A goal writing experience

When I was working at WireSpeed (1995-2000) I took a course on time management & organization. As part of that course I wrote down goals for each part of my life. I'm not sure what happened then, but basically I filed them away and forgot them.

Several years later I was listening to a Brian Tracy CD on goal setting and he urged his listeners to try this experiment: Write out your goals on January 1, seal them in an envelope and forget them for the rest of the year. Open them on December 31 and you'll find that you've accomplished most of them. His point was that the act of just writing them down once (forget about tracking them or making detailed plans) was incredibly powerful. I was a bit skeptical, but I mentally filed that away and moved on.

A few months later I was going through some old boxes and I found those old goals I had written years before. As I read through them Brian Tracy's comments came shooting up from my memory as I was having a hard time believing my eyes: I had achieved almost everything I had written on that paper.

Since then I've become a big believer in written goals. I have a document on my PC at home with a paragraph for each part of my life (Family, Health, Service to others, Personal Development, Spiritual, Fun, Business). Each of those paragraphs are written in the present tense, as though they are already true (whether they are or not...yet).

Each month I open this document and read and rewrite each goal. It is amazing to watch each one become more and more true over time. You don't have to have detailed step by step plans for each 5 minutes between here and your end goal - I'm sure that's great for anyone who can actually do that - all you have to do is write them down - do that and you'll be ahead of almost everyone you know. If you really want to go wild, rewrite them monthly like I do. Then sit back and be amazed at how quickly you archive them.