Shadowing Practice: How to Set & Achieve Goals | Huberman Lab Essentials - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most potent and actionable science-based tools for mental health,
2
physical health, and performance.
3
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.
4
Today, we're talking all about goals and the science of goal setting and achieving your goals.
5
So when we think about goal seeking and the pursuit of goals of any kind in the brain, It doesn't matter what the goal is.
6
It involves a common set of neural circuits.
7
One of the brain areas is the so-called amygdala.
8
The amygdala is most often associated with fear.
9
So you might say, wow, how is that involved in goal-directed behavior?
10
Well, a lot of our goal-directed behavior is to avoid punishments, including things like embarrassment or financial ruin or things of that sort.
11
And so the amygdala and some sense of anxiety
12
or fear is actually built in to the circuits that generate goal seeking and our motivation to pursue goals.
13
The other areas are the so-called ventral striatum.
14
The striatum is part of what's called the basal ganglia.
15
The basal ganglia is a neural circuit that can very simply be described as a neural circuit that helps us generate go,
16
meaning the initiation of action and no go, the prevention of action type scenarios.
17
Let me make that even simpler.
18
The ventral striatum is part of this thing called the basal ganglia the basal ganglia has sort of two circuits within it.
19
One circuit is involved in getting us to do things.
20
Like I'm going to get up tomorrow and I'm going to run five miles first thing in the morning.
21
I don't know if I'm actually going to do that, but I'm just using that as an example.
22
Another circuit within the basal ganglia is a no-go circuit.
23
It's the one that says, no, I'm not going to go for the second cookie or the third cookie.
24
I'm not going to eat that.
25
And then the go circuit would be the one that's responsible for instead eating something else.
26
Okay, so we have go and no-go circuits within the basal ganglia.
27
So we've got amygdala, so think of as kind of fear and anxiety and avoidance.
28
We've got the basal ganglia, which are for initiating action and preventing action.
29
And then there is the so-called cortex.
30
The cortex is the outer shell of the brain
31
and there are two sub-regions of the cortex that are involved in goal-directed behavior.
32
One is the lateral prefrontal cortex.
33
Prefrontal cortex is involved in so-called executive function, things like planning, thinking about things under different timescales, so not just what we want in the immediate term,
34
at what we might want tomorrow or the next day
35
and how our actions currently are going to relate to the future and the so-called orbitofrontal cortex.
36
Orbitofrontal cortex has a large number of functions, but one of the key functions of the orbitofrontal cortex,
37
it's involved in meshing some emotionality with our current state of progress
38
and comparing that emotionality to where it might be when we are closer to a goal, okay?
39
So there are basically four areas, one involved in anxiety, one involved in emotion,
40
one involved in planning, and another involved in this go, no-go action, okay?
41
If we want to make this even simpler, I'll just do this one more time.
42
Think anxiety and fear, it's the amygdala.
43
The second is involved in action and inaction.
44
Remember, go and no-go, so that's the basal ganglia.
45
The other one is involved in planning and thinking across different timescales, so that's lateral prefrontal cortex.
46
And then the fourth one is involved in emotionality,
47
where we sit emotionally at present compared to where we think we will be emotionally when we reach some particular goal.
48
And that's the orbitofrontal cortex.
49
What is going on in these circuits can basically be boiled down to two particular things.
50
The first is value information, trying to understand whether or not something is really worth pursuing or not.
51
The other component of this neural circuit is associated with action, which actions to take and which actions not to take,
52
given the value of a particular goal in a given moment's time.
53
You're going to hear me say over and over again in this episode, the value information about a goal is so key.
54
Here's why.
55
There is basically one neurotransmitter or rather neuromodulator system that governs our goal setting, goal assessment and goal pursuit.
56
And that is the neuromodulator dopamine.
57
Dopamine is the common currency by which we assess our progress toward particular things of particular value.
58
In fact, dopamine is the way that we assess value of our pursuits.
59
There are basically only three or four elements to goal setting and goal pursuit.
60
Basically, an individual or set of individuals has to identify a specific thing that they're going to attain,
61
assessment of whether or not one is making progress towards those goals is a second but necessary step.
62
And then there's the business of goal execution.
63
And that brings us back to the neural circuit components.
64
Remember, this neural circuit involving those four things earlier, the amygdala striatum over frontal cortex and the prefrontal cortex,
65
they work together to divide the whole process, as I mentioned before, into two general categories.
66
The first is assessing value, knowing whether or not where one is at one given moment relates to some external thing.
67
Are things going well or are things going poorly?
68
And knowing how to gauge that accurately.
69
And then action steps, goes and no-goes.
70
Do more of this, do less of that.
71
Do this, don't do that, et cetera.
72
So now we are going to shift back to the neuroscience.
73
And as we do this, I'd like you to keep in mind, what are some things that you've either accomplished or that you'd like to accomplish going forward?
74
Because as we do this, we can build toward a set of protocols that at the end, you'll be able to very quickly plug in your particular goals
75
and a route to those particular goals that's grounded in the science
76
and I think are going to be very effective in allowing you to reach those goals more quickly
77
and with indeed less effort.
78
In fact, let's start with a tool now.
79
The first thing to do is to understand the difference between peripersonal space and extra personal space.
80
Peripersonal space is a key concept in neuroscience
81
because you have particular neural circuits and particular chemicals that are geared toward what are called consumatory behaviors,
82
meaning using things and consuming things and enjoying things that are in your immediate peripersonal space.
83
Within my current peripersonal space is my interoception, my understanding or perception of my internal body.
84
So how quickly I'm breathing, my heart rate, the feelings on the surface of my skin, et cetera.
85
But also within the confines of my peripersonal space is this coffee mug that if you're listening to this, you can't see this, but I'm lifting up a coffee mug.
86
I'm going to take a sip of coffee.
87
That's a consumatory behavior.
88
I have the coffee.
89
I don't have to do much or motivate much to get it.
90
Contrast that with the so-called extra personal space.
91
Extra personal space is everything beyond the confines of my reach.
92
How we feel about a particular goal is truly a feeling that we experience in the here and now, even though the goal is in the future.
93
Okay.
94
If we are going to evaluate whether or not we made progress today or yesterday or not,
95
that's an evaluation of how we feel in the immediate peripersonal space.
96
However, moving toward any goal involves orienting our thinking towards the extra personal space.
97
I'm just going to seed a little bit of the later conversation by saying that when we focus on an external point, we are in a process of extra reception.
98
It's the focus on the extra personal space, not the peripersonal space.
99
Work at NYU, in particular in the laboratory of a phenomenal researcher in their psychology department by the name of Emily Balsetis,
100
B-A-L-C-E-T-I-S, Emily Balsetis has done really nice work on this.
101
They've done is they've had people focus their visual attention on a goal line of some sort,
102
and then to engage in some sort of behavior that requires a lot of effort.
103
The long and short of these studies is that when people have to focus their attention on one location, like a goal line, they are much more effective in reaching those goals
104
and they achieve them with the perception that they expended less effort.
105
And what they did is they had a group of people exercise wearing 15 pound ankle weights,
106
and they had to basically move a certain distance or run a certain distance to reach a goal line.
107
One group was focused on the goal line, visually focused on the goal line.
108
The other group was not told to visually focus on the goal line.
109
And what they found was that the group
110
that focused on the goal line was able to achieve reaching that goal with 17% less effort,
111
and it got there 23% quicker out there 23% quicker.
112
Simply by looking at the goal line does something to the psychology
113
and physiology of these people that allows them to move forward with less perceived effort and to do it more quickly.
114
So what is special about focusing one's visual attention at a given location?
115
Well, it turns out that we have two branches of our visual system.
116
So visual information all comes in through our eyes, but then it can head down two different pathways.
117
One pathway is engaged when our vision is brought a common point, what we call a vergence eye movement.
118
So if we're focusing very intensely on a given point, regardless of how far away from us that point is, our visual system engages a certain set of neurons,
119
neural circuits that are involved in resolving fine detail and that can evaluate small changes over small periods of time.
120
The other pathway through the visual system is a so-called magnocellular pathway.
121
And this is a pathway that's involved in taking in global information about lots of things that are happening around us, movement of things to our right, movement of things to our left,
122
things that are happening down on the ground and all around us.
123
And that pathway involves a sort of relaxation, if you will, of the neural circuits that are associated with alertness and attention.
124
When you focus your eyes on a particular location, blood pressure goes up, and there are some other systems
125
that are coordinated with it in your brain and body that start releasing adrenaline, low amounts of adrenaline in most cases,
126
and that adrenaline further readies your body for action.
127
Conversely, when our visual system is in a mode of looking at everything, when the aperture of our visual system is very broad,
128
we know that there's also a reduction in our goal-directed behavior and a reduction in blood pressure.
129
What many of you are probably thinking is, okay, well, that's some physiology, there's some psychology, but how do you actually apply this towards setting and achieving goals?
130
Well, you do that by understanding that your mental frame and your attention are always either positioned to your peripersonal space,
131
focused on your immediate possessions and state, or towards things outside you, but that you also have the ability to dynamically travel back and forth between those.
132
If you already know what goal you want to pursue, maybe it's a workout, maybe it's cognitive work of some particular sort.
133
Again, the process is very simple.
134
You're going to focus your visual attention on one point beyond your peripersonal space.
135
So it could be on your computer, it could be on the wall, it could be a horizon, that could be at a distance.
136
And you're going to focus your visual attention there.
137
And with some effort, you're going to hold your visual attention for 30 to 60 seconds.
138
You might blink, that's okay, but you're going to try and hold your visual attention there.
139
So no moving your head around, no diverting your attention to other locations.
140
Again, it places your brain and body into a state of readiness.
141
And then the idea is to move into the particular actions that bring you closer to your goal.
142
Okay, we haven't yet talked about how to set goals and how to assess progress.
143
This is simply how to pursue goals, okay? but the visual component is important.
144
In fact, I would argue that the visual system
145
and harnessing your visual attention to a narrow point is going
146
to be the most effective way to get your brain
147
and body into a mode of action to pursue whatever goal it is you're trying to pursue.
148
So does visualization work?
149
Well, turns out that visualization of the big win, the end goal, so the Super Bowl win, or eight gold medals in the Olympics,
150
or graduation from the university of your choice, or making a certain amount of money, or finding the partner of your choice, et cetera.
151
That visualization is effective in getting the goal pursuit process started,
152
but it actually is a pretty lousy and maybe even counterproductive way of maintaining pursuit of that goal.
153
In fact, there's a much better way to maintain ongoing action toward a goal that also involves visualization,
154
but it turns out it's not about visualizing success, it's about visualizing failure.
155
If you look at the literature, the scientific literature, there's a near doubling,
156
near doubling, in the probability of reaching one's goal if you focus routinely on foreshadowing failure.
157
You think about the ways in which things could fail if you take action A or you take action B, and instead, therefore, you take action C.
158
If we think back to the neural circuit associated with assessing value in our goal pursuits, this makes perfect sense.
159
The amygdala, that center of the brain that's involved in anxiety and fear and worry,
160
well, the amygdala is one of the four core components of our goal setting and goal pursuit circuitry.
161
And so while I'd love to be able to tell you
162
that all you should think about is rainbows and puppies
163
and all the wonderful rewarding things that are going to happen when you achieve your goals,
164
the truth is you should be thinking mainly about how bad it's really going to get if you don't do it, how disappointing yourself you're going to feel,
165
how it will negatively impact you, if not in the immediate term, in the longterm, if indeed your goal is to reach your goal.
166
And the more specific you can get by writing down
167
or thinking about or talking about how bad it will be if you don't achieve your goals, the more likely you are to achieve those goals.
168
If you're going to visualize in a positive way, do that at the very beginning of some goal pursuit, maybe intermittently every once in a while,
169
You imagine the big win of scoring perfect on an exam or winning the championship or the great relationship.
170
But most of the time, if you want to be effective, you should be focusing on avoiding failure
171
and you should be really clear about what those failures would look like and feel like.
172
Now let's talk about goal setting.
173
The goal should be significant, we are told.
174
It should be inspirational.
175
It should be aggressive yet realistic.
176
But what does that really look like?
177
And what does that correspond to?
178
And how do we actually make that happen?
179
Turns out that the probability of achieving a goal
180
goes up or down depending on whether or not one visualizes or sets a goal that is easy, moderate, or impossible.
181
Turns out that if the goal is too easy,
182
it's too within reach, it doesn't recruit enough of the autonomic nervous system to make pursuit of that goal likely.
183
Also, if a goal was too lofty, if it was too far from their current abilities, it didn't recruit enough systolic blood pressure.
184
Even if people could get very excited about something mentally, it simply didn't place their body into a state of readiness
185
because it wasn't tangible that they could actually perhaps really achieve it.
186
So it turns out that when goals were moderate, when they were just outside of one's immediate abilities or that one felt that, yeah, that would take a lot of effort,
187
but it's within range or maybe in range, like maybe I can do it, maybe I can't, then there was a near doubling of the likelihood
188
that they would engage in the ongoing pursuit of that particular goal.
189
The goals need to be realistic and truly challenging.
190
Don't set goals that are so challenging and so lofty
191
that they crash that blood pressure system in the other direction and make you or anyone feel unmotivated.
192
Now I'd like to talk about three particular areas of scientific study that point to goal pursuit, goal assessment, and goal achievement.
193
Any discussion about goals and goal pursuit would be incomplete without a discussion about the molecule dopamine.
194
Dopamine is often thought of as the molecule of pleasure and reward, but actually it is the molecule of motivation.
195
This is best illustrated by a classic set of studies that have been carried out in both animals and in humans.
196
The animal study can be described the following way.
197
Two rats, each in a separate cage.
198
You can provide those rats with the opportunity to indulge in something that they like,
199
like food or mating or heat if it's cold in the environment or a cool spot in the cage,
200
if it's warm in the environment and so forth.
201
And what you find is that rats will very readily approach the rewarding thing.
202
They will mate, they will eat, they will pursue something that is of pleasure.
203
Now, if you are to take one of those rats and deplete its dopamine neurons, you can eliminate its dopamine neurons or block dopamine in the brain.
204
What you find is that those animals will still enjoy pleasure.
205
However, their motivation to achieve pleasure is vastly reduced.
206
In fact, if you place the item of pleasure, the mate, the food, et cetera, even just one rat's length away from that rat,
207
the rat without dopamine will not even move one length of its own body in order to achieve that pleasure.
208
And there are naturally occurring experiments in humans that mimic that result very accurately.
209
There are certain conditions in humans where there's a depletion of dopamine.
210
And what you find is that the depletion of dopamine does not inhibit an ability to experience pleasure necessarily.
211
It inhibits an ability to pursue or go through the series of action steps in order to achieve pleasure.
212
So dopamine really sits at the heart of our motivational state to seek out goals and to seek pleasure.
213
And this is true for immediate goals
214
that take place within a timeframe of minutes or a timeframe of a day or the timeframe of a week, or the timeframe of a lifetime.
215
Dopamine is the common currency by which we pursue goals.
216
Now, dopamine does a number of things that are very interesting.
217
I'm going to describe a few of them as they relate to goal-seeking behavior.
218
First of all, there's a fundamental feature of how our brain releases and uses dopamine that's called reward prediction error.
219
And the simplest way to think about dopamine reward prediction error
220
is that dopamine is released in the greatest amount and places us into a greater state of motivation
221
when something happens that's positive and novel.
222
If you don't expect something positive to happen, you're just going about your day and something positive happens, dopamine and a lot of dopamine is released.
223
However, if we anticipate something positive is going to happen and then that thing happens,
224
we experience dopamine as part of the anticipation.
225
So even before we get the reward, there's an increase in dopamine.
226
It's not as high as it would be if something really novel and unexpected and positive happened, but we do get an increase in dopamine.
227
And then when we actually experience the reward, we experienced the positive thing, there's a smaller increase in dopamine.
228
Okay, so again, the biggest increases in dopamine are response to things that are positive and unexpected.
229
Lesser dopamine is released when we anticipate something good will happen.
230
And when that happens, yes, we get some dopamine and we also get some dopamine when the positive thing happens.
231
There's also the case in which we predict that something good will happen.
232
When that happens, there's an increase in dopamine just as there was before.
233
But then if that thing doesn't happen, for instance, our friends don't show up for dinner, then there's a drop in dopamine below our initial baseline.
234
That drop in dopamine is the chemical essence of what we call disappointment.
235
Now, this dopamine reward prediction error,
236
as it's called, can be leveraged toward trying to reach our goals because it tells us where we should set our milestones.
237
We can't be in a mode of simply being focused on the finish line.
238
So understanding what we know about reward prediction error, we can make better choices about where to place the milestones,
239
how far out in the future to place milestones.
240
So then the question becomes how often or at what intervals should one assess progress?
241
I think that checking in at the end of a week, looking back on the previous week
242
and assessing how well you performed in pursuit of a given goal
243
or how many times you did something that you wanted to do or avoided something that you didn't want to do.
244
I think that's a reasonable and tractable schedule to assess once a week.
245
This dopamine system is critical to re-up, to remind ourselves that we are on track if indeed we are on track
246
because dopamine itself provides a state of motivation and readiness to continue in the regular pursuit of our goals.
247
Another very interesting aspect of dopamine is actually how the dopamine system interacts with the visual system.
248
When we are focused on a particular point in visual space or its particular goal or horizon, all those systems, our blood pressure,
249
epinephrine, and indeed dopamine get recruited to put us into a state of readiness
250
and willingness to go pursue things in that extra personal space.
251
When our visual attention is very diffuse, all of that relaxes and we tend to be more comfortable staying in the place that we are in our peripersonal space.
252
And the effect works in the other direction too.
253
When dopamine is increased, our visual attention for particular things out in space increase.
254
So the way it works is reciprocal.
255
When we use our visual system in a particular way, bring it to a point of focus, It recruits chemical and neural systems in our brain and body that put us into a state of readiness and pursuit.
256
And when we increase certain chemicals in our brain and body, like epinephrine, like dopamine,
257
then we also allow our visual system to be in a state of looking out at particular locations in our visual world.
258
So the system works in both directions.
259
And some people leverage this by using things like caffeine or taking things like L-tyrosine to increase dopamine.
260
And again, it works both ways there's no right or wrong way to do it.
261
I'm a particular fan of using behavioral tools
262
always prior to using supplementation or any kinds of other tools
263
because behavioral tools have a very unique feature that supplementation and other chemical tools don't,
264
which is that behavioral tools used over time engage neuroplasticity.
265
As we start to practice using our visual system to harness our attention to particular locations
266
and in that way move toward particular goals, we get better and better at using those systems.
267
In fact, the systems for focus and motivation themselves have plasticity, so we get better at being motivated and focused when we place our visual attention at a given location.
268
I'd like to just briefly recap what I've covered up until now.
269
First of all, set goals that are challenging but possible.
270
Those moderate goals, not super easy, not super difficult, but moderately challenging goals
271
seem to be the most effective in moving people towards their goals over the short and long term.
272
Second, plan concretely.
273
You need a concrete set of actions that you're going to follow in order to reach your goals.
274
Third, foreshadow failure.
275
It turns out that imagining success
276
and visualizing success can be useful at the outset of a goal
277
and maybe every once in a while in pursuit of that goal, but that it's not terrific for putting you in constant pursuit of that goal.
278
Rather, foreshadowing failure, visualizing failure and all the terrible things that it's going to bring seems to be more effective.
279
And that maps very well to what's known about the neural circuitry and the involvement of the amygdala.
280
focus on particular visual points as a way to harness your attention and to remove distractors.
281
Removing distractors and getting your body and brain into a mode of activation,
282
getting that healthy increase in systolic blood pressure that puts you into forward motion towards your goals is absolutely key.
283
So that's a brief summary of what I've covered up until now.
284
But I want to be sure to include a tool that's
285
been especially powerful for me that's grounded in the neuroscience research and in the psychology research
286
And as I describe this tool next, I think you'll see the ways in which it meshes nicely with the work that Emily Balsetis and colleagues have done.
287
This is something
288
that I've personally been doing for many years based on my understanding of the visual system
289
and the understanding that indeed we can move our cognition
290
and our perception from a place of interoception and focusing on our peripersonal space,
291
that space within us and immediately around us and on the things that are immediately accessible to us, that we can shift from that mode to this mode of exteroception,
292
of focusing on things outside the confines of our skin and that are beyond our reach, that are literally goal-directed behaviors and goal-directed thoughts.
293
And this is something that in the past I talked about a little bit, and I've talked about something called space-time bridging.
294
And we haven't talked too much about the time domain of the visual system today,
295
but space-time bridging is simply a way of using one's visual system to focus on the peripersonal space and interoception,
296
and then gradually, in a deliberate way, stepping one's focus into the extra personal space
297
and then back to the peripersonal space in a way
298
that gives you a lot of flexibility and control over that ability in your daily life.
299
So I'm going to first describe the tool and then I will explain more about the underlying science and the underlying mechanism.
300
Here's how you would do this.
301
What you first do is you would close your eyes and you would focus as much of your attention,
302
including your visual attention on your inner landscape, on your interoception.
303
So that would be your breathing, your heart rate, maybe even the surface of your skin, but really focusing internally.
304
And you would do that for a duration of approximately three slow breaths.
305
Then you would open your eyes and you would focus your visual attention on some area on the surface of your body.
306
So for me, the way that I typically do this will be to focus on say the palm of my hand.
307
So I'll focus my visual attention on the palm of my hand.
308
And I then do three breaths again, focusing on my internal state,
309
but now I'm splitting out a little bit of my attention from interoception to exteroception.
310
I'm focusing on something outside me.
311
The ratio or the split of attention is about 90-10.
312
About 90% of my attention is focused internally, but I'm also focusing some of my attention externally.
313
Most people can do this pretty easily.
314
Then there's a third, what I call station.
315
I now move my visual attention to outside my body, to some location in the room, or if I'm outside in the external environment, something in the range of five to 15 feet away.
316
And I'm trying to move 90% of my attention to that external object.
317
As I breathe, I'm paying attention to those three breaths.
318
So that's why there's still 10% that's focused on my internal landscape, because I want to pay attention to those three breaths,
319
but I'm focusing as much of my attention outside of myself, maintaining just a little bit on my internal state so I can measure the cadence of those three breaths.
320
Then I move my visual attention to yet another station, which is further away, typically a horizon or something as far off in the distance as I can possibly see,
321
again, for the duration of three breaths.
322
And at that point, I'm trying my very best to move 99, if not 100% of my attention to that external location.
323
And then what I typically will do is I will try
324
and expand both my vision and my cognition to a much broader sphere.
325
This is that magnocellular vision that we talked about before, where I'm not focusing on a particular location on the horizon, I'm trying to dilate the aperture of my field of view
326
so I can see as much of the visual landscape as I'm in as possible.
327
Again, for the duration of three breaths.
328
Then I would return immediately to my internal landscape.
329
I would close my eyes and I would do three more breaths focusing entirely on my interoception,
330
on my internal landscape, or what we call before my peripersonal space.
331
And I would work through each of those stations maybe two or three times.
332
The entire thing takes about 90 seconds to three minutes, depending on how many breaths you do, what is all of this doing?
333
Why do I call this space-time bridging?
334
And why is this useful for goal setting?
335
The reason I call it space-time bridging is that the visual system is not just about analyzing space, It's actually how we batch time.
336
It's how we carve up time.
337
And the simple way to state this is that when we focus our visual attention on a very narrow point
338
that's close to our body and our immediate experience, we tend to slice up time very finely.
339
We're focused on our breathing.
340
We're focused on our heartbeats.
341
In fact, our breathing and our internal landscape and our heartbeats become the sort of seconds hand, if you will, on our experience.
342
We are carving up time according to our immediate physiological experience.
343
Whereas when we focus our visual attention outside our body, not only do we engage that exteroceptive,
344
extra personal space system and we start to engage the dopamine system, the goal-directed system, but we also start batching time differently.
345
When we focus our visual system into a broader sphere of space or into a space beyond the confines of our skin,
346
we start carving up time, our frame rate changes.
347
Now, this is useful in the context of goal setting, goal assessment and goal pursuit,
348
because with the exception of a very few isolated examples,
349
almost all goals involve setting some goal that's off in the future,
350
and then carving up the time between now and the achievement of that goal into milestones that range in duration.
351
And the rewards, even if we try and just make them every week are going to come at some unexpected intervals.
352
And that's actually can be helpful for reinforcing behavior.
353
Intermittent reward that's intermittent and random is the most effective reward schedule we know.
354
But the problem is always, how do we keep our cognition in line with the long-term goal while also being focused on these more immediate goals?
355
This behavior or this practice rather is teaching us to use our visual system
356
and thereby our cognitive system and thereby our reward systems
357
to orient to different locations in space and therefore different locations in time.
358
And that is the essence of goal-directed behavior.
359
That is the essence of setting a goal.
360
It's about thinking about what you want.
361
Then it's about setting milestones that are intermediate to that goal.
362
Then it's about assessing whether or not you're reaching those milestones.
363
And then it's of course about updating your goals if you need to update your goals.
364
All of that is an enormously confusing batch of challenges if you think about it all at once.
365
But if you break it down into these elements that the visual system can help you find and move towards those milestones, I think there's ample evidence to support that.
366
What's very clear is that an ability to move from different visual stations, and to do that in a deliberate way, in a focused and conscious way,
367
clearly maps to an ability to conceive of different goals over different periods of time.
368
And I do believe can be greatly beneficial in allowing one to set particular goals
369
and then move through the milestones to those goals
370
and to constantly update one's pursuit and reward in reaching those milestones and eventually the overall goal.
371
Per usual, I covered a lot of material today.
372
We talked about some of the neuroscience and psychology and popular understanding of goal-seeking behavior, how to assess goals, et cetera.
373
Talked about the use of the visual system to better achieve goals.
374
And indeed, things like visualization and why forecasting failure can be more effective than forecasting success.
375
And in addition, I described this practice that one can incorporate as a daily or semi-daily practice of so-called space-time bridging,
376
of using the visual system and your ability to deliberately step your visual system from stations that are within your body,
377
so-called peripersonal or interoceptive space, out into the world further and further,
378
and then back again in sequence as a way to harness and cultivate and build up these systems that link vision,
379
space, time, reward systems, and so forth.
380
Ultimately, as you set out to accomplish your goals, there are going to be a number of basic steps that everyone will have to follow.
381
You'll have to clearly identify what the long arching ultimate goal is.
382
You'll have to identify what the milestones will be.
383
You might not know all of them at the outset, but you ought to have some idea about the intervals at which you are going to set those milestones
384
and set your reward schedule for assessing progress en route to those milestones and your ultimate goal.
385
My hope is that you'll be able to incorporate these tools, if not all of them, perhaps just one of them
386
or two of them in pursuit of whatever particular goals you happen to be focused on at this point
387
and in the future.
388
And last, but certainly not least, thank you for your interest in science.
📺 Same Channel
C11,315
Why Reading (Books) Makes Us Better at Speaking
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
Your Memories & Emotions Impact Immune Status
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C18
Build Muscle Size, Increase Strength & Improve Recovery | Huberman Lab Essentials
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C157
Why Women Over 30 Should Consider Freezing Their Eggs
University StudentsWorking Adults
B2Dr. Arthur Brooks: The 3 Macronutrients of True Happiness
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C14
How Foods & Nutrients Control Our Moods | Huberman Lab Essentials
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C15
Control Your Brain Chemistry for Focus, Motivation & Well-Being | Huberman Lab Essentials
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C13
The Science & Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) | Huberman Lab Essentials
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C129
The Cure for Addiction
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C13
Controlling Your Dopamine for Motivation, Focus & Satisfaction | Huberman Lab Essentials
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C134
Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
The Science of Making & Breaking Habits | Huberman Lab Essentials
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
Food & Supplements for Brain Health & Cognitive Performance | Huberman Lab Essentials
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C13
Essentials: Science of Mindsets for Health & Performance | Dr. Alia Crum
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
Tools for Managing Stress & Anxiety | Huberman Lab Essentials
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
C11
Essentials: The Biology of Slowing & Reversing Aging | Dr. David Sinclair
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
Essentials: How to Assess & Improve All Aspects of Your Fitness | Dr. Andy Galpin
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C113
Essentials: Manage Stress & Build Resilience | Dr. Elissa Epel
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C119
Tools to Improve Your Focus & Concentration | Huberman Lab Essentials
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C14
Essentials: Micronutrients for Health & Longevity | Dr. Rhonda Patrick
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
✨ Recommend Video
C18
36 sentences
Why successful people set habits, not just goals | Wendy Wood
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
23 sentences
Neuroscientist: Visualization technique to achieve ALL your goals
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
216 sentences
How To Stay Motivated & Consistent Everyday | Mini Series Ep.4 | Life Of Sacha
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
252 sentences
Teach Your Brain To Become Someone New | Andrew Huberman Motivation
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
439 sentences
How to Change Your Life in 1 Year with Goal Setting (Jim Rohn Seminar)
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1124 sentences
What Makes People Successful? | Angela Duckworth
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2107 sentences
How To Identify Your Core Values: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
154 sentences
Why you procrastinate even when it feels bad
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
C14
116 sentences
The Speech Everyone Needs to Hear - Best Motivational Speech | Andrew Huberman
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
210 sentences
The SIMPLEST Way to Become Good at Learning
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 388 sentences and 5957 words to shadow. The speech runs for 33:13. The speaker talks at a natural 179 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pursuit noun | /pɝˈsut/ | The act of pursuing. |
| circuit noun | /ˈsɝ.kɪt/ | The act of moving or revolving around, or as in a circle or orbit; a revolution |
| reward noun | /ɹɪˈwɔɹd/ | Something of value given in return for an act. |
| neural adjective | /ˈnʊɹəl/ | Of, or relating to the nerves, neurons or the nervous system. |
| cortex noun | /ˈkɔɹtɛks/ | The outer layer of an internal organ or body structure, such as the kidney or the brain. |
| assess verb | /əˈsɛs/ | To determine, estimate or judge the value of; to evaluate; to estimate. |
| pursue verb | /pɚˈsu/ | To follow urgently, originally with intent to capture or harm; to chase. |
| landscape noun | /ˈlan(d)skeɪp/ | A portion of land or territory as defined by its landform, its geographical (and architectural) features. |
| involve verb | /ɪnˈvɑlv/ | To have (something) as a component or a related part; to comprise, to include. |
| motivation noun | /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/ | Willingness of action especially in behavior. |
| anxiety noun | /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/ | An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event. |
| engage verb | /ɪnˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/ | To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied. |
| psychology noun | /saɪˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/ | The study of the human mind. |
| breathe verb | /bɹiːð/ | To draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases. |
| pathway noun | /ˈpæθˌweɪ/ | A footpath or other path or track. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. |
| cover up verb | To conceal or disguise. |
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
| build up verb | To erect; to construct. |
| get up verb | To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| going forward adverb | In the immediate future and beyond. |
| lift up verb | To elevate to a higher position. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 85 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: breathe /bɹiːð/, pathway /ˈpæθˌweɪ/, thereby /ðɛɹˈbaɪ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, duration /dʒʊˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, prediction /pɹɪˈdɪkʃən/, perception /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/, accomplish /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, psychology /saɪˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, unexpected /ʌnɪkˈspɛktɪd/, behavioral /bɪˈheɪvjəɹəl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pursuit, circuit, reward.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is actually built · be described · is involved |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has done · They've done · have been carried |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | ganglia, which are · station, which is |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.