I have a goal! The science behind prioritising to gain control

Hello and welcome to my newsletter! If you’ve been forwarded this, please join our growing community at ‘Wellbeing that Works’ by subscribing here so that you receive future newsletters straight to your inbox ??

This week, I’ll be covering:

?? The state of affairs

?? What is the science behind 'goals' and how can we use it to our advantage?

?? Role models leading the charge on evidence-based wellbeing?

?? Where was I this month??

?? How you can work with me through engagements, communications, and being involved in creating a million new years of free time?

?? My nerdy audible listens on wellbeing

First up, here’s the state of affairs! ??

We all strive to achieve - it is a fundamental human psychological need called 'mastery'. Each year we start with grand ambitions about setting goals, and often find ourselves (in or around this mark), starting to lose momentum. If only we could begin to understand the relationship between not just setting goals, but keeping the motivation up to pursue them?

What should we know about goals in our lives? ?? ???

We can typically break down 'goal achievement' into three different pillars:

1. Task goals, which are the day-to-day 'have to' things we do. These are often enforced upon us and don't bring a sense of personal achievement. Much of our working world is in this stage, as we complete the tasks so we can get a wage.
2. Personal goals, which are the 'want to' goals we do because there is an intrinsic incentive to do so. This may be learning the piano, cooking a new recipe - whatever it is that has personal meaning and enjoyment for you. Many of us kickstart our year with new healthy habits, but often find ourselves redefining them as 'have to' task goals, as opposed to trying to redefine them as personal 'want to' goals - leading to the struggle at hand.
3. Somatic or Emotional goals, which are 'need to' goals we have when we experience an disequilibrium between our feelings or urges and the environment we're in. This can include the need to go to the bathroom, to eat, to sleep - but also includes those intense feelings or needing to step away from a situation or rest from a task. Another way of redefining this is that feeling that our brain is 'spent' and thus we have this 'somatic goal' to recharge (bet that sounds familiar).

Here is the thing - our task goals are highly disrupted by our personal and somatic goals???

So you go into work hoping to get all the tasks done on your checklist for the day - but that alone isn't going to help you achieve your daily task goals. Take this scenario. You have a yearning for a personal goal that you haven't fulfilled (e.g., travel the world), or you slept poorly the night before and have a lot of personal conflict in your life meaning your somatic goals aren't being fulfilled. In these situations, your ability to do you task goals is going to be negatively impacted.

Here is what happens in your work:

1. In order to complete a 'task goal' we increase our attentional focus and suppress the urges of the 'personal goal' and 'somatic goal'
2. This means our brain is exerting more energy in order to stay focused on the task at hand
3. All this results in increased demand on executive function to suppress anything novel (i.e., we end up being tunnel visioned), any conflicting thoughts (i.e., leading to bias), and anything emotional (i.e., we become a bit of an asshole who doesn't care about our colleagues)

We need to acknowledge the 'spillover' of our lives into our work and vice versa ??

We have a significant problem in our workforce, particularly as our world becomes more hyperconnected and hybrid. Finding the balance between completing our work goals, or maintaining our wellbeing has become increasingly challenging.

In the previous newsletter, we spoke about the science of coping - and how when an individual experiences a stressor in their work, they go through an evaluation, identifying the implication of the stressor on both the goal and their wellbeing. Thereafter, if perceived as a threat, active or passive coping strategies will be employed. The subsequent behavioural outcomes will determine for the individual whether they preserve the task or themselves. The individual will either:

1. Increase effort to support task/cognitive goals = increasing effects on bodily and emotional states but maintaining performance
2. Neglect task/cognitive goal in order to preserve wellbeing = reducing effects on bodily and emotional states but leading to performance decrement

Research has found that work influences our life, and vice versa - in what we refer to as 'spillover theory' . With that in mind, we need to stop segmenting our 'work' and our 'lives' because they are deeply integrated. When I started to embrace this, I realised that if I want to perform well, I need to start fulfilling all my 'goals' - not just the ones in work.

Time to make 'personal' and 'somatic' goals equally important in our lives ??

For decades, the narrative has been that we must sacrifice ourselves in the name of work i.e., ‘successful task goals above personal and somatic goal'.

But we also know, we're all burning out.

Given that, we need to put personal goals to the forefront if we have any hope of surviving in the world of work. One barrier to this, is we know that personal goals must be something that is intrinsically motivating - and we're not very good at understanding what motivates us in the first place.

Living in a world today that demands us to conform to a particular ideal of what success looks like, we’ve gradually eroded the importance of personal goals in our lives. Social media, amongst other things, has crafted the narrative that 'personal goals' are things like fame or fortune - but all evidence shows us that this doesn't lead to longer term happiness.

Positively, an emerging science around wellbeing economics shows that such a philosophy is outdated and will not carry us into building a more resilient and sustainable economy and society. By actually taking time to learn that new instrument, meet your friends, take more rest from your work - you stand to benefit in building more sustainable high performance in all aspects of your life.

In the coming year, let's shift away from the belief that work conquers all. Instead, let's recognise that prioritising our own interests doesn't mean compromising ourselves; rather, it leads to the creation of a better version of who we are.

Who do I think of as role models in the space of wellbeing???

The team at Work Time Reduction Research Network who are making the evidence base for why a 4 Day Week is better for all.

A big shoutout to two legends in the field who have released books on the science of wellbeing this month - Ryan Hopkins and Karen Gugenheim .

Finally, as always all of the team and advocates at 4 Day Week - Global ! 2024 is the year of the 4 Day Week Want to get involved? We're launched our Foundation Programme - so you too can learn more about how to change the world, creating one new free year at a time.

Where can you catch me this week? ??

Catch me in some podcasts and articles this month including Welcome to the Jungle , Forbes Spain , 'Work-life balance' and All.work Space.

Work with me! ??

I’m trying to start the conversation around wellbeing interventions that work. According to high quality research from Wellbeing Research Centre at University of Oxford organisations are investing more money on wellbeing interventions than ever, and struggling to move the dial. Window shopping wellness is having a negative impact on our workforce, and it is time to follow the science. Help me build that conversation by working with me:?

• Have me speak at your next event or conference
• Bring me in to run a workshop session with your employees around evidence-based wellbeing interventions
• Join our growing movement at 4 Day Week - Global as we build a million new years of free time
• Educate your talent team about wellbeing and start with bottom-up designed interventions
• Sponsor my newsletter and reach thousands of likeminded people
• Connect about sponsored posts and influencer opportunities

If you’re interested in any of these, please DM me via LinkedIn or reach out at [email protected] .?

I’m an audible nerd - so here is this weeks book recommendations ??

Two books this month... drum roll ...

52 Weeks of Wellbeing by Ryan Hopkins

Cultivating Happiness by Karen Gugenheim

Till next time ??,