The Power of Written Goal Setting

Well it had been a couple of weeks since most of us made our New Year’s resolutions.  If you are like most people you have probably gone over the list in your head, made a few bold statements to friend and family about how 2008 will be different, and maybe even joined a gym, quit smoking, or given up chocolate. 

Sadly, however, resolutions are usually short lived, if not completely forgotten by springtime. 

So is there a secret to making resolutions stick, achieving those seemingly impossible goals, and making your dreams come true?  The answer is YES.  

Here is a fact that will change your life.  If you write down your goals on paper instead of just having them in your mind, you are infiintely more likely to achieve them. Goal setting is not a new concept, but writing goals down is the step that insures your success.  

The magic of written goal setting is that it enables you to make a plan with deliberation and commitment. The actual act of getting goals on paper, not only sharpens thinking about what you may want to achieve, but it also gives a clear destination point. That sets in motion a series of steps on how to get there. 

An article on goal setting from Mindtools.com explains it this way, “One of the common characteristics of highly successful people is that they are intensely goal-oriented. Successful people know where it is that they want to go in life, and they have a clear plan to get there.  Their “roadmap to success” is the list of goals that they have written down.”

Top-level athletes, business-people and achievers in all fields use written goal setting.  There is not a more glaring example of this than Tony Robbins, the motivational guru. 

Here is a guy that barely graduated from high school and yet he has catapulted himself to international success due his late night infomercials, his motivational audiotapes (with 30 million sold), and his international bestselling books.

He completely changed his life by simply getting clear about what he wanted, writing it down, and then putting it into action.  Then he went about teaching peak performance to anyone that would listen.

Fortune 500 companies, professional sports teams, and governments, alike, now hire Mr. Robbins.  Moreover, he owns 9 companies, runs numerous charitable foundations, has written 4 best selling books and was recently honored as one of the ten “Outstanding People of the World”.

Brian Tracy, author of the book, Goals, explains why goal setting leads to great accomplishments, “Your ability to set goals is the master skill of success.  Goals unlock your positive mind and release energy and ideas for goal attainment.  Without goals you drift and flow on the currants of life.  With goals you fly like an arrow straight and true to your destination”.

Goals can be about family, finances, recreation, health and fitness, relationships, spiritual growth, charitable giving or any other number of areas of life that you want to improve.

To get started experts recommend creating goals that pass the SMART test.  Is your goal Specific, Measurable, Action-Oriented, Realistic/Relevant and Time-Specific?

In other words, instead of writing “I want to lose weight”, your goal would be “I want to lose 10 pounds in the next 4 weeks by cutting out sugar and exercising 2 times a week”. 

Once you have a specific goal on paper, put it somewhere you can see it daily. Commit to taking one action step a week toward the fulfillment of the goal.  It can be as simple as a phone call, a contact, or an inquiry. You will be surprised at just how easy the written goal setting process can be.

Jim Carey, the acclaimed actor, describes how he manifested his #1 goal, "I wrote myself a check for ten million dollars for acting services rendered and dated it Thanksgiving 1995. I put it in my wallet and it deteriorated. And then, just before Thanksgiving 1995, I found out I was going to make ten million dollars for Dumb & Dumber. I put that check in the casket with my father because it was our dream together."

Gary Ryan Blair articulates the benefits of goal setting in his book, Goal Setting 101.  He believes that goal setting establishes direction for your life, helps you identify results, challenges you to grow and improves your self confidence as you learn to focus and concentrate on things that are important to you.

Just like a pilot would not fly without a flight plan or an architect attempt to build a house without a blue print, so you should not try to achieve an important goal without a written plan.

Written goal setting is a very powerful technique. So if you have a goal or New Year’s resolution you want to achieve, write it down and then go make it happen.

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” Walt Disney