am certain that you have heard time and time again how important it is to have goals and write them down, and perhaps you are even familiar with the research around goal setting. For instance, in 1979 the Harvard School of Business interviewed new graduates from the Harvard’s MBA program and found that:
84 percent had no specific goals at all.
13 percent had goals, but they weren’t committed to paper.
3 percent had clear, written goals as well as plans to accomplish them.
In 1989, the interviewers again interviewed the graduates of that class. You can guess the results:
The 13 percent of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all.
Even more staggering—the 3 percent who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together.
Sociologists that have studied success and failure find that 95 percent of people never have any written goals, but of the 5 percent that do have written goals, 95 percent have reached their goals.
Despite the fact that most people would agree with the statement that setting goals is important, they don’t often feel the need to take it a step further and write them down, which I believe to be vital. There are several reasons that people give for not setting or writing down goals:
1 Believe that because they know them, they don’t need to write them down
2 Don’t have time
3 Don’t see the importance of doing it
4 Can’t keep track of where they write them
5 Have no desire to do it
6 Fear of failure
7 Don’t know how to write goals
To help you further understand the power of the written word and thus why it’s so important to write your goals, let’s take another look at how your brain works. According to studies, educational researchers suggest that approximately 83 percent of human learning occurs visually, and the remaining 17 percent comes from the other senses—11 percent through hearing; 3.5 percent through smell; 1 percent through taste; and 1.5 percent through touch. Because your brain processes information visually, it’s extremely important that anything you deem important and want to remember be written down in order to stimulate your brain and to store in your memory. Simply put, you can forget what you don’t see. So goal writing equals success, which means, you’ll want to get started on writing your goals down right away!
Let’s look at how to write specific goals. These goals are what I refer to as TARGET goals. TARGET is an acronym for tangible, achievable, reward, growth related, exciting, and timeline. Here’s an example of a TARGET goal:
Tangible—Cleaning out the garage.
Achievable—Yes, but I may need some help from a friend.
Reward—Will treat myself to dinner for accomplishing this task.
Growth related—Doing this will help me get organized.
Exciting—I’ll be able to park my car inside.
Timeline—I will do it over the weekend.
So the actual goal would be written out as follows:
Goal—I will call Tracy to help me clean out the garage this weekend to help me get organized and be able to park my car. Dinner is on me for our hard work.
You’ve admitted that you’re lost and you’ve decided to get unlost. You’ve made a decision to change and you signed a contract with yourself. You’ve looked at who you are and how you’re doing in six critical life categories. Now it’s time to look at those fundamental questions, which were listed at the beginning of this chapter, and write down the answers to those questions in your notebook: Where you would like to go? What route will you take? How long will it take you to get there? Whom are you taking with you? What are you expecting out of the journey?
Now that you know more about the process of setting goals, you can fill in specifics for some of those questions using the TARGET approach detailed above.
Use these steps to help you prepare for your journey:
1 Chart your route. Planning and writing your goals is the only way you are going to get to your destination.
2 Pack necessary supplies. Gather the important things that you will need to accomplish your goals. For example, you may need to purchase large trash bags and steel shelves in order to clean and organize your garage. Or, if you want to lose weight, you may need to purchase a Zumba video for your workouts. Get whatever you need working within your budget to help you achieve your goal.
3 Know your estimated time of arrival (ETA). The timeline for reaching your goals is crucial in helping you to achieve them. A timeline helps to motivate your body and mind into action.
4 Divide the trip into practical miles. Be realistic with your goals. If you don’t have any savings and want to have $2,000 in savings, chances are that your current income isn’t going to leave you with enough cash at the end of the month to save $500 a month and reach your goal in four months. However, as you cut expenses and earn additional income, you can save $167 per month and reach your goal in twelve months. In the same way, if you want to run a marathon and you aren’t currently running, you don’t want to start out running three or four miles at a stretch. Everything has to done in increments that build upon each other. Success comes in small steps. You take them one at a time.
5 Integrate excitement into your journey. Your goals need excitement. It gets boring doing the same thing repeatedly. When you’re in the car on a long road trip, you may play music or listen to talk radio to add excitement. If you have children, you might play games or sing songs, or they might watch videos, read books, or draw pictures for stimulation. It’s important to carry over this concept to your goals by adding some excitement to them. For example, if you’re starting a new workout routine, buy some new, fun workout clothes. If you are cleaning out the garage, put your iPod on and listen to and/or dance to your favorite music.
6 Stop at the rest stop when necessary. Don’t hesitate to take a break when you need to. Sometimes you may have to stop and regroup or set a new timeline for your goals. Make certain that your break is planned and you create a new strategy. You don’t want your rest stop to become an indefinite detour.
7 Celebrate your arrival. When you achieve your goal, remember to reward yourself so you stay motivated. It can be a small incentive, such as an ice cream sundae or a new book, or a big reward, such as a trip. Choose something that you really want so that the reward itself is worth you reaching your goal.
THREE
The Main Road Block to Overcome
