It is important to be moving and working towards something. It this therefore equally important to have clear personal and business goals that you want to achieve.
There is so much going on in our environment that most of it is deleted by our brains because it is deemed to be unimportant to our survival. Just think of how many people you have passed by over the recent week and how many of them you actually remember.
The advantage of having a clearly defined goal is that you will begin to see the things in you environment that will support the achievement of that goal whereas before it would have gone ignored. As an example, when I bought a new car, I started to see many other exact models of my car on the street as I drove.
It’s not that those cars weren’t there before, it’s that since I have formed a clear picture of this car in my mind, it has become important to me, and I am now able to see it in my environment. The same thing happens with your personal and business goals – once you clearly define them, you will see things in your environment that will help you achieve these goals.
To prove this case, I will provide you with a few examples. In Built to Last, a study which analyzed the top companies that have stood the test of time and continued to outperform their competition, researchers found that the single factor that all of these successful companies had in common was that they had clearly defined missions and values. They knew what they wanted and they went after it.
Another classic example is from Yale University where researchers asked the graduating class of 1953 how many of them had clearly defined written career goals. Only three percent actually did have written goals.
When the researchers returned 20 years later, they interviewed the same people to find out how they fared since graduating in 1953. The results were astonishing. The researchers found that the three percent of people who had written goal were worth more in financial terms than the entire 97 percent of people combined! And on other measures such as happiness and quality of life, the three percent with written goals also scored a higher average.
Goal setting works – put its power to use today to help you build the company of your dreams.
While i completely agree with the goal setting & the other analogies presented.
FYI the yale goal story is apparently an urban legend.
Your not alone though just about everyone carries on the story.
Cheers
Brendon
Hmmmm again a good piece from you …. I liked it … maybe I’ll also pen down my thoughts on goal setting with some more data sometime on my blog
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Goal setting is definitely very powerful… the goal gives the direction to individual and helps him to stay focussed… no wonder 3% people who had clear goals in their minds fared well than the rest of 97%
Great site you have here!
Goal setting has never been something I do well, but the pas six months I’ve been trying to get a Site/Blog up and running. I’m such a horrible procrastinator, so I knew if I wanted the site to get anywhere, I needed to set goals, and schedual time.
The problem is I never know what to blog about when I DO get the time. As everyone knows, the best ideas come when you do everyday things, so the solution is to have either a notepad and pen with you, or a small recorder. Now if I could only set my goals a bit higher… and remember to bring that stuff with me.
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I feel so strongly about goal setting at the moment. I am currently in a position where I am fulfilling my goals from my high school days (15 years ago.) It has taken me a while to get hear, but the constant reminder using goals has helped me reach them, and gives me the strength to pursue my dreams now. Great post, thanks.
I wouldn’t be anywhere if I hadn’t set goals for my business, and my personal life.
Goals (even though unseen physically) are concrete road maps to the future.
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