Kwik Brain Episode 29: "Goals Done RIGHT" with Olympian Dr. Jeff Spencer

Welcome to Quick Brain, bite-sized brain hacks for busy people who want to learn faster and achieve more. I'm your coach, Jim Kwik. Free your mind. Let's imagine if we could access 100% of our brain's capacity. I wasn't high, wasn't wired, just clear.

I knew what I needed to do and how to do it.

I know kung fu. Show me. Welcome back, Quick Brains. This episode I'm so excited about is All about goals. There's so many questions in our private Facebook group on this topic. How do you apply your mind to a goal? How do you achieve a goal? How do you even know if it's the right goal? And to help you on this journey, I want to introduce you to a dear, dear friend. He is the goal achievement expert, Olympian Dr. Jeff Spencer. Now, Jeff spoke years ago at our annual conference and he blew everyone's minds. He opened up Everybody's hearts, and he is the secret weapon behind countless Olympic gold medalists, rock stars, and the corner man that you want when you're in life's arena. Welcome, Jeff.

Well, Jim, a great big thank you.

I'm so excited about having you here. And so our community are achievers, right? They want to learn faster so they could achieve more, but how do they know what it is that they want to achieve? You hear a lot about— they don't teach you in school, much like they don't teach you creativity or thinking for yourself or focus, concentration, memory. They don't teach you this thing about how to set, how to achieve goals. How do you even know what it is that you really want? Because you can't hit a target that you can't see. And we hear these things about SMART goals. And let's unpack this a little bit. Where should we start?

Well, I think the first thing to recognize here is that when you talk about the championship space, performing at your best, most important priority is really goal clarity. You ask any champion, what's the most important thing? What's the starting point? What's the North Star? Where's the compass? It really all begins with goal clarity.

Yeah. And so when people want to set a goal, what should they go to? Like, where do they begin?

Well, I think there's a variety of different things. Number one, when we talk about goal clarity, we may have a lot of goals that we're really considering. For me, it's always best to expose your goal to a set of criteria that Challenges the goals against your assumptions. So there are no illusions about exactly what it is you're pursuing. And one of the important facts that's associated with goal clarity is that if you have a very special type of focus that I call gocus—

A gocus?

Yeah, you have gocus. So you have the ability to focus on those tasks that are in front of you that have to get done to move the needle forward. But that's like coned hyperfocus. But yet our field of gaze and our field of vision really is 280 degrees around us. So there's this other space of hyperfocus isn't really even considering. And so, when we're able to access that space around us, that's where revelations of better options show up. That's where slight nuances and corrections in our course and our goal definition itself. It's where blindsides are starting to form on the horizon. And if we have awareness of that, we can stay in the game and make consistently good choices and we can move the needle forward predictably and consistently.

I love that. And so, do you subscribe to— I mean, they've been teaching this for years, this SMART model. SMART goals: specific, measurable, action, realistic, time-bound.

Well, you know, actually, my space is the champion space. And there's one thing I do know about champions is that they're more interested in the right goal rather than a SMART goal. They just want to make it and have the assurance that they can put their whole mind, body, and soul behind something that has relevance, that's concrete, that they can actually believe in. And for sure, SMART goals may offer something, but the right goal is really the name of the game. And so there's actually a criteria that I've created for my clients that has worked very well for them that actually has the acronym RIGHT, R-I-G-H-T. And each one of those letters stands for a qualification or for criteria that we measure our goal against. So for example, the R in RIGHT stands for relevant. And it's like, is our goal relevant now for us in our life value and purpose? And is it right for the contribution that we're making? Yes or no? It's a great question to ask before we even get started.

And I encourage all the listeners here to actually do this with us.

100%. Absolutely. Get out your pen and paper. The R in RIGHT stands for relevant. And why is that important? Because our mind, body, and soul is actually looking at the goal that we're proposing. To actually pursue. And they're sort of thinking about this like, you know what, has this got enough intellectual meat for me as the intellect and the brain to buy into? Yes or no? And our body is saying, man, do I really want to do that? I'm kind of tired right now and you're asking me to do this? And the soul is saying, well, really, what's the outreach and the value beyond just you? And so everybody's sort of weighing in on this and they're deciding whether they're going to give the nod, yeah, this is the right goal, or not. Relevance plays a big role in that. Does it call us to our highest value? And does it allow us to make the contribution that our soul needs to be able to give us its vote that this is the right goal?

I like that. And then what about the I?

The I is for indicators. There have to be indicators of progress that demonstrate for us that progress is being made towards goal achieved. But why this is also relevant is that the mind, body, and soul hate ambiguity. And they love targets. And if you could put a target out there, then it's like a dog fetching a stick. It's going to go after it ferociously to defend your territory and support you to be able to make that happen. So there need to be clear indicators of progress. So for me, when I had aspirations of becoming Olympian, I needed to perform at the local level. I needed to go to the regional level. I needed to win at the state level. I needed to win at the national level. I needed to win the national championship. I needed to go and win the Olympic trials. That's how I became an Olympian. And I could tell you that my mind, body, and soul were completely behind me when I could identify those in advance because they had a target that they could commit to. The G in RIGHT stands for gravity. And this is where we have a gravity and attraction and a magnetism towards the goal. And the goal has an attraction and a magnetism towards us. It's almost as if the goal chooses us. And there's something within us that chooses the goal where we believe that we're a match that's Destined to create something of significance. Gravity is a big deal. The H in RIGHT stands for height. And in this instance, we mean, is there a certain altitude that is significant for us that awakens us to something that matches our capacity? Because if the goal is too low, we're going to fall asleep. The brain's going to reject it completely because it feels like we've turned our back on the brain. Our body will be insulted. Our soul can't buy into something that's less than we're calibrated towards. So there has to be— An An altitude of significance that has a resonance with those things that carries a certain value to us, that's a call to action that we can't turn our back on. We're almost drawn or compulsed to actually complete and pursue that goal itself. And the T in RIGHT is for time. And there's really 3 types of time that we need to consider while we're contemplating whether we should pursue the goal or not. And the first type of time is, is this really the right time to pursue it? Yes or no? without illusion, because it may be the right goal, but at the wrong time. And so, if it's the right goal at the right time, we have a certain internal green light. We don't feel any internal resistance or any ambivalence or any friction in the system or any guessing about whether we should or we shouldn't. We need to ask, do we have enough time to actually do this? And be really responsible about that, because what we don't want to do is start the pursuit of a goal and then stall prematurely because we really don't have the time to do it. It's better to make sure that we have at least enough to service it appropriately with respect and dignity. When we have that, then it's certainly a goal worth pursuing. And then the final type of time is, is the timeline from inception to completion in line with what works for our individualized, personalized circumstances? And so the benefit of this is that when we've gone through this assessment of goal against reality and against the impact of this, then we can really look at it. And if we buy into it because the evidence is there through the vetting of this, then we have the go-kiss that's necessary to be able to jumpstart the process and move forward with confidence and certainty.

So, Jeff, I love this model of the right goal and go-kiss. I'm actually— I got goosebumps. I call them truth bumps. And I think a lot of people suffer from this because I think that we could do anything, but we can't do everything. And one of the reasons why people are— they're quick-brained, they're they're stressed, they're overloaded, they're fatigued, is they're trying to juggle too many things, right? And they don't have a priority or a laser on this one target. So, this is a great filtering system. Can you give us an example of how you've used this with a client in the past and maybe we could use this as a filter system for people to go through?

Yeah. Great example, Jim, is I was talking to one of my stellar standout clients here, very busy guy, just off the charts. And, He had many different options in front of him that were all good choices. And so now what do we do? Because no matter what choice he made, someone was gonna be unhappy. And so we had to kind of go through an assessment of this. And I said, well, let's take every one of these opportunities here and let's run them through the filter of the right goal. And so we ran through that and then we could start to differentiate between those that really had the true merit that was appropriate, all things considered. And a couple of those were not candidates because they didn't meet the criteria perfectly. So they were not even considered. They were put into the garage. Or maybe a goal to be looked at later. And then some of them started to move into the foreground. So then we went through a second pass on it with the same questions, but when we go through it a second time, then we look at it differently. And so eventually what happened is that there were 2 or 3 contenders, and then we went through another pass through it. We didn't get too complicated on it. We went with our first impression of it. And then all of a sudden there was one that showed up that was the obvious choice, and he made the right choice, and it took him to a stratospheric level of personal achievement as a result of that.

That's fantastic. This is like Good to Great, right? It's like everyone has all these good options and good opportunities, but they have to say no to those things so they can say yes to the right one.

Yes, exactly right. I mean, you could define the goal and it could sound good, but the reality of it is, is that, is this correct for now? And does my mind, body, and soul buy into this? Because if it does, then it's a recipe for guaranteed success. And the idea is, is that let's become someone that's confident, that's able to consistently produce the goals with confidence that mean the most to us. And we can't just guess at it. That's not good enough anymore.

I like this episode because I always tell people this is more than a podcast. This is like an academy, right? This is, this is really like a workshop that we're doing right now.

It is the crucible, man.

Exactly. So there you have it, Kwik Brains. Dr. Jeff Spencer, some final words?

Yeah, do what the champions do. Choose the right brain that's right for you using the right goal criteria.

So here's what you do right now. I want everyone to go through the right goal criteria that Dr. Jeff Spencer outlined for you And what I want you to do is post on social media, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, what your current right goal is, and tag Dr. Jeff Spencer and myself so we can review it with you. Want to double your brain speed and memory power? If you'd like to learn rapidly and get ahead faster, I'd like to give you my brand new Kwik Brain Accelerator program. You will discover exactly what I teach my clients to learn, read, and remember anything in half the time. There is no charge. It's my gift to you for being one of our subscribers. That's kwikbrain.com, or simply text the word podcast to 916-822-7246 and we'll send you a direct link. That's 916-82-BRAIN. Growing up struggling with learning challenges from a childhood brain It's been my life's mission to help you have your very best brain so you can win more every single day. Now, want more Kwik Brain? Here are 4 ways to fast-track your results and lock in what you just learned into your long-term memory. Remember FAST. F-A-S-T. The F stands for Facebook. You're not alone on this journey. I invite you to join our free private online group. There you can connect with me, your fellow brain lovers, Links to resources, and even submit your questions for me to answer in future episodes. Go to quickbrain.com. That's K W I K brain dot com. The A stands for apply. Act on what you learned today. Remember, knowledge is not power; it's potential power. It only becomes power when you use it. So use what you just learned. The S stands for subscribe. Don't miss the next episode and other free. And finally, the T stands for teach. You want to learn faster now? The key is to lock it in right away by teaching it to someone else. When you teach something, you get to learn it twice. Here's a simple way to do that. Leave a review on iTunes. Leave a review with your biggest takeaway from this episode. You could also post and share this podcast on your social media. It helps us spread our mission of building better, happier people. That's right. Brighter brains. And of course, tag us so our team can properly thank you. #KwikBrain, K-W-I-K Brain. Mine is @JimKwik, K-W-I-K, on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. So what does FAST stand for? Facebook, Apply, Subscribe, Teach. I'll see you in our next episode of Kwik Brain. Until then, remember, you are faster and smarter than you think.