Rules for achieving goals

In both the sports and business arenas, brain mechanisms are deeply associated with the achievement of one’s goals. One basis for human abilities is rules for goal achievement. The effect that these rules can have was demonstrated by the Japan National Swimming Team’s gold medal-winning performances at the Beijing Olympics.

Human talent is just like a ball on a slope; it rolls down if nothing is done, and rolls up if sufficient efforts are made. However, the fact remains that some people cannot reach their goals even when they make efforts, while others always succeed in achieving their goals. The difference between them is brain function.

For example, even if you declare to yourself, “I am going to get a gold medal,” it is still unclear how this gold medal can be achieved, and your brain cannot go into action. Moreover, there is a possibility of negative ideas entering your mind simultaneously, such as “Maybe I will fail.” This activates one of the basic human instincts of self-preservation, which causes you to seek an excuse for failure; and distracted, your brain will not be able to fully demonstrate its ability.

In short, to achieve your targets, first you have to make it clear how to do this and set up realistic goals. Once your goals are clearly set and you start concentrating on them, your brain reveals its amazing power.

Here, the point is the method of achievement. You have to focus on the process of achievement itself, rather than simply questioning whether you can achieve your goals or not. In sports, athletes should compete not simply to win or lose, but should focus on the method for winning. Those who compete from such a point of view will not be satisfied with their victory, nor even think they have won, unless they have done it in a convincing way. Learning from their experiences, the next time they win, they can achieve a larger goal.

In line with this, I was always telling the Olympic athletes to focus not on merely winning or losing, but on the method of winning, which should be a method that leaves an impression on everyone.

Sprint towards your goal full of energy

Both in business and sport, it is useless to say “I will do my best.” Those who say this do not suffer even if they fail due to a lack of realistic goals.

Once a goal is clearly established, you have to concentrate all your energies towards it without pursuing your own interests. Humans are so clever that we always seek self-benefit, but as long as you seek self-benefit, your instinct for self-preservation dominates, leading you to a wait-and-see attitude to find an easier and safer way of approaching things. This hinders you from making full use of your brain. Your brain demonstrates its enormous power only when you concentrate on your goal without seeking self-benefit.

Another important point is, when you try to achieve a goal, you have to make a dash for it instead of practicing a step-by-step or little-by-little approach. If you take too much time, negative ideas, such as “It’s too difficult” and “I’m afraid I’ll fail” can surface and affect your concentration on the goal. Once you have established a goal, you have to make a dash for it as you aim for a breakthrough.

During a training camp in the USA after the Japanese athletes for the Beijing Olympics had been selected, the Japan National Swimming Team had originally planned to train temporally at a slow pace to recover as is their usual practice, shaping up gradually towards Beijing. However, even despite the good condition of the brain after a rest, it is difficult for it to recondition itself after a rest. Similarly, in the area of business, if you take a week-long holiday while at your peak condition, you may take months to return to that condition.

Based on this idea, I advised the athletes to concentrate on their goal without interruption until it was reached and refrain from negative expressions during training sessions; for example, “I can’t,” “I don’t want to,” and “It’s impossible,” which might disturb their concentration.

Brain for achievement, brain for failure

There are two brain types, “brains for achievement” and “brains for failure.” The difference between these types is how the self-rewarding nervous system functions. A reward for the brain is a feeling of achievement, gained after accomplishing one’s goal. The things you have done as instructed by your boss cannot be a reward for your brain, because they are not accompanied by such a feeling. However, if your boss only gives you advice on a task, allowing you to act and carry it out according to your own ideas, you can gain a pleasant feeling of achievement, and from then on will always ask yourself to seek out ideas in pursuit of that feeling.

It might be efficient to work according to the manual, but your ability to develop ideas is reduced if you are bound to obey other people’s directions. To prevent this, you have to adopt the habit of reviewing things in your mind; for example, “The manual says to do it like this, but I would do it in a different way.”

The self-rewarding nervous system’s ability to achieve goals can be nurtured through daily habits. There are four useful habits for achievement:

1) Acting based on your own ideas
2) Concentrating on realistic goals rather than objectives
3) Giving more importance to the process than the result
4) Accomplishing goals within a set period

In contrast, the following four items are bad habits for the brain:

1) The inability to act without instruction from another
2) Doing things by half-measures
3) Being unable to confess mistakes or express weakness frankly
4) Approaching a task little-by-little with a wait-and-see attitude

A little-by-little approach might be better than doing nothing, but the following four points are key to achievement:

1) Establish goals and accomplish them on your own
2) Stay focused until achievement
3) Focus on the process of achievement
4) Sprint towards the goal based on the conditions within the set period

Next time, I will explain about the relationship between brain functions and the creation of a “brain for victory” to succeed in breaking through your wall and achieving your goal.

(Interview held on April 14, 2010)