The Internal "Systems" You Need To Achieve Your GOALS

·20 min·2 clips

Heather Hakes reveals why 92% of people fail at goals and says you must stop setting them entirely.

The episode opens with host Heather Hakes challenging conventional goal-setting, citing a 92% failure rate due to a lack of internal systems. She introduces the core concept that goals are a byproduct of identity, not the driver. Hakes uses a thermostat analogy to explain identity, comprising dominant thoughts, emotional baseline, and habits, which create all life outcomes. She argues that focusing on habits alone is surface-level and leads to self-sabotage because it doesn't change the underlying identity set point. The host explains that people unconsciously sabotage improvements or worsen situations to return to their familiar identity set point. To create sustainable change, one must raise their identity set point so desired outcomes become normal. Hakes guides listeners to reverse engineer unwanted results by first identifying the emotional states driving current habits. She emphasizes clarity on desired results as a crucial first step, noting that most people lack it and thus recreate their current reality. The host shares a personal example of struggling with self-doubt and procrastination in her early entrepreneurship, which prevented financial success. She outlines key identity traits needed for change: confidence, certainty, consistency, self-awareness, and clarity. Hakes then introduces her 5R method, developed from personal development, ancient wisdom, psychology, and neuroscience. Step one is regulating the nervous system through breathwork or meditation to escape stress and gain conscious control. Step two is rewiring in the theta brainwave state during meditation to condition the new identity subconsciously. Step three is rehearsing by emotionally embodying the end result, as emotion is the language of the subconscious. Step four is reinforcing the new identity throughout the day to prevent defaulting back to old patterns when triggered. Step five is daily reflection to assess performance and reinforce desired thoughts and emotional states. The episode concludes by summarizing the need for awareness, clear aims, and daily repetition of the new identity to make results inevitable.

As heard by us

A coaching-minded episode about the system behind the goal.

Heather Hakes frames the episode around a clear idea: goals keep slipping when the internal system stays the same. She links that premise to health, finances, relationships, and business, then brings it back to identity, thoughts, emotions, and habits as the machinery that…

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Why you'd press play

Your goals can keep stalling when the internal system underneath them keeps defaulting to old patterns.

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