Page 135 - Hard Goals

126 HARD Goals

So, what does this all mean? If you take the lessons of the
“Animated” chapter—animating and visualizing your goal,
making it come alive in your head—it’s a lot like the Subtracting
Condition in the pizza experiment. If you take mental owner-
ship of this goal in your mind’s eye—it’s yours, you own it—
then in response to any activity that tries to steal that goal from
you (whether it’s procrastination or something confl icting), your
brain is going to say, “I want my damn goal, get your butt into
gear! Stop doing that other thing that’s stealing time away from
my goal and get moving!”
So one way to make your goal really required is to make it
animated. When you bring the future into the present with an
incredibly vivid picture of your goal, your brain takes owner-
ship of it; it wants it right here, right now. It’s like outfl anking
the discounting of the future your brain would normally do.
And, just as with the pizza ingredients, your brain is going to be
willing to pay more to keep possession of that goal. Your brain
can touch, smell, feel, and taste that goal in your mental picture,
and now it’s willing to pay a much steeper price to keep it. If
you say to your brain, “Sorry, I was just teasing you with that
vivid picture, we’re not anywhere near the goal yet,” your brain
is going to say back to you, “Then get off your butt and start
working on that goal, because I tasted that pizza with peppers
and sausage, and now I want more.”

SUMMARY

Procrastination is the number one killer of HARD Goals. But
that doesn’t mean your goals have to be its next victim. You can