15 Welcome to your weekly dose of positivity. We're your hosts Sparky and shell. Join us each week as we help change your habits to tackle fears and challenge your mindset. Let's get to it.
31 Hello everyone and welcome to the second episode of dopamine kick.
36 Yay, episode number two.
39 Today we're going to be discussing something that is really important and that is goal setting. Goal setting is so crucial for success and yet it's often overlooked. If you think about it. How can you know you're heading in the right direction if you don't have a destination?
53 Well An example would be a shaped leaving its port it may set off at a great pace and make huge progress but really without a clear destination. It's really just drifting aimlessly anywhere. It wants to go with no clear direction. So shell I was just going to ask you because I know I'm terrible at these. What's your history? Like with goal setting?
12
So goal setting is something I absolutely love. It's something I can get really into, get really nerdy about and I can't do anything without a goal at the end of it. You know, I can't go for a run and eat healthy just to be healthy and just because it's better for my body. But if I've, you know, done something stupid, like signed up for a half marathon, I can motivate myself to go out and train and run but as soon as that events over, that's dead to me a common theme. So yeah, goal setting is really really important to me. And even sometimes if I haven't formally set a goal in the back of my mind, there's always one there.
56 Oh, well like that. There's always a goal in your mind.
59 There's always something that I'm working on next.
00
You see for me on the total opposite like the big goal. Like the big thing at the end stresses me too much that I actually can't get to it if that makes sense. So I'm very bad at achieving things like just to give you some examples when I was at uni, knowing that the end, just getting the course done. That was the hardest part, that to me was the hardest part. Whereas going through the lectures was the easy part for me. So the little steps along the way seem to help me so much more because if I'm not focused on the overarching goal, I'm not procrastinating about it. I like to have an overarching goal but then break it down into little steps as well because I can focus on the goal of eating to be healthy, whereas if I've got an event to go to, let's say in six months time as as I get closer to that goal. I'll be stress eating. That's what I do. So for me, it's easier for me to focus on the smaller goals. I don't know if that's just me being you know, overdramatic as usual.
01 No, I think it's important to celebrate the differences in people isn't it? I think it's really important to recognise those differences because we are all different after all, and different methods work for different people.
12 And that's why we want to talk about the many different ways that we can achieve those goals, because that's the whole point. Of this podcast, we actually want to help you achieve them. So we've talked about what sort of things that we do our history of goal setting. And one thing that I really find helps me set goals is to actually write them down because it's a physical act. If you don't write them down. Then what are they?
35 They're just wishes!
36 They are.
38 This is something that we this has become our motto for this podcast, if it's not written down. It's just a wish.
45
because I'm a very forgetful person. So if I don't write things down, which is why I think if if you're listening to this podcast right now and you've got a pen and paper, it might be a good idea to actually note some of this stuff down. Because if you're like me and you forget things, then it's just going to go in one ear and out the other. And I'm really good when it comes to writing things down, seeing my goals on a piece of paper, and then breaking it down into little steps that I find are more achievable for me. So goal setting is something that we've never been taught or encouraged to do and yet with it, we're really, really lost. We're so lost.
21 This is backed up by science as well in a 1981 review, which we'll link to in the show notes, they were able to demonstrate that 90% of the studies between 1969 and 1980 showed that specific and challenging goals lead to a higher performance than easy or no goals at all. They show that goals affect performance by focusing your attention, targeting your efforts, increasing your persistence, and motivating you to problem solve more.
49 In this episode, we're going to go through with you how to set up your own goals and how to get your dopamine kicks along the way to keep you motivated as well. So you may have heard of something called SMART goals. S M A RT S means specific, M is for measurable, A is for achievable, R is for relevant and T is for time bound
14 and what we thought would be really useful is if we do this as a real life worked example. So what we're going to do is work through our smart goals for this podcast. So we're going to set these smart goals here and now today, So it'll be good in two respects. So firstly, it's a, like I said, a working working example. But also it will hold us accountable for our progress next year to come.
40
So since we're being accountable, let's start with what s means. And that means specific so I guess we need to be specific. So we need to be as clear as possible with the goal. So you can focus all your efforts in the right direction. And for this, what we need you to do is consider not only what you want to accomplish, but why it's important to you as well. So, for example with this being specific, what do you think shell be specific to this particular goal that we've got in mind for this podcast?
12 So I guess firstly, we need to consider what it is that we want to accomplish with the podcast. We started this podcast to increase positivity and help as many people as we can. So I think a specific goal for us could be that we want to gain the skills and experience necessary to run a successful weekly podcast that builds a community of like minded positive individuals all helping each other to achieve success.
35
Yeah, that sounds really, really good all helping each other to achieve success. And I think that's a really, really good place to start and also leads us on nicely to the next one, which is measurable. Hopefully, measurable is self explanatory, but it basically just means how are you going to measure the success of your goal going forward, measurable in this case would be slightly easier for us? Because we were going to know how many people are going to listen to this podcast. So we can measure it that way. But I also think it's important to set a goal that's meaningful to us too.
08 I agree. I think it's really easy to aim small. But we've got big ambitions for this podcast.
15 Well, we are ambitious.
16 So I think as scary as it is to say out loud, to be accountable publicly for big number, it is the first step in achieving it. So I'm going to say 10,000 unique downloads in our first year of podcasting.
33 I didn't expect that I'm not going to lie.
37 Maybe we should have discussed this off air first?
39 Probably. You know what, like you said, you know, you need to aim high for these things. And I think that if we can get people interested, we've got good content, high quality conversation going and I don't see why in the first year we can't achieve 10,000 unique downloads in the first year of our podcasts.
58 Yeah, we've got a lot to say, hopefully people are interested in hearing it.
03
Which brings us on to our next one, which is actually achievable. And obviously like I've just said it's important to stretch your abilities, but the goal does need to be realistic and achievable. So we need to consider how we're going to accomplish that 10,000 unique downloads and how realistic it is based on our other constraints. And are there any aspects of the goal that are out of our control or for the people listening? Are there any aspects for you with your goals that are out of your control?
30 So for us here, I think the biggest issue is going to be time. We have got so much to learn about podcasting there's time evolved prepping our episodes, actually recording them, editing them. If we're going to achieve 10,000 unique downloads in one year. We need to be releasing enough episodes to grow and attract new listeners. We've committed to weekly episodes, which we think is a realistic time commitment for both of us and should be sufficient for us to reach our yearly goal target.
00
Yeah, like you just said time is going to be one of our biggest constraints. But what was interesting that I noticed you said there was that it was going to take time prepping the episodes and editing them. And I don't know if you remember this, but in the last episode, shell you said that you pulled the best straw because you don't actually have to listen to your voice because I'm the one that's going to be editing the podcast. While I was thinking that actually I can make you look however I want in this podcast.
36 I feel like i've massively misjudged you
44 Next we've got relevant and relevant is a you know it's a big word isn't it? It's got to be relevant you've got to make sure that your goal matters to you. Will you help you keep focused? Is it relevant to your other goals in your life? Will it help you because that will help avoid clashes
02
so this one's really critical for us because we are both prone to going off on tangents starting new projects, and not finishing things. Story of our lives, story of our lives. Yeah, but I think that this is relevant to us because being positive is something that we're both passionate about. We both still have struggles in our life that we're working on. By doing this podcast. Not only are we going to be helping others, but we're going to be helping ourselves and working through things together. as well. So we'll get so much from it. And like we've touched on our long term goal for this podcast is to be able to set up a community of like minded individuals, and that's just something that both of us would absolutely love to have in our lives. So this podcast is definitely definitely relevant.
46 Yeah. And we'd also benefits so much from having a community of like minded individuals. We don't always have our shit together, but we're learning and growing along the way. So any community that we can set up with people that are like minded, that are inspirational that are just like us and relatable, I think it's all going to help towards the long term goal, which is obviously relevant to our long term goal as well.
08 And this brings us to our last topic, which is T time bound. It's really important that your goal has a set deadline so you can work towards it. Because this will prevent everyday tasks life admin, that sort of stuff from taking priority of your long term goals. You need to have a target end date, and then break the project into smaller deadlines to keep momentum going.
30
Yeah, so I guess for this podcast, when we break down our goals into smaller deadlines broken down, it could look something a little bit like this couldn't make shell so we're going to release an episode every week there's going to be 52 episodes. So that makes it a little bit more manageable when you're looking at a podcast and you think to yourself okay, so this is a whole year's worth of episodes. It's going to be a little bit of oh my god, you know, there's too much going on here but when you break it down and you think okay, let's let's focus on something weekly. weekly goal is to get one episode every week recorded, which in the end turns out to be 52 episodes, which means a whole year is completed and when it's broken down like that it's a little bit easier to work towards the overall deadline, the overarching goal which is our podcast,
16 and this is really important for getting your dopamine kicks as well. It's really challenging to sustain enthusiasm and momentum long term if you don't have small targets along the way, little wins that you can achieve and feel good about yourself to keep your energy levels high.
32
Absolutely getting your dopamine kicks is so important, because if you don't make it enjoyable, and recognise those little wins along the way, it's going to be so much easier for you to give up and you'll think that you've lost all of your willpower. But here's the thing about willpower. We rely so much on willpower, but to me, it's not about willpower. It's about having that systemized structure in place that will help you create steps that you can follow along the way such as a smart goals to help you achieve your goals. The easier and more fun that you make it, the less likely you are to procrastinate on your goals and find something else to do that's more enjoyable. So next time you're thinking about it, don't make the mistake that willpower will help you alone. It's not about willpower. It's about creating a system that works for you. That makes it more enjoyable and easier to reach those goals that you're aiming for.
24 Okay, so we're coming to the end of the episode and we promised we would come up with a gimmicky name for our extra bit at the end of episode.
34 Oh, yes. Okay.
36 So we've been crazy inventive. And every week on a dopamine kick. We are going to end with a little kicker, which is just a little bit extra, a quote an app, a resource, possibly a challenge, possibly For this week we are going to keep it nice a brief, we are going to go with a quote from Robert Herjavec, who is one of the sharks on Shark Tank, And his quote is "a goal without a timeline. It's just a dream."
56 That is such a great quote and it goes back to what we just said at the beginning that it's just a wish just a dream. It's not a timeline.
16 Yeah, we say wish but yeah, we actually didn't know about this quote, when we were talking about goals just being wishes if you didn't formally, you know, write them down and set them. And then when we found this quote, We just thought it was so perfect. It's more eloquently put, than we could have phrased it but between us will still say our wishes.
36 But for you guys, that means basically, that making sure that you do have the SMART goals in line and a timeline. Otherwise, really, it's just a dream, and it's just waiting for when you're ready. So make sure you write them down, and you get a timeline going and that will really help you achieve any goals that you want to achieve.
54 Okay, well that's everything for this episode. Guys. If you've listened to this and you think that someone else would benefit from hearing it too please please share it with a we want to reach and help as many people as we can.
07 Alright, that's everything this week, guys, but if you want to carry on with the conversation, join us over on our social media platforms we're on all the major channels and our handle is @adopaminekick we'd also be super grateful if you could leave us a review on the podcast wherever you're listening, because it helps us to grow our audience and help our people. Okay, we'll see you in the next one. Bye bye
//otter.ai