Let’s take a closer look at a famous case study conducted at Yale University – Graduating Class of 1953. It surveyed all the students who graduated in that particular year. The question they had on the survey form was: Do you have written goals in your life?

Statistics reported in the survey:
-3% had put their goals in WRITING.

-97% had not written any goals or had none!

Graduates were told before the survey that 20 years later, they would be interviewed about their progress. They wanted to see if they had followed through and met their goals or if they had taken a completely different path. So, twenty years have passed since they were called in to give their progress report on this particular study. Results have shown that the 3% who had written goals had 10 times more income than the other 97% combined! How amazing is that? Those without written goals had underestimated how goals can help them make more money. Those who had goals for the future knew they needed them to be successful once they finished college.

There’s No Doubt About It: Goal Setting Works

Goal setting can help in all aspects of your life.

Personal life – Where do you see yourself in five, ten, twenty years? Do you want to start a family/get married? What changes do you need to make in your personal life so that you feel happy? Write down your goals for your personal life.

Work life – Are you happy with your career? If not, what changes are you going to make? If yes, what can you do to generate more cash? Do you want to stay where you are in your career or advance higher? Write down your goals for your work life.

Whatever we want to achieve in our lives, we need to have goals in writing. This helps us see the reality of our lives as they are and what we can do to improve them.

Below is a simple system you can use to set goals.

Set Goals – Take Action – Destiny

My goals: write them. This will help you sort things out in your head and realize the reality of your life. Post them somewhere where you can see them every day. This will help inspire you to reach your goals. You can have daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and/or yearly goals.

Sure, having goals is very important, but why you want to achieve your goal is even more important. Personally, I have set a goal of becoming a millionaire before I turn 29. The compelling reason behind this goal is simple. It’s because I want my family to enjoy the good things that life has to offer. For you, it may be that you want your children to have the best education available or you simply want to retire young and rich. All of our goals may be different, but we can all achieve them if we try.

What are your goals?

– List compelling reasons WHY you MUST achieve your goal:

These could be any type of reason why you need to complete your objective, such as:

I don’t want my children to go through what I went through because my family was poor when I was a child.
I don’t want to live my life worrying about debt.
I don’t want to worry about working the rest of my life just to pay the bills.

– Also write down your commitments:

What are you going to do to make sure your goal will be completed? These could be things like:

1. I commit to dedicating ___ hours a week to working on my goal.
2. I will commit to _________ (activities) per day/per week to work toward my goal.

If there is anything you need to remember from this article, remember this:

The World steps aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going. ~David Starr Jordan.
Nothing could be further from the truth.