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Emily Balcetis on How to Focus and Accomplish Goals

Jan 11, 2022

Emily Balcetis, an Associate Professor of Psychology at NYU and an acclaimed author, dives into the psychology of goal achievement. She shares insights from her book, highlighting four crucial tools for accomplishing goals and the importance of tracking progress. Emily emphasizes that our perceptions of progress can be misleading and discusses strategies to connect our present selves with our future aspirations. The conversation also touches on the power of visualizing goals and the role of environmental cues in motivating action.

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ANECDOTE

Drumming as a Personal Conquest

Emily Balcetis, driven by a lifelong love for music, decided to learn drums amidst a busy life with a newborn.
Living in a small NYC apartment, she saw drumming as a personal challenge and a way to reconnect with her artistic side.

ADVICE

Four Tools for Accomplishing Goals

Materialize abstract goals, narrow your focus, widen your perspective when needed, and frame your environment.
These four tools help achieve goals by managing focus and perspective.

INSIGHT

The Faulty Brain

Relying solely on memory to track progress is unreliable due to inherent biases.
Our brains tend to overemphasize negative experiences, distorting our perception of progress.

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Emily Balcetis is an Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University. She is the author of more than 70 scientific publications and her work has been covered in Forbes, Newsweek, Time, National Public Radio, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and many others. She has also received numerous awards for her work.

Eric and Emily discuss her book, Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World

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Emily Balcetis and I Discuss How to Focus and Accomplish Goals and…

Her book, Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World
Her decision to tackle learning to play drums
The four tools of accomplishing a goal
What it means to materialize a goal
How our brains can’t be trusted to accurately assess our progress toward our goal
The importance of writing down and tracking progress
Figuring out what we want to accomplish AND creating a plan of action
Foreshadowing obstacles that might get in our way and how you’ll deal with them increases your chances of success
The value of narrowing your focus of attention
How time is a big determinant of what goals we set and whether we reach those goals
Finding ways to connect your current self with your future self can make it easier to make tougher choices that lead to better outcomes later
How it sometimes makes sense to have a “wide bracket” or broader perspective
The power of framing and how what we see predicts what we do

Emily Balcetis Links:

Emily Balcetis

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If you enjoyed this conversation with Emily Balcetis, you might also enjoy these other episodes:

How to Change with Katy Milkman

Behavior Change with John Norcross

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