Write Down Your Goals

. . . even the little ones

In 1973, the 1953 graduating class from Yale met at a reunion. Researchers asked how many of the former students had achieved written life goals. Five per cent said they had.

The researchers then had each person complete a financial asset work sheet. The five per cent of the class that had written goals controlled ninety-six per cent of the group’s net worth. Seventy per cent of the class had never set goals. Twenty-five per cent had New Years resolution–type goals or goals they could articulate but were not written down. Only five per cent had written goals.

The story may be apocryphal, but even so, five per cent is better than average. Only three per cent of the general public writes down goals. Ninety-seven per cent do not have a clear, written idea of where they'd like to be in six months, five years or fifty. Why? They have never been taught how to direct their desire in order to achieve what they want.

Writing down our goals—small ones, big ones, personality ones, business ones, and relationship ones—gives us an inventory of our desire. Desire is like the starter on a car. It sets everything else in motion. But without a key in the ignition, we can sit behind the wheel all we want—we won't be going anywhere. A full list of written goals puts the key in the ignition and creates the spark in the starter that fires the engine. One of the best ways to fire the engine of careers is to begin a To Do list.

Start with small lists, things you can achieve in a relatively short period. You might, for example, want to call someone you have been meaning to contact for a long time. Maybe there are small projects to do around the home. Maybe you just want to relax all weekend instead of running errands. Whatever your small goals are, write them down and do them. When you cross goals off your list, gratitude and confidence increase. Soon, you will find yourself regularly crossing goals off lists.

When we become more certain of our ability to achieve what we put our mind to, we find ourselves setting bigger, longer term goals, and our self-esteem continues to grow.

There is no absolute timeframe for accomplishing written goals. We don't have to tell anyone about them. They are ours and we are allowed to keep things to ourselves.

We are the ones who determine what short-term and long-term mean. We are the ones who decides what pace works best. Our really big goals, some call them dreams, may take 20 or 30 years to cross off the list - maybe even a lifetime - but writing them down and acknowledging them will keep us moving in the direction we want.

Eventually, with determination and confidence, all our goals get crossed off, either because we achieved them or because they no longer matter.

In the movie The Ten Commandments, the Pharaoh often said, "So it shall be written, so it shall be done." For thousands of years humans have achieved what they have written down and committed to. Join the achievers! Write down your goals!

The following offers you a simple guide for keeping track of your desires - all of them, even the little ones.

Personal Inventory of My Desires (Goals)

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