Second Step in Goal Setting

I hope you’ve been able to do a week of daily goal setting. But don’t get down on
yourself if you haven’t done it yet. I’m sure you had your reasons.
A study of goal setting done at Harvard over 20 years ago found that people who
wrote down their goals, even if they never looked at them, were significantly
more likely to achieve these goals compared to people who verbalized their goals
but did not write them down. So even if you never look at your daily goals by the
end of 30 days (a month) you are likely to have a coherent list of goals that you
may well achieve without even going further than that.
During the 30 day period some goals will come and go, and others may go away
forever. But by the 30 th day, or there about, you will have your personalized list of
meaningful goals.
You will, however, need to write these goals EVERY DAY. Seven days a week.
No days off!!! Brian Tracy who I mentioned the last time used to have his clients
write goals once a year, and then once a week, but he found that daily goal
setting produced much faster results.
If you haven’t started your goal setting yet, today is the next good time.
Especially if you’re reading this in the morning. A way to increase the
momentum for yourself is to write your 10-15 goals (or however many you want)
before noon and then read them over in the evening before you go to bed. If it’s
the last thing you do before going to sleep you may even have a dream that can
further your momentum. And you don’t need to remember the dream.
It’s important to write your goals in the present using “I” and follow “I” by a
present tense verb. This strategy helps the goal to be accessed by your
subconscious mind. If you believe without consciously thinking about it you’re
already on the road to doing it. It’s also important to state the goal in the positive;
i.e., what you want not what you don’t want. For example, “I am spending quality
time with my family one day on the weekend,” or “I am working four hours a day
doing what I love,” or “I make $100,000 a year,” or “I have 10 new clients a
month.”
For now, it’s not necessary to act on your goals. Now it’s necessary that you
deeply come to believe you are already doing your goals. If by chance you feel
like working on any of the goals that’s fine. And if you happen to get into the flow
of it so that time passes so quickly that you’re pleasantly surprised that’s an extra
bonus.