Since early childhood, I have lacked the focus to complete almost any task. I was later diagnosed as having ADHD. Well, it’s lovely to know there is a name for my issue, at the end of the day, it does little to help me get to the completion of the final goal. I have long since learned that there are systems to allow people to reach their goals, in fact, to go a step further even build habits. The problem is that people don’t naturally like to do things for the sake of doing them, and complicated systems such as index cards and journals can sometimes make it difficult to actually adhere to the plan.
This is not an original idea. I openly admit that many people have referenced this process several times through my research. I just gave it a name and tried to simplify an already simple process. By having items you can look at that are relevant to your goal, your mind can create an anchor to the activity, which will make it easier to associate the outcome with a positive activity. Therefore, I recommend you buy goal tokens or make your own, with pictures or affirmations that will help encourage you to reach your goal
What is a goal token?
A goal token is an item that will allow you to acknowledge you are moving in the direction of your goal. You can purchase actual goal tokens, or just use plain old coins. A goal token, 1 Dollar coin, 1/2 Dollar coin, or a washer does best because you most likely won’t get it confused with your regular coins. I’ve seen people use small plastic characters and many other small tokens that will work fine for tokens. If you really want to ramp it up, get DIY goal token kits, or go to a local craft store and put images and affirmations onto to the token that moves you toward your final goal. For example, Great Job!!! or Healthy Decision, or even a dollar sign if your goal is to sell more product. However, I personally recommend matching your goal to your actual purpose, not a financial outcome, but that’s for another blog entry.
How do you use them?
I have a strong belief in associating positive physical movements and emotions with good behavior. This I believe is why the goal tokens work. Your subconscious will associate the positive emotions with the activity. Humans in my experience don’t like pain. It is directly associated with the fear of pain, more so than the actual pain. Although it is no longer endorsed by society, in the 70’s I was spanked when I did things wrong. I was actually more scared of getting spanked then the actual event of being spanked. I strongly believe this carried into my adult life. Therefore, the association of fear (which is one of the two most powerful emotions) with an activity you wish to quit or avoid you can signal the subconscious to avoid the activity, and trick the body’s self-defense mechanisms to stop doing the activity altogether. The association with the fear of the pain with the activity seems to re-enforce the avoidance of the behavior.
So since the mind is now conditioned to avoid fear, it will also try to avoid the fear of change. It leaves an option for the pain of a change to certainty. Therefore it’s easier and more conformable to do exactly what you’ve always done. What got you this far won’t get you the rest of the race. So how does the con come into play? When you do a small piece of your overall goal or a small act that moves you closer to your goal you move the coin from one pocket to another. When you use these the physical act of moving the coins from one pocket to the other is a form of positive re-enforcement. Not different from a child getting praise for doing something right. Once you move your total goal IE. 10 tokens, do something big and special just for you. Plan the prize and goal ahead of time. Do not put it off or skip the reward. It’s best to do it within one hour of moving the last coin, the sooner, the better. The more emotionally happy it makes you, the stronger the wish to do it again, and the stronger the habit will be formed.
Now to do it!!!
If you’re trying to lose weight, I recommend focusing on being healthy and hanging out with healthy people. So to create a condition to drink water, moving a goal token every time you take a sip, and after a specific number of tokens 10 or 20, you can eat an apple or grape or scratch another box of the scratch-off ticket. It seems silly, but your brain will continue to strengthen your will to do the activities. If your curious research Myelin, it’s interesting.
I have a friend that wanted to keep a clean desk. So every time she put a piece of paper away, she used hash marks. After every five hash marks, she took a sip of her drink. After 100 hash marks, she went to lunch. Now to the outsider, this may seem silly or odd. But as kids, we were rewarded for our activities. Why shouldn’t we be rewarded now? Why is it that we think that positive reward no longer works. I was once told by someone that I love dearly and have a great deal of respect for that now that I’m an adult I shouldn’t need rewards to inspire me to complete my responsibilities.
Are Goal Tokens For you?
I’m not claiming to be psychic, but I guess that since you are reading this, you are not doing a fantastic job of reaching your current goals. That being said, what do you have to lose by trying this. In fact, I’m guessing you’ll have an epic conversation topic for someone who sees you using them. I know it may seem silly, but tools like this one have helped people to create habits. The key is to do it so long that you feel weird not using them. By the time the ritual seems like it should be part of your daily process, you may also have the complementary habit. If not just keep pulling them out and using them again. Once you achieve your desired outcome, you can also anchor additional goals and habits to the one you have already created by using the tokens again.
For really amazing results, I recommend using a journal and keeping track of how many tokens you moved, what the goals were and what the achievements and outcomes are. Reading the entire journal once a week will help re-enforce the new habit or activity, which will increase the chances of success. If this seems like too much work, then odds have it that you never intended to succeed at your claimed desired outcome.