How Written Goals Will Help You Beat 97% of the Population.

In 1953, a survey was handed out to the graduating seniors at Yale University to assess how many of them have predetermined goals in their life committed to paper. The results showed that only 3% of them actually have their objectives laid out black and white. 20 years later, another survey was done to the same group of people, and the 3% who committed their goals to paper had accomplished much more than the other 97% who had not written it down.

You can probably guess that, the 3% people most likely also earned more money than the other 97% people. This goes consistent with what Bob Proctor always said, “1% of the population earns 97% of the money out there!” There are definitely reasons why the 97% people did not set those goals on a piece of paper, even though it’s obvious to you and me that they’re crucial for goal-setting. Based on Zig Ziglar’s motivational podcast, I came up with the following reasons:

1) 97% of the Americans have never been sold to the idea of committing goals to paper, even though they’ve been told by some other people. This is exactly what I’m trying to do here, to sell you the idea that you need to write your goals on a piece of paper: either on stick-it notes, or color papers, or notepads, or your hands! In order to make a change, you need to realize the need for a change, and a push during the change.

2) Somebody has to show them that they can set those goals, which is really simple, and I’ve prepared a FREE goal-setting template for you, all you have to do is to sign up for the email newsletter on the right sidebar. It’s a combination of a few success and goal-setting lessons that would guarantee your reaching the goals, provided you’re willing to take the action.

3) Fear of being wronged. Zig said, “If you say you gonna do something, and then you don’t do it, you will feel that you’ve been wronged at the top of your voice.” How true, and even if you don’t share it with anybody, as long as you’ve written them down, it means you’ve committed to the goal. And if you don’t reach the goal, you’d feel like you’ve failed. To me, I’d probably justify to myself that I didn’t really want to reach those goals anyway, they aren’t that important. After all, I’m not gonna admit that I’ve failed! Have you ever done the same thing?

4) They don’t think they deserve to live the life they’ve always wanted. They don’t think they deserve a great family relationship, a prosperous lifestyle, a healthy body, a happy life. But, you need to think BIG! And it’s what this blog is all about. I love the quote by Zig Ziglar,

“You can get what you want in life, if you would just help enough other people get what they want.”

So, do you think you deserve to have all the things you want the most in life? If you’re willing to be proactive and take action, you do.

5) They stopped learning, stopped growing, stopped achieving. Most people think that they’re done with education after college, be it bachelor, master, or PhD. But seriously, education is about life-long learning. The college education is crucial for the foundation, but what you do after that will determine whether you’ll be successful or not. Once you stop learning, you will no longer feel the need to change, to reach a goal, to find your dream. Again, if you don’t realize the need for a change, you wouldn’t even have a goal, not to mention writing it down on a paper. A question to ask yourself:

How can you reach a goal, which you do not have?

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