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Write Down Your Goals

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“Write Down Your Goals” by Joan Y. Edwards

Do you have a plan for submitting your work?  Do you have your goals written down. If your goals are written down, you will be more  likely to accomplish them. Try it out on a simple goal and see what happens.

Writing it down makes a deal with your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind sets wheels in motion to help your plan become reality. Maxwell Maltz in his Psycho-Cybernetics book says that our subconscious mind is an automatic success mechanism.

You increase its effectiveness, if you write down your goal, and put it where you can see it every day. Write it on the back of a business card, write it on the back of a 3×5 index card, write it on a sentence strip like they use in elementary school, write it in large print on an 8.5 x 11 piece of typing paper, put it on a piece of white card stock. Just write it. You can even put it in your pocket and take it out and look at it several times a day. Bob Proctor in You Were Born Rich and Earl Nightingale in The Strangest Secret say that’s a great idea. Jack Canfield, author of Chicken Soup books uses it consistently. It keeps your goals up front in your mind. It helps you focus on what you want.

When you write it you are making a commitment to carry it out.

If you share your goals with a friend, you are doubling the commitment and creating a bond.

If you write out action steps to accomplish your goals, you’re helping yourself see your plan carried out and your goal actually come into existence.

In researching the study, I found the S.M.A.R.T.E.R. way of allocating goals. You are smarter when your goals are:

S – Specific:

  • Make your goal meaningful. You decide the goal, not someone else.
  • Make your goal as specific as possible.
  • Make your goal “get 10 new clients” instead of “get new clients.”
  • Make your goal be an instruction telling you what to do.
  • Make your goal one that inspires you to be determined to accomplish in spite of obstacles.

M – Measurable:

  • Describe and define how you will measure your progress.
  • Seeing progress on a chart will help you feel good and spur you on to greater success.
  • Measuring produces evidence for your progress.
  • Keep a log and record each action and reaction taken toward goal.
  • Accept and celebrate each step you make toward success.

A – Attainable:

  • Make your goal ambitious, but not impossible to reach.
  • Do not set yourself up for failure.
  • Make your goal one you are confident you can reach.
  • Choose a goal that will help you grow, learn, and stretch.

R – Reasonable:

  • Set a reasonable goal that you can and want to reach.
  • Break large goals into small chunks.
  • Write appropriate small action steps necessary to meet goal.

T – Time Based:

  • When will you finish your goal?
  • You need to choose a time, the sooner the better.
  • I will accomplish this goal in one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks; year, two years, three years, five years, ten years.

E – Evaluated

  • Assess your progress at set intervals.
  • Relax and use your intuition, education, or inspiration to get you back on track.
  • Set revised goals and action steps.

R – Rewarded

  • Celebrate you and all you’ve done.
  • Choose a small tangible reward for each step you take: a dessert, a call to a friend, a trip window-shopping, a sticker, a dollar bill for your piggy-bank.

Good luck with all of your goals: personal, writing, and/or financial. Having a written goal will help you get where you want to go.

If you don’t know where you want to go, take time to contemplate your choices. It’s worth your time. It’ll lead you to greater happiness and self-esteem.

 

References

  1. Bob Proctor. You Were Born Rich: http://www.amazon.com/You-Were-Born-Rich-Proctor/dp/1920909028
  2. Earl Nightingale. The Strangest Secret. http://www.amazon.com/The-Strangest-Secret-Earl-Nightingale/dp/161720286X/
  3. Earl Nightingale. The Strangest Secret. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFhkdzj-x80
  4. G.T. Doran (1981). “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives.” Management Review, Volume 70, Issue 11(AMA FORUM), pp. 35-36.
  5. Happy Rock. “Can’t Believe Everything You Read:1953 Yale Goal Study http://www.thehappyrock.com/2007/11/13/cant-believe-everything-you-read-1953-yale-goal-study/
  6. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. Chicken Soup for the Soul: http://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Soup-Soul-Jack-Canfield/dp/1558749209
  7. Maxwell Maltz. Psycho-Cybernetics: http://www.amazon.com/Psycho-Cybernetics-New-More-Living-Life/dp/0671700758
  8. Paul J. Meyer (2003).  Attitude Is Everything: If You Want to Succeed Above and Beyond. Meyer Resource Group, Incorporated. http://books.google.com/books/about/Attitude_Is_Everything.html?id=C2V0OwAACAAJ.
  9. Shanna Freeman. “How to Be Happy with Yourself: Make Attainable Goals” http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/happy-with-yourself2.htm
  10. Sid Savara. “Writing Down Your Goals: Fact or Fiction: The Harvard Written Goal Study. Fact or Fiction?” http://sidsavara.com/personal-productivity/fact-or-fiction-the-truth-about-the-harvard-written-goal-study
  11. S.M.A.R.T. Goals http://longevity.about.com/od/makeachange/p/smartgoal.htm
  12. Wikipedia. “SMART Criteria:”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria

Updated January 20, 2018.

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