No time for that

Keep your eye on the prize

Hit the boards and go beyond

Go for the gold

Important to all of these idioms is knowing what your goal, your target, your big dream is. A first good step in keeping your eye on the prize, is to write down your goals and big dreams. After all how can you hit the target if you can’t see it?

Seriously though, who has time for writing goals? Life is happening now. Work is happening now. And then there’s dinner to be made and a sidewalk that needs shoveling. Goals? Not today – definitely not today.

Here’s a little something that might grab your attention and have you reconsider this goal-writing thing.

A Harvard study found that people with clear, written goals earn 10x more than people who don’t write down their goals and people who just have goals in their heads. Hmmm.  Kind of interesting isn’t it?  10x more?  Maybe there’s something to this after all! (Check out Debbie Phillips who knows all about this subject and made me aware of this study.)

We make lots and lots of lists to keep our life going: our grocery lists, our to do lists, our bucket lists. Yet taking the time to look inward and think about, let alone write goals rarely makes it on any list.

How about this though as a way to give this goal-writing thing a whirl, which is apparently a lucrative endeavor?

Consider devoting 5 minutes to writing a goal you have for the next day or two. It doesn’t need to be heroic, just a little something you would like to accomplish in the next 48 hours. For instance a goal might be, “I spend ten minutes each morning reading the newspaper for the next two days” or, “I greet one stranger at the grocery store.”

While I don’t expect that you will immediately earn 10x more because of this exercise, I do believe that taking some small steps toward goal writing will start to create a desire and excitement to write bigger goals. Goals that are in service to your big dream or goals that begin to unearth the big dream that only perfectly, perfect you can make happen.

Grab some paper. Set the timer for five and go for it. Big things are about to happen!