It was a great study.
The MBA class of Harvard 1979 was polled to find out how many had written goals. The study revealed:
- 84% had no specific goals at all
- 13% had goals but they were not committed to paper
- 3% had clear, written goals and plans to accomplish them
The results of this written goal setting is simply astonishing. When the study participants were polled again ten years later:
- The 13% of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all.
- The three percent who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together.
This grabbed my attention when I first learned of the is study. So, what is the best way to write your goals? I am a devotee of the field of human motivation called Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) after using the tools to lose 200 lbs! Needless to say – I am convinced of it’s power. This field of study is focused on how the mind develops beliefs and, most importantly, how to remove the beliefs and thoughts that limit us.
The “Well Formed Outcome” from NLP is “goal setting on steroids,” as it addresses the pesky limiting beliefs in a very subtle way. So, to write a “Well Formed Outcome,” do the following steps:
1. Write your objective in positive terms.
Specificity is very good here. Example:
“I want to be rich.”
That is better than no written goal at all- but consider the following instead:
“I want to own 5,000 units in 10 years using private money.”
The human brain can only process seven chunks of information – plus or minus two any one time. Giving the brain more information on …read more