How to Stick to Your Goals Like an Explorer
Successful explorers model today’s best insights on how to stick to your goals.
You don’t have to set out for the Mariana Trench or become the first Black woman to visit every country in the world to know how hard it is to stick to your goals.
But how do explorers pick a goal and stick to it when they are so involved, so difficult? Pretty much by the book, as most modern success coaches would say.
Explorers involve others in their goals.
They had to, and still do. Explorers usually need sponsors, outfitters, advisors—a whole host of people to hear their plan—before they even leave home. They also need encouragement—especially when quitting feels easier than pushing on. By involving these people in their endeavors, they make themselves accountable at various stages, which increases motivation and drives them towards action.
Who can you involve in your goal that will be motivating and hold you accountable?
Explorers visualize their rewards.
Explorers visualize their journey to the point of feeling a glacial chill in their living room, the Sahara sun beating down on their bed. Neurobiology tells us that by visualizing the reward, we actually change our body’s state towards taking action.
No, it’s not “The Secret” and won’t be manifested into your life without taking massive action. But the more often and more clearly one can visualize rewards of achieving their goals, the closer they are to doing so.
Take 5 minutes every morning to envision your goal, rewards, and the unwavering focus you’ll have to push through. Write down what you see. (And remember that the rewards you visualize now will only be a portion, or even different, than those you actually receive when you achieve your goal. The situation will be different. You will be different.)
Explorer and writer Freya Stark
3. Explorers break down goals into smaller chunks.
Planning an expedition is exhaustive business. I know from planning them on the tourism side with Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic for years. There are just too many moving parts, too many details. Too many variables along the way to try and tackle as one big project.
By breaking down your goals into distinct mini goals—just like explorers may in the field with physical landmarks—you are setting yourself up for success when all of those mini goals are combined. Only then can you look back on where you started, and all you’ve achieved.
If you’re sweating the steps to your goal, consider this: explorers Freya Stark and pilot Bessie Colelman both had to learn another language (Arabic for Stark, French for Coleman) before they could even think about their larger goals. That’s a BIG first step, one that Stark’s family called “a “ludicrous obsession.”
How can you break your goal up into more manageable chunks? One step at a time? One skill at a time?
4. Explorers reward themselves along the way.
If I can’t wait until the end of a movie to eat my popcorn, how am I going to wait until the end of an expedition to celebrate at least a little success? Whether it is in the planning phase or while out in the field, explorers understand that positive psychology and motivation win the day.
Explorer’s journals often include mentions of an extra shot of whiskey, better rations, extra time for sport or singing, even when pinned down by horrendous condition. No one person and certainly no group can hold out on a big goal for a final celebration. They need breadcrumbs (sometimes literally) along the way.
Key Point: most of the explorers I know and those I’ve studied consider their ability to embark on their expeditions to be a reward in itself. Some knew that they might not be paid at the end of the day, some even today, do not get paid to participate on expeditions. Sir Ranulph Feinnes, famous British explorer with countless world records, has said that he doesn’t pay his expedition teams, yet he has members who have worked with him many times over decades.
These people are choosing to do something for which the reward is baked into the sheer act of doing. Can you say the same about any of your goals? If so, pick it and see it through.
Once you’ve broken your goal down into manageable chunks, how can you reward yourself and others upon completion of those chunks? Does it acknowledge the hard work without causing distraction?
"Adventure is just bad planning."
5. Explorers Track Their Progress
When we think of exploration, we see wildness, drudgery, and strain. And yes, that has to happen because these explorers often go through inhospitable places. But exploration is the product of careful planning and assessment of progress.
Shackleton’s route map from Heart of the Antarctic. (And my hand)
Good old Roald Amundsen, (you can read about the Norwegian explorer in the incredible biography The Last Viking), once said that "Adventure is just bad planning."
Expeditions can take years to plan. For many, the technology to achieve the goal doesn’t even exist yet. For the Chinese explorer Zeng He and the 15th Century empire to even conceive of, build, and coordinate their great fleet would have taken a superhuman amount of planning.
Then, when these explorers set out, they all track their progress.
I’ve read log books dating back as far as Captain Cooks’ journal from 1744, and wow, I’m talking dryer than its centuries-old pages. Day after day, conditions, stores, routes. But he wasn’t writing to entertain. He was logging progress, and setting up those who came after him for greater success. (After all, most explorers of that era went out on government funding. They knew others would follow in their wake.)
If you are embarking on a life change, I cannot encourage you enough to track your progress—use apps, daily journals—write a sentence a day about it before bed each night. Like expeditions, real change takes time, and you only start to see it after you’ve charted it for a while.
It’s no doubt why nearly every successful explorer is as meticulous as they are brave.
DEEPER DIVE:
How to Track Your Workplace Goals
Leadership and Goal Setting (Coursera)
Three Psychological Reasons You Can’t Stick To Your Goals
6 Things to Do Every Day To Ensure You Stick to Your Goals