It’s a miracle

In my business I have a chance to talk to a lot of people about their career and their goals.  Many of these people are incredibly talented and work extremely hard.  What I have found is that most of these people do set goals and some of them even write them down. But the difference I have found in-goal setters that write them down versus the ones who don’t write them down is what is really interesting.  Here is an example of this difference:

Mark McCormick in his book What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School tells of a Harvard study conducted between 1979 and 1989.

In 1979, graduates of the MBA program were asked to set clear written goals for their future and their plans to accomplish them. It turned out only 3 percent of the graduates had written goals, 13 percent had goals but they were not in writing and 84 percent had no specific goals at all. 

Ten years later, in 1989, the researchers again interviewed the students of that same graduating class. They found that the 13 percent who had goals that were not in writing were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent of students who had no goals at all. Most surprisingly, they found that the 3 percent of graduates who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, 10 times more than 97 percent of their graduating class. The only difference between the groups was the clarity of goals they had set for themselves when they graduated. (research pulled from DarrenHardy.success.com)

As I mentioned earlier, I have been a goal setter for all of my life and did okay.  About four years ago, I became an intentional goal setter that actually wrote them down on paper (or electronic). About two years ago, I purchased a program (a very expensive one I might add) on goal setting.  The last two years, I have seen exponential growth.  The last two years I have spent no less than eight to ten hours in December on setting goals and writing them down for what I would like to accomplish the following year.  This is where the miracle occurs.  First of all taking the time to focus on doing this.  The time invested to plan out a game plan for the next year is valuable within itself.  Secondly, writing very clear and specific goals down. These two activities are truly miraculous in my opinion.  Something magical happens when you do these two things.

There are seven or eight key areas in everyone’s life.  They include career, financial, family, health, spiritual, relationships, social, business, etc.  Having very clear, written, specific goals in each of these areas is what separates the goal accomplishers versus the people who just get by.

Is this another article, blog, or Facebook post about goal setting at the end of the year.  Nope, I hope not.  Here is the difference when setting goals, what you want to accomplish next year is just as important as what you want to accomplish in the next 30 days, or 10 years.  The kind of goal setting I am talking about is “designing a life” not just setting some goals. My mentor told me this: he said don’t set your goals too low, set them high so you have to stretch to reach them.  In 2015,  I plan on accomplishing goals that require me to stretch and are a piece of my puzzle in the life I am designing.

Lastly, if you would like to schedule a one on one meeting with me to discuss some goal setting for you and your life.  I am meeting with people right now for a discounted rate of $100 an hour.  Please go the thebrianwillett.com   and contact me and I we will schedule a face to face meeting or over the phone.  Lets see what we can accomplish in 2015.

To your success and your future.