Mastering Mindset: Leveraging Mental Frameworks for Setting and Achieving Process Goals

As we pursue of our aspirations, whether personal or professional, setting goals is often the first step towards progress. However, while outcome goals define the destination, it's the process goals that pave the way towards achievement. Process goals focus on the journey, the steps, and the habits necessary to reach our desired outcomes. Yet, setting and achieving these goals isn't solely about creating a to-do list; it's about cultivating the right mindset to navigate challenges, setbacks, and successes along the way.

How consonant is your leadership?

‘Cognitive dissonance’ is a term coined by psychologist Leon Festinger back in 1957 in his book A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. It refers to the discomfort that a person feels when there is misalignment between their behavior and their values or beliefs. It can also occur when a person holds two contradictory beliefs at the same time. In contrast, cognitive consonance exists when ideas logically flow from one another and are consistent.

For example, a person who considers himself orderly and cleans up after himself even when it’s not easy or convenient is in consonance with his beliefs. But if the same person leaves things around, his behavior is in dissonance with his self-identity.

How to Make You New Year's Resolutions Stick This Time

It’s that time of year again.

When we look at ourselves in the mirror and start berating ourselves.

“Why can’t you ever keep a resolution even for a single week?”

If you’re one of those, the good news - if you can call it that - is that you’re not alone.

How long do most people’s New Year's resolutions last?

Feeling stressed? Ask yourself this question.

A lot of the stress we experience is generated by the fear of the unknown. What I often do to control my own stress levels is I ask myself, "what's the worst that could happen?"

That's the cliff. ⛰️ I then start walking myself back from the cliff and reframing things.

Take the long, short road

Saturday night, I took the 'long' route home from post-Sabbath services

It's about 2 minutes longer than if I had used the shortcut

But because of heavy rain that fell just minutes before, the shortcut was muddy and treacherous

So, I decided to take the 'long" way home to save myself the possibility of slipping and soiling myself, which would have made the 'short' way 'long' (I hope you're following me on this)

Which, come to think of it, I've been doing for most of my life

I choose to see how I've succeeded, not how I've failed

Recently, a dental crown came loose.

It filled a gap from a tooth that I lost years ago due to neglect.

Root canal and all.

Back in the day, I would brush less frequently, drink soda, and view dental visits as things to avoid.

The result was that I lost a couple of teeth and had some others that needed much help to save.

Since then, my personal dental care has improved significantly.

And, thank God, I haven't even had a cavity in quite some time.

So, when it became clear that I needed to replace the crown (and went through the process of fitting for a new one,) it brought me back to that time when it seemed like I was in for a rude awakening every time I visited the dentist.

If you want to fix your results, fix your mind!

We went to work on the "gremlin" and started the process of flipping the script.

“𝙄 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙨𝙤 𝙨𝙪𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙨𝙪𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚.”

“𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙢𝙚 𝙣𝙤 𝙥𝙪𝙧𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙚.”

“𝙄𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙖𝙣 𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙢𝙮 𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙪𝙧𝙚, 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙩. 𝘿𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙤𝙣 𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣.”

From there, we moved into the core objective of the session.

Your behavior won't change until the way you see yourself does

In his book Atomic Habits, author James Clear explains why habits are so difficult to break.

It's because we tend to focus on surface-level actions.

Most people start by focusing on outcome-based goals like...

“I want to lose 20 pounds.”
“I want to write a best-selling book.”

But these are surface level changes.

How to disaster-proof your business and your life

Back in 2020, I conducted a series of conversations with leading thinkers, business experts and LinkedIn influencers. I wanted to learn what we could have done (and should now be doing moving forward) to get ourselves ready -- mentally and with our businesses and learning -- to better position ourselves for this (and future) disruption.

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