Your Goals Need A Favor From You Now

There is a controversial 1979 Harvard University study on students that set goals. Here are the numbers:

• 84% had no goals
• 13% had goals but didn’t write them down
• 3% had written goals

Follow-up interviews done in 1989 were to have found:

• The 13% were earning twice as much as the 84%.
• The 3% earned ten times as much as the 97% combined.

The controversy is that the research can’t be found.

The controversy is that the research can’t be found. However, the likelihood of this being true is highly based on some research that can be found. For instance, a 2015 study reveals people are 33% more successful in achieving their goals when they write them down. A 2006 study concludes that setting goals is linked with higher motivation, self-esteem, self-confidence, and autonomy. Another 2006 study focused on bridging the gap between goal intentions and actual behavior. The researchers highlight that specific planning through implementation intentions can significantly improve goal achievement by creating a structured approach and fostering automatic responses to goal-related cues, primarily by writing goals down.

Let me let the cat out of the bag right off the bat. Do your goals a favor and write them down. Writing your goals down takes engagement and purposeful intent. Why do people take notes anyway? It’s because what they interact with has enough substantial meaning that they want to recall it for future purposes. Now, writing things down isn’t going to make you successful in life. But you are one step closer. Our brains need engagement. Studies show that when we write things down, our synapsis fire in a different, more significant way, leading to the kind of brain engagement needed for increased memory and focus. 

“Our brains need engagement.”

Lyle J. Tard

You could stop reading this article and say, “Okay, I got it. Write down my goals.” But that’s not it. When your pen hits the paper, your brain gets engagement, but you get life engagement when your dreams hit your heart. Writing down your goals will have no long-term effect if your goals are not attached to your dreams.

Your first goal needs to be to write down your dreams. This is why you will need a life coach to help you here. Some people think they know their dreams, but they are mere wants and desires with little to no substance, like getting rich and becoming famous. Jeanne Mayo, author and leadership coach, says, “Many people want what other people have, but they don’t want to do what it took for them to get it.” Other people have these deep burdens and have no idea what to do with them. They get frustrated because they want to do something with their life but can’t figure out what that “thing” is eating at them and keeping them awake at night. It’s your dreams trying to get out of you and direct you! Both kinds of people need a coach to help them make sense of it all.

People tend to use a highlighter to go over their dreams and aspirations. But highlighting doesn’t get things to go from short-term to long-term memory. In his book How We Learn, Benedict Carey states that highlighting only tells the brain what is worth remembering but doesn’t make the brain remember it. You must show the brain what is important, according to Carey. That’s why you need a coach. A good coach will help show you what is worth highlighting, what’s worth writing down, and what is worth going after. The previously mentioned research on implementation intentions increases in effectiveness by going beyond mere highlighting, bringing about the challenge needed to turn short-term thinking into long-term action that yields measurable results.

Clarify the gap between what you have and what you want.

A good coach will also help you visualize the future. Research demonstrates that visualization, also known as mental contrasting, significantly enhances motivation by clarifying the gap between current reality and the desired outcome. Coaches can facilitate this process through mental mapping, which involves vividly imagining and detailing your ideal future to better visualize and plan for it. Creating goals based on envisioning the future helps translate your aspirations into actionable steps. Coaching provides valuable guidance and accountability, ensuring you stay on track towards achieving your desired outcomes. For more on your future self, check out this article. 

Do your goals a favor – write down your dreams, and get a coach who will help you make sense of it all. There’s nothing more frustrating than having a goal and not achieving it, not because it wasn’t possible, but realizing after the fact it was. If you have faltered, failure is an opportunity. 

Five Practical Takeaways

Here are five practical takeaways from this article:

1. Write Down Your Goals – Goals are more achievable when written down.
2. Engage Your Brain – Be intentional about how to live out your thoughts.
3. Connect Goals to Dreams – Dreams targets that your goals hit.
4. Avoid Mere Wants and Desires – Turn what you want into actionable goals.
5. Highlighting Isn’t Enough – Get a coach to succeed!