Ever seen a person from far and thought how can he or she make everything look so easy, why are they so intelligent, fit or good at what they do, how do they know so much? etc. All these questions are legit and good to ask, as long as it’s based of off constructive curiousness, not jealousy.
A person who has achieved something and keeps on achieving it continuously time and time again can do it because he has formed a new baseline for himself in his brain. To achieve a certain goal, people usually work towards it, use the frameworks like S.M.A.R.T., however there’s also one more important factor very few people talk about. That’s what I call the baseline of your brain.
If you want to grow in life and be friends with good people, rule #1 – Never be jealous, instead appreciate, help and learn.
Understanding Human Baselines
Everyone has a different threshold and baseline in their minds for everything. A millionaire’s a millionaire, because his baseline is around a million or maybe more and he’s working towards it. Similarly a person with a lot of knowledge about a subject, has it, because in his brain his baseline says that if he’s anything below a certain level, it’s bad. So, he has to learn more, grow more and know more about it.
Before your brain can be changed for a goal you want to achieve because of outside factors like inspiration, admiration, influence etc. you need to first set the inside parameters of your brain to start accepting the reality where you stand right now and then set a baseline, a minimum threshold that you have to reach and keep maintaining it to feel fulfilled. This part of brain re-modelling to think about goals differently is what I call base remodeling framework.
Our minimums and baselines are highly defined by where we were born, who were our friends, how people around us behaved as we grew up, what type of content we consumed and so on. So this proves the point again, that if you want to grow, just stay with good ambitious people, who don’t live a fake life and are striving to achieve their goals genuinely while being honest to themselves and people around them.
How to use BRF (Base Remodeling Framework) to achieve your goals?
When you want to achieve any goal or continuous habit, always have the two variables defined for that goal:
- Where you stand right now
- What’s your minimum baseline
Subtracting 2-1 = Gives you your gap, you need to clear faster and reach the baseline. Let’s call it variable #3 Progress needed
To achieve the var 3, Progress needed, now you’ll divide the “Progress needed” or “Gap to cover” into smaller goals divided by each day. Now these mini tasks are the goals, that you need to achieve daily in order to reach the bigger goal and meet your baseline. Every day mark your progress and at end of every week recalibrate on how far you reached and what’s left to be achieved (calculating the gap to understand next steps better). This first part of the article was to help you understand how to first meet your desired baselines.
Maintaining the Baseline
The second part is to maintain your baseline, to do this. You need to make your baseline your new normal, your new default. Forget and remove the old defaults you had in your brain. Believe, practice and reiterate in your brain everyday, what you need to do to maintain that baseline and maybe grow higher as well, if desired with time. Incorporate the new habits, lifestyle that help you achieve your goals daily and form deep genuine mutually valuable relations with people in your life, who are helping you to achieve your goals. Cut down things and distractions that pull you away from your baselines. Doing all these things will help you maintain your new baseline.
Recap
Sometimes a lot of people get very anxious, especially students and founders etc. asking and over-thinking how to achieve that new GPA in college, or that new growth metric for your startup etc. and it all comes down to follow the BRF method I explained above. Just sit down, take a deep breath, drink water and realize all the three variables to achieve your new baseline. Start by accepting the reality and the fact that with right efforts you can change everything. Best way to fight anxiety and to grow is to take actions and calculated risks.
Have the information about these three variables always with you for every goal and you won’t feel lost or anxious again:
- Your current position
- Baseline to reach
- Gap to cover
Sometimes you might not have the enough info to define the variables clearly in the first place that might cause you anxiety or you might feel lost. So start by first collecting the information about your field then start defining the variables in your brain to get started. Tag me @adityagauravkc on social media if you have any questions or comments or suggestions.
Copyright © Aditya Gaurav. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
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