It is day five in our business planning series for the new year. Happy New Year! In our last post, we were learning about how to work backward with goal setting.
Throughout this short little series on setting business goals, I’ve mentioned the importance of writing your goals down. It isn’t just because it’s easy to forget to do so. There are some very important reasons why you have to write them down.
Here are my thoughts on this which will hopefully inspire you to write down your own goals going forward. By the way, this works for any type of goal, not just business ones.
Why It’s More Effective To Write Down Your Business Goals
The simple act of setting a goal, even if it’s just in your mind, doubles your chances of success. That’s a pretty big deal in itself, isn’t it?
If you take it a step further, and actually write those goals down, you’re 10 times as likely to succeed. Read that last line again, please. That’s right…you can increase your chances of making it by 1,000%. That’s mind-blowing.
There are a few different mental and psychological processes going on here that start to give us a glimpse into why it is so important and effective to write our goals down.
For one, it’s a lot easier to remember something that we’ve written down.
You’ve experienced this firsthand with your grocery list. When you make a mental list of 10 or 15 things, you’re likely to forget about half of them when you get to the store. If you write out the list and then end up forgetting it on the counter, you will remember the vast majority of the items you needed.
This is explained through the fact that information has to be moved from one area of the brain to another to turn it from thoughts into written words on a page.
A process called encoding is also involved. All of this helps you retain and store the information better. It’s the reason we’re asked to take notes during lectures in college.
When you write down your goals, you have created something you can review regularly. This adds another layer of cognitive processing and increases your chances of success even further.
Start by setting SMART goals.
SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely
Set your goals. Be specific. This could be something like finally creating that first paid product or adding an extra $500 to your bottom line.
Set a date for when you’ll reach your goal and lay out the steps for how you plan to get there.
Write them down in as much detail as possible.
Set aside some time to review them regularly. This could be weekly, or even daily.
Review your goals
Sadly, only a very small percentage of people make the time to regularly review and evaluate their goals.
The ones that do are some of the most successful and highest achieving people out there. In other words, it’s something we should do as well.
These steps will help you stay on track and focus on making progress toward your business and personal goals.
In our next article, we will look at how to step out of our comfort zone! Have an awesome day!
0 Comments