There are people who map out, plan out and write down their goals. And then there are all of the people who wing it. If you’re one of the people who wing it, I’d like to share some stats on why it’s important to write down your goals.
According to Mentor Michael Hyatt, when it comes to goals:
- 25% of people abandon their New Year’s resolutions after one week.
- 60% of people abandon their goals within six months.
- A total of 90% of people do not have written goals.
- Statistics show that people who write down their goals have over an 80% higher success rate of achieving them.
Number four sure stands out!
Writing down your goals is important for at least five reasons:
- It will force you to clarify what you want to achieve.
- Because it will motivate you to take action.
- Because it will help you overcome resistance.
- Because it will provide a filter for other opportunities.
- Because it will enable you to see and celebrate your progress.
I’d like to share this interesting study that was reported on by Forbes. It’s about goal setting and carried out in the Harvard MBA program.
Harvard’s graduate students were asked if they have set clear, written goals for their futures, as well as if they have made specific plans to transform their fantasies into realities.
The result of the study was only 3 percent of the students had written goals and plans to accomplish them, 13 percent had goals in their minds but hadn’t written them anywhere and 84 percent had no goals at all.
After 10 years, the same group of students were interviewed again and the conclusion of the study was surprising.
The 13 percent of the class who had goals, but did not write them down, earned twice the amount of the 84 percent who had no goals.
The 3 percent who had written goals were earning, on average, 10 times as much as the other 97 percent of the class combined! Can you believe that?
One of the lies we tell ourselves is that we don’t need to write things down, that we’ll just remember it. Even if you have a good memory, the above study shows there is a lot of power in the written word. So get things out of your head and onto paper to make your goals more concrete, to keep them from floating around in your head and to help you remember them when we already have a lot of things floating around in our heads.
Wrap up:
I want you to be part of the small percentage of people who write down their goals and come out ahead. I want you to enjoy a sense of accomplishment when you see your goals to fruition, whether they are related to money, health, family or anything else you’re striving for.
“Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor.”
Brian Tracy
