1. Getting to know yourself
In planning and setting goals, it is important to set priorities. To get to it, it is worth understanding yourself and your predisposition. Often they are the trigger for action. This also happened during the mentoring collaboration: mentee Ani Cenguujav and mentor Henryk Stawicki, who were guests of our podcast Design Mentorship.
Recognizing and understanding your strengths can be a real breakthrough. For Ani, the discovery of her innate abilities and passions transformed her goals and aspirations. She began to look at opportunities to grow in business and design in a whole new way, more in line with her true nature. It's a bit like a designer who discovers a new technique or tool that completely changes his approach to work.
“When you discover your true strengths, everything suddenly starts to make sense.” Anna said in a podcast.
A key moment for Ani was the meeting with Julia Lenarczyk — a certified Gallup strengths coach. This meeting allowed her to introspect more deeply and understand her strengths. The consultation became a turning point for her, forcing her to rethink her mentoring and career path.
“Meeting Julia opened my eyes to who I really am and what I want to do.”
Question: Do you know your strengths and predispositions?
2. Focus on the verb - Effort process
We often admit to ourselves that we want to be “someone”. Richer, healthier, slimmer or do we want to be better designers/employees/bosses... However, this term does not show us exactly what we have to do, what to do. Therefore, it is useful to use a “verb” not an “adjective” or a “noun” and focus on the behavior/action that we should perform and that will bring us closer to achieving the goal.
Focusing on action prepares us for the environment in which we would like to be. Goals are mostly shrouded in positive aspects, however, action and learning are associated with the fact that we are wrong, we make mistakes and above all we draw conclusions and move on. Our brain assimilates information better when it requires even a small effort from us. It is known that he strives for pleasure and avoiding overload, however, in order to possess this knowledge, it is worth sometimes to “bend” a little:)
In addition, cognitive bias creeps in as Planning Fallacy, where, when planning, people underestimate the resources needed to achieve their goals (such as time or level of commitment).
Question: Does your goal take into account the activities that you will carry out on the way to realization?
3. Measuring
This is something that has always puzzled me. We have SMART methods to set goals, however if we enter a new area, we acquire knowledge that is still alien to us, how are we supposed to measure how much time we need? All the more so since in our nature the planning error that was mentioned above is very popular.
An indispensable help is the support of a Mentor who is aware of how long a given issue can take or is able to prepare a plan divided into stages.
Small steps are not only important for our motivation (we reach a certain stage faster), but also after each step we can verify that we are going in the right direction.
“Any work can be done if it is divided into small sections.” — Abraham Lincoln
People prefer to see broken goals because it gives a sense of progress (goals gradient) .It is worth taking care of the time, that is, breaking it down into weeks, days and hours and determining how much time we need to complete a specific task. Let's not forget that feedback is one of the most important components of healthy development.
Question: Do you verify your goal after the planned stages?
4. Intrinsic dopamine
We like rewards, especially when we do work that is challenging for us. They can be functional or hedonistic, emotional. We value a good word, support and appreciation. Not only at the end of the stage, but also along the way it can be motivating for us. The fact that we have made progress is that we are on the right track.
Mentoring support is invaluable here to strengthen positive emotions, but also to motivate further actions.
Question: How do you strengthen yourself while pursuing a goal?
5. Cognitive biases
During development, our nature shows us that the plan can be put to the test many times by the cognitive errors that are our day to day. And these are some of them that we come across when setting a goal and planning:
Present Bias
People assign an unrealistically high value to the here and now and an unrealistically low future. As a result, people prefer rewards that come earlier than rewards that come later.
Self-control
People usually find it difficult to postpone gratification: it is difficult to choose to do something that is good for us in the future, at the expense of doing what is good in the moment.
Reward Substitution
People can be motivated to work toward a distant, long-term goal by rewarding related, immediate behavior.
Goals Gradient
People prefer to see broken goals because it gives a sense of progress. Goal gradients also allow you to miss a hit, an effect in which getting close to the target still provides some enjoyment.
Task Completion Effect
People will work harder and accelerate their behavior to achieve a goal as they get closer to achieving it.
Planning Fallacy
When planning, people underestimate the resources needed to achieve their goals (such as time or level of commitment).
Random Reward Scheduling
People are very engaged and react very strongly when they receive random support (for example, when playing a slot machine), which is a technique often found in gaming.
Intention Action Gap
The difference between what people say they are going to do and what they actually do.
Change is an integral part of life, design and mentoring. Although they may be difficult, they offer us new perspectives and opportunities. With support and adaptability, we can survive these changes and become stronger. The story of Ani and Henry shows that the real strength lies in the ability to accept change and be flexible.
As Anna summed up:
“It's not about where you start, but how you adapt and grow in response to challenges.”
“A mentor is someone who not only teaches, but also listens and adapts.” — Henryk Stawicki
It is worth setting goals and planning, but the path we have to overcome requires us to be attentive and flexible. Not only can it bring us closer to achieving our success, but also check that the effort given will be a pleasure for us and that we will derive satisfaction from the action.
Link to the podcast with Ania and Henry:
