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How many times have you asked yourself about the goals you want to accomplish before you die? If not, why haven't you? Have you ever heard the quote "Carpe Diem" which means to seize the day. Or even enjoy being a kid while you can, because it goes by too fast. Well the Buried Life guys have, and according to them life moves fast, so we should slow down and enjoy it.

 

You might have met the Buried Life guys if you're a fan of any shows on MTV. It is likely that you have seen a trailer/shows for the TV show called The Buried Life. Meet Ben, Dave, Jonnie, Duncan, four guys who share the same ideas about life and the world around them.

These four guys were originally from the same town, and knew of each other; however it wasn't until 2006 when they discovered that they had the same goals and aspirations about their life, focusing on the question "What do you want to do before you die?" This question led to these four guys making a list of things they wanted to do before they died, starting out at 50 items. After making this first list, they set out on a journey to complete these tasks, and making a documentary of it. Along the way, they wanted to help others cross of things on their lists as well. On their first trip they were able to cross off 26 items on their list, and help 24 people. This led to the development of the list with 100 items on it, and the guys decided they did not want to put a quantity for the number of people they wanted to help, they just want to help as many people as they can. The Buried life eventually are going to making a film of their documentary of all of the 100 items they accomplish.

 

When talking about these guys, we have to go back to the basics of motivation which of course is goals. Their 100 item list is of course their goals. These goals come in a variety of skill level, some more difficult to achieve than others. Along with that, Ben, Dave, Jonnie, and Duncan all have high levels of the need for achievement. You can see this just by looking at how far they have come in achieving all of their goals. These guys first started out just talking about this journey in 2006, and its now 2010, and they have crossed off yet another item on their list "Making a badass TV show" with their show The Buried Life on MTV. Their ultimate goal consists of every item being checked off, and a documentary film to show it all. Along with their goals, they try to help others achieve a goal of theirs. With this, the Buried Life guys are gaining feedback from the people that they help. This feedback is obviously positive, and provides feelings of happiness, joy, and even feeling accomplished.

 

Although it appears that the Buried Life guys are just trying to complete a list just to be able to say they did those things, I think it is something a little more than that. Reeve (2009) talks about the six dimensions of psychological well-being, including self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. By pursuing these six dimensions, individuals are ultimately defining your concept of self. The Buried Life Guys are continuously working on many of these dimensions. While helping others along their journey to complete their lists of things to do before they die, the Buried Life Guys are establishing positive relations with other people. Not only that, they are networking, and establishing connections which benefit not only themselves, but also the people that they would like to help. It is evident that these four guys also have high levels of autonomy because they have chosen to take on these goals, and to go to great lengths to achieve them despite if others don't believe that they can. Overall, through everything the Buried Life guys are accomplishing, or going to accomplish, they are building and figuring their purpose in life, and have high levels of personal growth.  I'm not sure if the Buried Life Guys would agree, but I would say it seems like their purpose in life is to help others. It seems like they received a lot of joy and happiness out of it, and it helps them grow as a person as well.

Ben, Dave, Jonnie, and Duncan have motivated other people to make their own lists of goals to do before they die. The Buried Life has even influenced a networking site called The Buried Life Network. If you're interested in watching their show on MTV or just learning more about the Buried Life visit these two websites. http://www.theburiedlife.com or http://www.mtv.com/shows/buried_life/episodes.jhtml.

 

As Ben, Dave, Jonnie and Duncan state, if they ever come to your town, you better be ready to answer the question "What do you want to do before you die?"

I've always been interested in learning what motivates people to do things that would be considered extreme to the general population of that culture.  Why do people kill other people?  There are many different motivating factors that could answer that question.  But what kind of motivators are present for someone to kill another person they don't know and have no personal problem with?

I read an interesting article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100310/ts_csm/286499  about a US-born woman that is described as having become gradually radicalized by Islamic contacts through the internet.  She is a middle-aged American woman that had contact with Muslim extremists and was given an order to kill a man in Sweden.  She was preparing to do so when police got wind of the conspiracy and arrested her.  She agreed to marry a co-conspirator so he could travel more easily and have better access to travel in Europe, which is also an example of extreme behavior that doesn't have a blatant motivator. 

All of her actions seem without obvious motivation.  Religion doesn't seem to be the strongest motivator in this case because none of her comments mention God, converting to Islam, or anything that could be tied with extreme religious belifs.  The little I know about the incident from the article seems to me that she could possibly be motivated by a need for affiliation.  What I infer from the article is that she is a single, middle-aged woman with plenty of time on her hands to spend perusing the internet making contacts with Islamic extremists.  She might feel interpersonal rejection from her peers in her own culture, which is a typical fear of people with high needs for affiliation, and because she was unable to gain approval with people in her culture, sought approval elsewhere and via the internet. 

This woman also seems to display long-term goal setting behaviors.  All of this communication with extremists, planning, and marrying a co-conspirator was done over a period of time in order to achieve the goal of killing the man in Sweden.  These behaviors done before the long-term goal was reached were mini, short-term goals that would have provided enough reinforcement to keep her going with the end result, long-term goal in mind.  Constant communication and smaller steps to take before her desired result provided motivation to continue toward the goal.  It also helped internalize her goal to become more intrinsically motivated.  The article said: "In June, 2008, LaRose posted a comment on YouTube under the moniker "JihadJane" saying that she was "desperate to do something somehow to help" suffering Muslims, according to the indictment." which indicates that she was somehow intrinsically motivated toward extremist thinking to the point of plotting and intending to murder someone.

All of this seems to make sense with what we've been learning in class, but I'm still left wondering how all of these motivators and reinforcers could be enough to make someone intend to murder another person and having adopted these extremist views at a later age in life.  I would be able to understand it more from a motivational standpoint if she had been immersed in this culture and extreme thinking her whole life, but she was born in the US and adopted these views from internet communications.  It doesn't seem like enough motivation to commit murder.  But, perhaps this disturbing phenomenon is why the beginning of the article says how even experts are baffled by this sort of extreme behavior.

It may be a cliche activity post, but what a perfect time to find a goal for yourself than right now when you are learning about them in class!  I am sure if you are like most people you would have come up with some New Year's resolution, well how is it going?  Mine is not....at all!! Which is discouraging, but I know why.

It wasn't specific, I didn't have something I was reaching for.  I just said, I want to shed a few pounds and eat healthier foods.  What I didn't do is write it out and figure out HOW I was going to get there.  In our book on page 216 it shows the summary of the goal process.  I started out fine: goal - to eat healthy and shed a few pounds.  It was a difficult goal (for me) but was NOT specific.  From there it has dwindled down to excuse after excuse.  Has this ever happened to you??

If it has, or even if it hasn't lets use some knowledge we are learning and set a goal. 
Post this back as a comment, or you are more comfortable just jot it down in a notebook for yourself. 

What is your goal?
Now think, is it difficult AND specific?
Is this a long term goal or a short term goal?
How will you get to that goal?

My goal: stop twirling my hair
Difficult: check...very much so
Specific: check...see the how portion
This is a long term goal. 

How: I have tried to do this in the past and for a while it worked mostly because I was reinforcing myself. It is 4:43 right now, I want to make it through this blog without twirling my hair.  From there I can watch the clock like crazy and test myself in 30 min. increments..."have a twirled my hair?"  If I haven't it is gratifying and reward enough to keep going.  I set mini goals like: I want to make it through the rest of this class period without twirling my hair.  Or I want to read this page in my book without twirling my hair.  I write it down and will post it in a spot I see every day, multiple times a day. I will keep increasing the increments until I make it to days...and then weeks...and then a month..and two months...until six months...until a year...then I'll kick the habit!
So within my "how" there are mini goals.  And if each are positively reinforced I might just stop twirling. 

Sounds obtainable (so far I haven't even touched my hair).  I have heard that with bad habits there is a three day hump for quitting.  That could be the case but from previous attempts I found that when I lost social support and stress levels increased I gave in to the urge.  Also my reward system wasn't as effective.  Its a real bummer, but I am ready to try again. From reading this it might not sound specific enough (but some details are just left out because I could probably write a whole book on how I could just stop this habit). 

Reeve (2009) states "Planning how to carry out a goal allows the performer to overcome the inevitable volitional problems associated with goal-directed behavior." Goals are an important part of life.  Maybe not enough to qualify as a need, but I think goals can really direct you through life.  And it will create challenges and obstacles while trying to attain whatever your goal may be.

5:00 PM = 17 minutes twirl free!

In class the other day we were talking about how making lists is a great way to achieve goals, yet this could easily get out of hand. I was thinking recently about how if you don't set your goals right, then you won't be able to achieve them, for example lets talk about those New Years Resolutions, like the one you set stating you were going to go to the gym everyday? It almost seems as though with New Years resolutions, the goals we set for the year are far-fetched and don't seem to be reasonable, according to Why Setting Goals Don't Work!. This article continues to state that with New Years Resolutions, no real thought or planning is involved when setting these goals, so it is hard to follow through with them. In order to set proper goals you will need to take into consideration your beliefs and your values. After you understand these, then you will need to make a detailed goal and have a specific outcome. The article states that just saying something vague like "I want to be rich" is not good enough to be an actual goal. The article states that you should build from that and say something like "I want to earn $10,000 passive income per month from my online internet affiliate programs"

It is easy to see the difference between those two statements of goals. How you get from the first statement to the second is to ask yourself questions like "who, what, when, where, why and how?" One advice the article gives is that you should "Set a goal with end in mind." It is important to determine the outcome in order to figure out how you will get to the outcome. if you don't have an outcome, then you don't have anything to work towards.

I find that these things are quite easy to understand, for me at least. I am a big planner, and I do have goals for myself. For instance, right now my goal is to get this done before the deadline. I do have goals for my future, as in opening my own private practice, however there is many steps before I achieve that goal.

Overall just keep in mind that if you want your goals to work, know who you are, make sure you set your goal with the end in mind, and also prepare yourself that there will be challenges that will come along, its just apart of the goal.

What kind of goals do you have set for yourself? What kind of obstacles or challenges have you had to face in reaching your goal? Do you set well-defined goals, or very simplistic ones such as the New Years Resolution example?

This time in my life is incredibly critical. I'm about to graduate college with a degree in Psychology, and I have only a slight idea of what I plan to do hereafter. Because it is so important to map out my future life, I need to adhere to a strict goal setting regime. If goals are simply "whatever an individual is striving to accomplish", according to the textbook, then I at least have some idea (I often discredit myself). Anyway, my basic goal(s) is (are) to graduate college and eventually apply to graduate school and obtain at least a Masters degree. That seems reasonable, right? However, the steps that proceed are where I need some sort of encouragement or helpful guidelines to set my goals processes in motion. After searching Google for "goal setting programs" I came across this website, managed by Mind Tools, which offers several free tips and tricks to help emower someone to begin and to eventually achieve his or her goals. This page on the website lays out many helpful tips of advice. A short video accompanies the website, and in it the CEO explains some basic criteria before planning a goal. The video only touches on the main points that are described in greater detail on the actual webpage.

For this blog I will quickly run through what the people in the video say. Here are some of the important criteria one should follow when planning a goal (not in order of importance):

1) Use positive language when wording your goals

2) Prioritize your goals - this makes them more manageable and realistic

3) Set precise goals to measure achievements (discussed a little in class)

4) Make goals related to performance, not outcomes.

5) WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS (kind of a no-brainer, right?)

6) Set realistic goals 

I think the most important one that I have never thought of is # 4. A lot of times you cannot control your outcomes. But if you set your goals to your performance, you are more likely to retain control over your situation, because performance is mostly based on your own controllability and management. Unfortunately, I suffer from forgetting to write things down. If I have trouble with that simple task, then I feel like I have a long road ahead of me. Nevertheless, I am confident and optimistic about what lies ahead. In addition to the abovementioned tips, the website offers a helpful mnemonic device by which to remember your goal planning: SMART

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time-bounded

Besides the tips I mentioned above, are there other ways that you effectively set and accomplish your goals?

When I was in high school, specifically my junior and senior year, our football program hadn't made it to the playoffs in years.  We weren't the best team, especially my junior year.  Therefore, our team set a long-term goal to make the playoffs that year.  Specifically, we had a goal of winning five games that year in conference, which would allow us to compete in the playoffs.  That was our hoped-for ideal state of mind that year, a future, higher goal than in the past.  As we discussed in class, people who set goals outperform those without goals.  I think this is often mistakes coaches make when leading their teams.  They don't make it clear what their target goal is and what they want to accomplish.  Within the present status of our team, however, there existed a discrepancy (discrepancy creation) which helped provide a motivational basis for our actions. 

This wasn't an impossible goal, but the goal difficulty was enough (moderately difficult) to energize and increase our performance.  Each game provided the necessary feedback for our success and failures, helping determine how close or far we were from making the playoffs. With this feedback, our efforts were arguably enhanced as these specific short-term goals of winning a game energized our efforts, our persistence, and by directing attention and strategy.  This feedback of victories and defeats, or knowledge of results, allowed  us to keep progress of our results.

In the end, we accepted this goal, set extrinsically by the coaches even though many of the players were already intrinsically motivated to achieve this goal.  This goal really worked because game-by-game we were rewarded (or punished) based on the result of the football game.  They provided us each week a short term goal which, when repeated successfully, provide committment boosting opportunities for reinforcement.

In the article below,

 http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html

personal goal setting is expanded upon: 

 "Goal setting techniques are used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. They give you long-term vision and short-term motivation. They focus your acquisition of knowledge and help you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. By setting goals, you will also raise your self-confidence, as you recognize your ability and competence in achieving the goals that you have set."

 

It also has an interesting section on achieving more with focus within personal goals as well as lifetime goals, which is something I may expand upon more in future blogs.

I figured there is no time better than the present to touch of the drive and story of an Olympic athlete. I think we all know by now, being an Olympian takes much more than an occasional practice. Being an Olympian takes commitment, determination, drive, and natural ability. These athletes practice for hours on end. Then, when they are done, they go to sleep and wake up to do it all over again. Training is nothing less that extreme. Anything other than being the best is not acceptable, because no one goes to the Olympic games with out the desire to bring home gold. Every athlete dreams of being an Olympian, and every Olympian dreams of being recognized as the best... to be positively reinforces with a gold circle draped from their neck. 

http://tiny.cc/Z1L6O

This is a post from another blog but it caught my eye. When I hear about all of these easy ways to slim down, get rock hard abs, be healthy etc. it just makes me wonder why more people don't live healthier lifestyles.  Why don't I strive for that? I know personally I have created many excuses for not eating right and getting regular exercise.

Summed up, here are the 5 easy ways to stick to any exercise program out there:

1) Imagine your goal
2) Come up with a routine
3) Think of your past failures
4) Prepare yourself to feel like you are going no where
5) Change it up

So this will make you stick with any exercise program, do you think it will work with any person? (why or why not?)  What about these steps is going to make an exercise program stick?