Posted on | February 8, 2010 | No Comments

By: Ian J Fitzpatrick

Zig Ziglar and Anthony Robbins both reference a mythical study from Yale where 1953 graduates were surveyed 20 years after graduation. They found that 3% of them had earned more money and had accomplished more than the other 97% COMBINED. Daily, the top 3% had acutally written down their goals and evaluated them daily. The details of this mythical story may vary a bit but the point is well made. By reviewing their goals daily, this allowed the top 3% to maintain focus on their goals. Ok, great, what does this mean to you and I?

Last week, I re-learned the value of daily review of my written goals. Three weeks ago I watched, The 10 Goal Method, which is a great goal setting training by Brian Tracy and since it was the new year, I put his training to work. I committed to paper some very important goals that I wanted to achieve. I had set both professional and personal goals that mean a lot to me. The first few weeks I was doing great, meaning that I would get up early in the morning take them out look them over, I’d made a few tweaks and would use those goals to help plan out my day and my week. Man, I felt like I was really making some great strides.

Then…last week.

My wife, Erin, and I took a couple days during the middle of the week to get away with some friends for a little rest and relaxation. You can probably guess what happened, right? I lost my rhythm and stopped taking the time to look over and review my goals daily. My attention to my goals got diverted. Although we had a great time, I fell back into some bad habits.

The poor habits that I developed over the couple of days came home with me. The snooze button became a favorite and my goals stayed in my folder. Even though I knew that had lost focus I didn’t do anything about it. I began to see myself as less worthy, as the downward spiral began, I wasn’t following through on what I said I was going to do. No surprise, I began to lose focus on my goals that had been so important to me just weeks prior.

Sensing my lack of inspiration, Erin and I had a talk about my lack if motivation for the upcoming week. She pointed out that I hadn’t been getting up early like I had been to review my goals and to plan out my week/day. Par for the course, she was right. So, I grabbed my goal sheet and re-charged by batteries. Here I am, early Monday morning, typing this post I have a clearer focus and feel empowered.

What I’ve re-learned from this process is that when I actually take the time to write down my goals, those things that really matter to me, and review them on a daily basis then I feel empowered. I feel much more self-assured. I feel like I deserve to hit my goals. Clarity is the name of the game. I know exactly what it is that I want and am taking the steps to make them real. When I didn’t those precious few minutes daily, I wandered around throughout the day, got a few things done but didn’t have the same sense of purpose. However, now I’ve made the CHOICE to become focused by having the discipline to look over my goals and to take daily action toward achieving them. My level of confidence has grown and I feel empowered to achieve.

This is why written goals are so important. When used properly they are a great tool to get back on track, to straighten out the rudder. If you haven’t read the 10 Goal Method, Google “Ian Fitzpatrick 10 Goal Method” read it or re-read it, like I just did, to learn some goal setting basics. When you do and apply these principles, you’ll be giving yourself more power and control toward accomplishing your dreams.

Ian Fitzpatrick is considered a master trainer and business builder. He wrote this Written Goals article to help those in MLM. Ian teaches people how to generate 50-150 free leads daily.

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