Goals and using non-conscious focus..
I recently read two PDF white paper studies on how goal setting can be done via an non-conscious effort and you will achieve the same result. I am still reading through it all but I found the way the hypothesis was proven to work through a series of experiments interesting.
The first experiment was done the following way:
The test was to see how many words within a word search puzzle the subjects could find within 10 min, they would all be primed in 3 ways.
- One group would be given goal setting words to over achieve subliminally, this was done via a word search puzzle they did when they first entered the room. (Non-Conscious Goal setting)
- One group would be given mundane words that had no relevance. (No Goals)
78 First Year psychology students (30 men, 48 women) where arranged into 2 groups.
- Group 1 – Was the Test group, this group would be first given a sample word search puzzle to do first before the actual puzzle, the first puzzle contained the following words: 6 neutral words (building, turtle, green, staple, lamp,plant) 7 Priming words (win, compete, succeed, strive, attain, achieve, and master).
- Group 2 – Was the neutral Group their sample words where: 13 neutral words (building, turtle, green, staple, lamp,plant, ranch, carpet, river, shampoo, robin, hat, and window)
The actual test puzzle contained three categories of words:
- foods (e.g., cake, peach, eggs, corn, cabbage)
- bugs (e.g., roach, mosquito, beetle, moth, butterfly)
- colours (e.g., red, purple, yellow, orange, tan)
These words were arranged at random to create the puzzles, each puzzle had 10 words from the selected groups. There is a lot of other things included to make the experiment not weighted but I won’t bore you with the details, at the end of the tests they crunched the numbers and found the following:
As predicted, the main effect of prime was reliable, F(1, 74) = 9.64, p = .003. High-performance-goal primed participants found a mean of 26.0 words, compared with a mean of 21.5 words for participants in the neutral priming condition. Neither the main effect for gender, F(1, 74) = 2.99, p = .09, nor the interaction, F( 1, 74) = 1.66,p = .20, attained significance.
That’s a direct quote, its very umm matthy, but the numbers that really interested me was the goal primed people found more words compared to the neutral primed people. The experiment has been repeated and the results are always in favour of the goal primed participates.
The question I find asking myself is, how can I use this fire and forget goal setting method for myself, well I have an idea of a way to do it, select the words that would make up the goal you want to achieve and read them to yourself each night for a week then forget about it and let your non-conscious mind do its work.. So no more re-reading your goal or being super focused on it, as your behaviours and actions will steer you in the right direction.
Well that’s my thought on the whole thing at this time, I will have to do some more research but its a start, less work same result, I like it.
This, in effect, was what I did to stop smoking.
I initially wrote out my goal “I will stop smoking and I will do so when my body tells me it is time and this time it will be for good” read it out to myself and then threw away the paper. I repeated the goal to myself a few times and then promptly forgot about it. That was at the end of November and by the end of January, I found myself lighting a cigarette, looking at it and butting it out. I just stopped. As you know, been free of them since … no relapses. I think it’s sort of like a form of subconscious priming that is utilised by a range of different techniques (NLP, LGATs, “The Secret”, etc) …
But they say that, the words don’t have to be gramaticly correct, just having the keywords there are enough to triggler the goal.. What they don’t say is how an individual can do it for themselves..