written down vividly. People who vividly wrote down their goals, or were able to picture them with ease, were reported to be 1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to fulfill their intention.
In another study, Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at the Dominican University in California, divided 267 men and women into two groups. One group consisting of individuals who wrote down their goals, and the other group was made up of those who did not. No shocker here—those who scribbled down their objectives were 42 percent more likely to achieve them.
Scientifically speaking, all of our brains have a left and right hemisphere. When you ponder something that you desire, you turn on the right hemisphere. However, when you think about this desire and scribble it down, you also activate your left hemisphere—the logic-based side of your brain. Simply writing down your goals activates a logical part of your brain that otherwise would not have been tapped into had you only thought about those goals.
New York Times science writer John Tierney and psychologist Roy F. Baumeister researched the success rate of when our unconscious mind propels our conscious mind to make an agenda or set a future intention.
Whether it is a to-do list or a catalog of goals and aspirations, if we physically draw up a course of action, we will naturally get an inkling of achievement, even if the goal or task has not been met. In Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, Tierney and Baumeister note that our brains are naturally wired to continuously berate our conscious thoughts with any unmet endeavors that we set for ourselves. This idea is known as the Zeigarnik effect, which is, by GoodTherapy’s definition, a psychological phenomenon describing a tendency to remember interrupted or incomplete tasks or events more easily than tasks that have been completed. However, that definition was created in the 1920s. Further research on the Zeigarnik effect by Tierney and Baumeister inferred that our unconscious mind cannot develop “a plan” on its own, which is why it begs our conscious mind to do so. Once we set up a future opportunity and pair it with a fixed deadline, we will instinctively get a sense of attainment.
Even if we have yet to reach our objectives, scribbling them down will force our brains to focus on them until they are reached. I am going to say this again: please write down the goals and tasks you want to achieve as clearly as possible.
Jot them down, share them with others, and constantly chat with yourself about whatever it is you yearn for. Doing one or all three of these methods is scientifically proven to improve your chances, so give it a try.
Paramount Points
•Set all types of goals (ex. daily goals, short-term goals, and long-term goals). Creating goals gives you a reason to get up every day and seek greatness.
•Have the valor to speak your goals out loud, no matter how superlative they appear.
•Writing down your goals and aspirations will help you stay focused and internally put you in a good position to be successful.
•NEVER shy away from those who are willing to help you while you are on your mission. Be extremely cognizant if another individual chooses to take time out of their own life to assist you.
•Wake up each day and remind yourself of your goals. Writing them down has proven to help, so take ten seconds and jot down exactly what you want. Be precise and include every single detail.
“It wasn’t about money. It wasn’t about headlines. I wanted to be the best. I wanted to win, and that’s why I played.”
In life, in order to reach some sort of success, you must have self-discipline. Self-discipline is defined as “the ability to control one’s feelings and overcome one’s weaknesses; the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it,” by Google dictionary. However, self-discipline is not something you magically attain as you grow. As a kid growing up in San Francisco going all the way to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Jason Kidd’s story is one that encapsulates self-discipline and everything that comes with it.
In grade school, we were all asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Some marveled at the idea of being an actor while others dreamed of being a firefighter, astronaut, or teacher. By the second grade, all Jason Kidd wanted to do was be a professional athlete. While sitting in class, Kidd would draw himself on a court, making sure to include whatever jersey number he aspired to wear. When I spoke with Jason, he recalled “role-playing how they were going to introduce my name when I took the field or came onto the court.” When it was recess time, he envisioned himself as Magic Johnson or Julius “Dr. J” Erving.
To work toward this walloping dream, Jason spent nearly all of his free time playing sports. Even on days when he wasn’t up for another soccer practice, he persevered. His parents taught him what commitment meant, and if they could work all day and still make sure Jason was on time for every practice, the least he could do was return the favor by giving it his all.
As he grew older, Jason shifted the majority of his focus to basketball. He would spend countless hours on the court, working on all aspects of his game. Kidd noted, “I was always traveling to play in a basketball tournament somewhere. I thought that was just the norm as a kid growing up. I loved to play. I would play anywhere.” By the time he was in middle school, Jason’s passion for the game had helped mold him into one of the best players in all of California. Still, that wasn’t good enough for Kidd, who recalls attending a basketball camp in Kansas while he was a seventh grader. It was an opportunity for young Jason to play with some of the most talented high school players in the nation. He said, “To be the best, I wanted to play against the best throughout the country.”
His eventual high school basketball coach, Frank LaPorte, recalls the first time he saw Jason at a summer youth tournament. In a 1991 interview for the San Francisco Chronicle, LaPorte said, “He did some things out there that even amazed coaches. One approached me and wondered if he was a junior [in high school]. I said, ‘No he’s a freshman.’ Everybody knew. As an eighth grader, Jason Kidd was the talk of the town.”
Because of LaPorte’s vision and belief in Kidd’s abilities, Jason, a freshman in high school, was put in front of cameras to do media interviews. LaPorte knew the sky was the limit for his new star player and wanted to get him comfortable and prepared for what he will have to go through for years to come.
By the time Kidd was an upperclassman, all of America had started to take notice. As a junior, he finished the year averaging 25 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists, and 6 steals per game. After practices, Kidd would set aside time to open up fan mail. Kidd, when asked about the fan mail, told the LA Times in 1991, “Younger kids mostly write and tell me I am their hero. They tell me they’re my number one fan and that they want to be my friend.”
St. Joseph’s gym had a seating capacity of just eight hundred, but, because of the attention on Kidd, games against rival schools had to be played in larger venues. In a January win over Oakland Bishop O’Dowd, Kid dropped 35 points and hauled down 11 rebounds in front of a crowd of five thousand at Cal State Hayward. This doesn’t include the hundreds of fans who were shut out at the door.
Media requests for interviews with the St. Joseph star were so excessive that Coach LaPorte had to stop answering his phone and returning texts.
With Kidd’s incredible play, Alameda St Joseph, with a record of 30 wins to 3 losses,
