתגמל את עצמנו בזה שאנחנו בודקים עם אנחנו בדרך הנכונה ביחס למה שהצבנו השבוע. נניח לתגמל בסוף יום עם משהו. ולתגמל את עצמנו בגדול בשבוע ולבדוק אם עמדנו ביעדים שלנו בשביל להשיג את המטרות שלנו בשביל להשיג את המטרה שלנו ולהגיד לעצמך כל יום ואחד בשבוע שאתה באמת בדרך הנכונה, שאתה מצליח ותסמן את המשימות הללו שאתה צריך לעשות כל יום. 1:42:18 תסתכל לתוך עצמך – ואל תסתכל לבחוץ. ל3 נשימות עמוק. ותסתכל אחרי זה על היד. ותנשום ל3 נשיקות עמוק ותסתכל קצת לבחוץ ושלוש נשימות עמוקות ותסתכל הכי רחוק שאתה יכול לבחוץ ואחרי זה תיקח שלוש נשימות. תסתכל הכי רחוק שאתה יכול לשניהם ואחרי זה תיקח נשימות ולבסוף תחזור לתוך עצמך ואחרי זה תיקח נשימות
Love the coverage over visualization – so interesting to learn that visualizing failure actually keeps one motivated more so then visualizing success, going to adopt it!! The final tool space-time bridging feels quite abstract to me – manipulating your perceptions (peripersonal and extrapersonal) to orient the brain towards better goal setting where similar time perceptions is required (milestones, delayed reward forward in time)
Thank you Professor for this outstanding podcast. It really changed my perspective of life. I couldn’t understand why my ambition wasn’t helpful in self-realizing itself despite all my willingness and cognitive efforts. It turns out that I wasn’t setting the right goals and assessing them on a regular basis, wasn’t visualizing my failure anymore (which had helped me in the past), that my huge dopamine releases weren’t healthy at all. Incredible how much our focus and time perception is linked to our visual system. Also fun that high dopamine gives tiger eyes, because when I am intentionally making tiger eyes, my physiological state is also reacting probably releasing dopamine. Like often, it works in both ways! Would also note that the massive content feeds on the Internet have everything for wanting to pursue them as goals : novelty, pleasurability and non-predictibility.
Thank you for another amazing podcast! It sparked some questions 🙂 My understanding is that fear-based motivation is less effective in motivating children and the elderly. How were these groups included in the studies? Does this have an effect on the effectiveness of foreshadowing failure in the pursuit of their goals? And if so how can we adapt protocols for these groups? I would love any insights that you or your guests might have.
Huge devotee of your work, many thanks. Currently using many of your protocols as I do Tristan in Bari Italy. (a really mentally demanding role for how much text there is to memorize.) If i may, a couple production constructive criticisms: When listening on headphones, the amount of plosives hitting your Shure mic is really distracting. It hits one’s ear canal like a cannon. Suggest moving a couple inches away from mouth or better put it further off axis of air released on consonants. (I tried the Reveri app, but the audio was so distracting I had to give it up). A good rule of thumb, when using 2 cameras: make camera angles no less than 30degrees between the two. Less than that, the change of camera feels unmotivated (in filmmaking terms). Greater different in angle between your cameras for more visual impact. Thank you for your incredible work.
Thinking about failing my finals really motivated me to study. When I think about passing and the great feelings that comes with it is satisfying and like he said it’s short lived. Only when I think about how much I will regret not passing and how it will set me back makes me study. Really and truly it frightens me to think how stuck I’d be without being successful.
I wonder about this reaserch “The Persistence and Transience of Memory” Richards, Frankland: “The predominant focus in the neurobiological study of memory has been on remembering (persistence). However, recent studies have considered the neurobiology of forgetting (transience). Here we draw parallels between neurobiological and computational mechanisms underlying transience. We propose that it is the interaction between persistence and transience that allows for intelligent decision-making in dynamic, noisy environments. Specifically, we argue that transience enhances flexibility, by reducing the influence of outdated information on memory-guided decision-making, and prevents overfitting to specific past events, thereby promoting generalization. According to this view, the goal of memory is not the transmission of information through time, per se. Rather, the goal of memory is to optimize decision-making. As such, transience is as important as persistence in mnemonic systems.(…)
Great article. 1:05:20 This is a disappointing finding and I’m not sure about implementing this. When I try to use fear (of negative consequences) as my primary motivator I find it only works in the short term. Also if you frame your goals in a negative way doesn’t that lead to chronic stress further down the road and prime you to excessively worry? When I’m stressed I also find I am much worse at problem solving. Problem solving is also essential to achieving many complex goals.
Hi, I really enjoy the podcast, and the YouTube website and I’ve watched many articles. In this article, Andrew speaks about focusing on the negative outcome if you do not reach your goal. He states this will affect the amygdala to help keep you on track towards your goal. I am confused as I always heard you want to have laser focus on the positive in achieving a goal and not focus on the negative outcomes. Such as Tony Robbins says often, where focus goes, energy flows, or the analogy feed the good wolf not the bad wolf. Are these sayings wrong?
Now I understand why it’s so important to have negative people on a team – they point out all the worst-case scenarios. I’ve often wondered how projects are successful when you have negative people on the team. The “black hats” (DeBono). This explains how they perform an important function in goal-getting.
I use expanded awareness in meditation and when speaking. I find it extremely relaxing, now I know why. And while I’ve been perusal your articles, I have been practicing “staring” (focusing on a particular point) and have also experienced the feeling of effortless focus. Thanks for the action oriented information. I’m feeling grateful to have language to explain my experience, helps me to recognise it, and do it deliberately.
o\t85 % difficulty rule – Make difficulty of so you’re making errors 15 percent of time o\tMultitasking – doing multitasking before focused work gets you action-ready o\tFocus on particular visual points to harness visual attention o\tFocus on 1 point beyond peripersonal space, hold for 30-60 seconds. o\tMost effective way to get your brain into state of readiness and action o\tFuture Imaging – empathy / future thinking o\tStudy showed that when people view their digitally edited imaged of their future selves, they start to think more about their future self (empathy) o\tHelps bridge gap between immediate vs delayed gratification. Present vs future o\tYou don’t feel like gaming anymore when you imagine yourself being a 40-year-old resentful addict, unhealthy and all. o\tVisualizing failure o\tProbability of success doubled when routinely foreshadowed ways one could fail o\tFocus on \tThe emotional disappointment, and negative emotions associated with failure \tMid to long term implications of failure \tWays you could fail o\tpredict and visualize failure, but do not think of ourselves as failing o\tGoal difficulty – moderate o\tNot too easy or too difficult – just outside your immediate abilities. o\tIt needs to be realistic but also truly challenging o\tLimit options / number of goals o\tGoals take up mental and visual space o\tMax 3 goals per year o\tRecycling / concrete steps o\tWhen steps were made concrete, it improved the results by x100 o\tSteps must be detailed, must be updated timely based on progress o\tDopamine – routine reward schedules o\tForced action makes us unhappy and unhealthy, same action with choice makes us happy and healthy – it’s all cognitive o\tMust routinely check progress, and reward cognitively with positive mental feedback “yes I am on the right track” – helps churn out dopamine o\tSpace – time bridging 1.
Why the ‘visualizing the end goal’ is not the ‘anticipating the reward’? ‘Positive thinking’ is meant to make you believe that you can achieve the goals, wich is important as you said for startus, keeping you out of ‘thinking of yourself as failing’, then changing your negative thoughts that might shut you down in the process of pursuing the goal and keeping you open for clues and info when you don’t actually know what the milestones are – with a little bit of confusion and woo woo stuff built in of course, as the information is not systematized really and with ramdom findings and tools. There is the risk of thinking that everything is in rich therefore you don’t have to try at all but many authors actually say after visualizing ‘drop the desire’, ‘go on with your life’, ‘lean into action’ and so forh. Rainbows and puppies is oversimplifying positive thinking. Alchemy is not chemistry but it led to it.
Totally makes sense about how contemplating failure or difficulties increases goal results. Ultimately it’s about getting yourself to do the things necessary to achieve the goal, and failure or suffering is pretty good at that. I know for me this is an aspect I sometimes/often avoid.. because I know it will either make me take action, or make me feel bad for being lazy, lol. But that spot right there is vital, where u do what is required or not, it’s the fork in the road to success, or failure/stagnation.
Another question (iam a paralyzed U.S. ARMY “SAPPER”): i am taking 400mg of Magnesium (oxide, namely) (sometimes bout 250), and 10 MEQ Ext.Rls of Potassium Cl (rarely 20 meq) and i while i learned there is supposed to be balance to all the electrolytes -i was trained to survive, literally even if barely; not get healthier. Appreciate informed advice. ~ CHRIST Is The (Only) KING
He’s only 55 podcasts in, but I would like him to focus more on the neuroscience of contentment as much as on the neuroscience of attainment. Our society is very goal-oriented, which is amazing, but with the very real risk of smashing ourselves into a brick wall of human and environmental exhaustion very soon. We are not contentment and happiness-oriented.
Andrew, could you please make an episode about music, how it affects motivation, if it does. I noticed that sometimes music helps to work out. Or sad music can make people cry. It is interesting if there were any studies about it? And episode about humor. Can people learn how to be funny and can humor affect productivity? These are some cute ideas that I got and wanted to share 🥰
1. Galatiya krne se mind or jyada alert ho jata he is chiz ko sikhte samay… isliye koi problem solve krte time uske galat hone ka dar nhi hona chahiye…galat hogi to koi bat nhi…or ache se sikh paoge.. programming me b esa hi hota he…or life k mamle me thoda satark rehna…dusro ki problem solve krne ki jarurat nhi… 2. Set a little bit hard goals…not very hard goals… 3. Koi kam shuru karne se pehle thodi doori par kisi dot ya line ki trf 1 minute tak ultra focus Krna he… 4. End result ko imagine krne se jyada acha he un ways k bare me sochna jisse aap fail ho skte ho…isse aap satark ho jaoge ki konsi chize nhi krni he….or jo karna jaruri he..agr vo nhi kiya gya to uska kya negative impact hoga @1:16:00 se start kr
I’m 32 years Old. Diagnosed Paranoid Schizophrenic at the Age of 17. My Masonic Family Didn’t know how to deal with my mental Illness…Became homeless… Completely Afraid of Everything I’m Unemployed. I become Angry for Now reason. I cry for no reason. I have no Energy. I feel I cant eat because food is designed to Kill us. I cant afford to Eat Healthy foods. I have no Goals. No aim. WHAT DO I DO? I feel all thats left to do to feel better is not wake up …that’s where I’m at..
This is incredibly information and I have total confidence in the science. I’m also confused about a particular goal. Let’s say a goal is “I will have 15 perfect bodyfat and be able to bench press 200 pounds by December 31, 2022”. I mean … that MAY be mine … but I digress. OK. Given my level of fitness currently, this is a moderate goal. In fact, one that I’ve surpassed in the past (Hello “pre-COVID”). I can plan concrete steps: X number of gym visits, a nutrition plan, I have hobbies that involve movement (biking, kayaking, etc). I’m confused on step 4: Focus on visual points to remove distraction and the related Space-Time Bridging (Which is excellent; an actual task instead of just “Think about such-and-such”). MY QUESTION (“Finally, Don! Sheesh!”) is this: Assuming I do the Space-Time Bridging in the morning, do I think about my goal then? Or are my thoughts directed toward the exercise, knowing that the results will help fuel my movement toward my goal?? And, quite frankly, having just written that, I’m positive the answer is “The latter”.
Dear Andrew Hberman, Thank you sir for this insightful episode on goal setting and pursuit! I found the neuroscience behind it fascinating, and the practical tools you provided are incredibly helpful. so to achieve goals we need to : 1.Set moderate goals 2.Plan concretly 3.Foreshadow failure In fact Space-Time Bridging is useful for Goal setting,goal assessment and goal pursuit it helps to balance and expand awareness, allowing for a more flexible and dynamic engagement with the world.
Here’s a detailed explanation of the key points from your provided text: 1. *Optimal Learning with Failure:* Failing around 15% of the time is considered optimal for learning. It suggests that a certain degree of failure is essential for growth and acquiring new skills. 2. *Goal-Directed Behavior and Fear:* Much of our goal-directed behavior is driven by the desire to avoid things that cause fear. Fear can be a powerful motivator in steering our actions and decisions. 3. *Four Areas Affecting Goals:* There are four primary areas that affect our goals: – Anxiety and fear – Action and inaction – Planning and thinking – Emotionality (current emotional state and anticipated emotions upon goal accomplishment) 4. *Components of Goals:* Goals have two primary components: – Value information: Understanding if a goal is worth pursuing and which actions to take. – Identifying actions not to take based on the value of the goal. 5. *Role of Dopamine:* Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that governs goals, assessment, and the setting of the value of pursuits. It plays a key role in motivation and reward. 6. *Three Aspects of Goal Pursuit:* Goal pursuit involves three key aspects: – Goal setting – Assessment of progress – Goal execution 7. *Peripersonal vs. Extrapersonal Space:* Understanding the difference between peripersonal space (within your body and immediate environment) and extrapersonal space (beyond your immediate reach) is essential for goal accomplishment. 8. *Multitasking and Adrenaline:* Multitasking can be effective when done prior to goal-directed behavior as it increases adrenaline and gets us into action.
Ok, “Errors”. Personally I get pissed rather than deflated so I normally fight through any incorrect responses. I thrive on salt yay! **Oddly it seems 85% applies to sports as well as say language learning or many learning mechinisiums.. Hmmm, opens more questions. Why is 85% the optimal number, from what I’m hearing, is consistently the magic goal…?? Sorry but ALWAYS more intrigue/questions. Very, very interesting. Can’t help but investigate more. Yes, I’m a forever curious and thrive on unanswered relationships from one mechanism to another. I can’t help but ask more questions. Ugh… why, why. I always have more questions. So annoying to many experts. As I can relate but some say engineers and physicist. Of course most are not great at understanding anything but their genius focus. “Most” say doctors hate questions as if it’s questions their knowledge or competence. LOVE your secure selfless sharing of your studies!! Huge coming from JHU/APL. ( too genius folks), hence no other practical sense. Yup, challenging but LOVED it!! I would always try at least to help them with communication skill on the “DL”. But hopefully I taught some in need somewhat. But I do like in general 85% effort and conquer is a wonderful way to think on many learning behaviors ..LOVE it!!!❤
Not on-topic, since your podcast, I really have become a better person to everyone involved in my life. Deep gratitude for you and your lab. My question though,: the Vikings used “sunstones” for navigation, I’m wondering if you can set your circadian rhythm that way? Ps. It’s very foggy in Sweden…
Hello doc, hope you are having a nice day. As usual i lub your content. I have a question though, why don’t you suggest intense (70-85% RM – 50mins – resistance) excercise as a method to increase dopamine? Am not a student of medicine though, but after 30 mins after my intense workout i feel i have more concentration, focus in goal pursuit, good mood, confidence etc etc. Do you suggest (atleast academically) that i swap the 50 min workout perday with foreshadowing failure, goal line visualisation, space time bridging instead to increase my productivity in goal pursuit? (Yes i have a time constraint) Thanks in advance!
Dr. Huberman, does the science differentiate between SETTING a goal using negative consequence visualizations, and MOTIVATING a goal by negative consequence visualizations? I see them as separate aspects of goal work and wonder if the avoidance motivations are best applied to both. Thank you for your kindness in sharing all of this wonderful neuroscience!
from my experience : just for example you have to make 30 burpees(or push up,or pull ups),or 20,something that is a little of bit beyond your physical limits. If you just start doing, you might not finish, but if you do it mentally first, one by one, you will do it in real life 120% And that technic works everywhere.
The space-time bridging protocol to me seems like a conscious, wave-like movement our focus performs through different perception stages of space-time. So what is bridged is not actully space-time but rather the percpetion of space-time. So maybe are more fitting name might be “focus wave protocol” or “perception wave protocol”. Anyway Dr. Huberman, your podcast is a true global treasure. I came from your lex fridman interview and started listening while doing other things. Meanwhile I’m taking notes, implementing your shared knowledge in my daily life. I have even adapted collaboration methods at work based (for the better) on your dopamine episode. So I guess what I’m trying to say is: Thank you!
Dear Andrew, thanks – another great episode. As always very informative and well-structured. Possible error: I would argue that the claim at 1:05 that “for everyone who is listening/watching the amygdala is involved in …” is too bold, as maybe someone with Urbach-Wiethe disease is listening/watching. I admit this is super nerdy. Questions: 1) Can you point to a high quality journal article that demonstrates that foreshadowing failure is superior to foreshadowing success as well as not foreshadowing anything? 2) Can you point to the article about the two mice exercising with one out of “free will” and one forced? I also didn’t find the authors name or title in the episode with Robert Sapolsky. Best regards, Krishna
Really enjoyed this… however, I have a question about the bridge-spacing process. I get the “how” to do it from your explanation, but what is the specific sequencing to goals and performance. Do you do it “stand alone” in the morning let’s say and it improves neuroplasticity? And, your performance is enhanced from there? Or do you sequence it such that you do this, then, you perform something on your goal list. Example: Do I do this process, then, immediately focus on one of my goals (e.g. aerobic exercise x 20 min?)? And, secondly, when I go for my morning walks, I notice that I am looking at the horizon or the at nature — is this similar to this bridging process step also? Could I somehow incorporate this into a walk? Thanks for your teachings.
I listen, and give it a go, fall over – dust my knees off, adjust, and attempt my Me’s whatever again… sometimes I actually burst out with spontaneous laughter at my attempt and clumsy fall…. Still get up, dust my ‘metaphorical’ knees off – attempt it again, and inspire myself to get on with ‘it’… finding my limitations and what I can reach for ✋🏻Me
⚠️ Andrew, my big problem is that I can’t find any valuable GOAL to pursue. I have a small anhedonia, but some times I can do things. When I am motivated, I tend to consider that the goals are valid to pursue, while most of the times, I don’t know why, I look at my previous good goals, and find them all BS, don’t worth all the work. So, I end up seeking a goal that worth my time and energy, but for years, I have none. I close my eyes, and envision my goal achieved, and when I do that, I feel silly, mediocre goals, and the question I make myself is: “What for ?” Why doing that ? I don’t feel energetic or driven to move to any goal. So, I give up most of the times, and go to watch Netflix or YouTube articles, mostly about motivation. My productivity is very low, but many times, it doesn’t really matters because most of the time, everything is pointless anyway. Perhaps, I never knew what I wanted from life. 😮😮😮
Why can’t these podcasts be segmented into parts? The Science of Setting & Achieving Goals | Huberman Lab Podcast #55 part 1, part 2… to be candid, I find the pace of information overwhelming; often blending the content into the cadence of your speech. I know you try to unpack everything meanwhile acknowledging the depth, but – its as if you want to hear every whirl of a fan blade, after so long it just become white noise. It’s riveting material, and at times I take notes – I just wish it could more of a discussion than a lecture.
I just want to add something relating to the part at 28:00 about telling others about your goals. As someone from a less privileged background and being surrounded by those less privileged. I have learned that often lofty goals are scoffed at or you are told to ‘keep dreaming’ etc rather than any sort of positive reinforcement. I’m 32 now, so I know who I should and shouldn’t share with, but a 16 year old me who had lofty academic goals, which were then shared – I was almost shamed for them not being realistic. So for anyone reading this you are not alone and please be selective with who you share your goals with <3