How To Take Action And Achieve Goals
Learning about nemonic CIRCA
There are many ways for us to be achieving our goals in life. What differs is the method you use to get there.
You could be using the “REFIRE to rewire” process, a 6 step process I explain in two parts here and here. But another method that is important to note is the process called Nemonic CIRCA.
This process was developed by Dr. Srini Pillay M.D., Neuroscientist and author of some influential books revolving around our brain and spirit like Tinker Dabble Doodle Try, amongst others.
This method is a five step process that has been proven time and again to help us in taking action and achieving our goals.
As Dr. Pillay has said before, a lot of the issues with achieving goals is we can really into our head. We can trap ourselves into a mental cage and have no clue how to break out of it.
Nemonic CIRCA is more on the mental side, rewiring your thinking to change your approach.
Let’s dive into it.
Step 1 — Chunking
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs. — Henry Ford
If you are following the REFIRE model, you may find a lot of resistance in the second step, engaging.
This resistance may not be coming from family or friends though.
It might be from your brain.
Depending on the goal that we have, you may find that your brain is simply overwhelmed. Part of that overwhelm may come from the fact that your goal is, shall we say, too ambitious.
Yes, you may have a deep rooted desire to make an extra ten thousand dollars this year.
However saying and doing are clearly different things.
Furthermore you brain may be overwhelmed by that goal to the point it shuts down. This is where you’ll make excuses, doubt yourself, and more.
This is where this step comes in.
With CIRCA, you are first breaking things down into chunks. You are taking that ten thousand dollars and breaking it down into small steps. For example, to make an extra ten thousand dollars a year, you’ll have to earn roughly $835 a month.
You could even break that down into how many sales you need to make per month in order to achieve that.
With that it’s a lot easier. You can even affirm yourself with it too. For the sake of argument, let’s say you need at least 11 people buying $80 worth of stuff from you on top of what you’re already doing. 11 people a month sounds easier than “let’s make ten thousand dollars in extra income.”
It doesn’t remove the difficulty, but you can count to 11 a lot easier than ten thousand.
Step 2 — Ignore Mental Chatter
“If talk is cheap, then being silent is expensive. And many people it seems, can’t afford to buy into it.” ―Anthony Liccione
The second step is to ignore mental chatter.
Part of that overwhelm may have come from this mental chatter.
Perhaps your brain was telling you that making ten grand a year on top of your other work and commitments is too much. But when you overcome that, your brain may still have some resistances.
It’s in this step where you are committing to ignoring that mental chatter. You can do this through affirmations, building your confidence in yourself, and even practicing brain exercises called innercises.
Do what you can to block out that negative mental chatter and you’ll find breaking free easier.
Step 3 — Reality Check
The third step is more of a check and reminder of one thing for yourself.
This too shall pass.
What this means is this is a reminder to your brain that all things are temporary.
In some cases we have placed a lot of barriers and resistances because this is where we are in life.
“We are destined to fail at everything we do.”
This can be a thought that your brain has after you tried and failed at something.
It may sound silly to you, however this is how our brain works.
But that’s the point as well.
We know that reality will still move on. If we fail once, we’re not destined to fail forever.
When we go through heartache or loss, we can overcome it.
When we doubt our abilities, we know that we can grow them and become better.
Truly, this too shall pass.
Step 4 — Control Check
Control your own destiny, or someone else will. — Jack Welch
In this step we are programming our brain to focus solely on the things that we can control in our lives. This is there because for many of us we dwell and complain about things that are entirely out of our control.
Things like the weather, economy, taxes, politics, environment and more.
What this creates for us is a source of negativity, but also a vicious loop that we struggle to get out of. We are putting our control into things that we are unable to control on our own.
So what this step does is allows us to start moving away from those elements. After all, we are trapped in a cage because our brain thinks we can’t get out.
This can be persuasive if all you think about is the things you can’t control.
We are removing ourselves from that and unlocking a potential to grow.
This is all done by focusing on controlling the things we do have control over.
Step 5 — Attentional Shift
The last and final step we go through with nemonic CIRCA is an attentional shift.
In this step, we are placing ourselves into a thinking space where we are focusing on solutions rather than the problem.
Thinking in solutions can help us to grow and this is further encourage us when we dwell on what we can control in our lives.
When we make this shift, we are prompting ourselves to ask different questions.
With respect to goals we stop pinning the blame on things and making excuses.
Instead we blame ourselves, but also think about what went wrong.
We then address it and start making shifts to fix the problem and get back onto the right track.
Conclusion
Nemonic CIRCA is a great tool that can help us to better zero in on what we desire in our lives.
When you set effective goals, this five step process can allow us to achieve those effectively. Furthermore, it’ll address a good chunk of roadblocks that we face in the process too.
To your growth!
Eric S Burdon
This post is part of an 3 month writing challenge that I’m committing myself to. Every day for 3 months, I’ll be writing articles with specific criteria in mind. You can learn all about my reasoning as well as what that criteria is right here. This is 17 of 91 of this series.
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