Ever Growing Ever Changing

My mother taught me the most basic principle about goal-setting. This was long before this era of personal development articles, workshops, and gurus. She said, “write it down”, then she told me the stories of how writing it down had made a big difference in her accomplishing her own goals.

I think that’s the core principle: writing it down. The key is not getting the right app or journal. And while the SMART framework is useful, it can seem complicated and time-consuming.  if you can’t wrap your mind around all of that, why not start with a simple list of things you want to achieve?

“Write it down” is age-old wisdom backed by science. Apparently, it has something to do with how writing down your goals forces you to get clear on what exactly you want and what is important to you. Writing also helps to commit things to memory, as we all know. Then there is the obvious fact that even if you forgot what your goal was, it’s written somewhere for you to remind yourself. Incidentally, studies suggest people who vividly describe or picture their goals are much more likely to achieve them.

Committing goals to writing certainly is helpful for me because of the clarity I get on my priorities, but also because I have to actually sit down and think about how and when I intend to achieve them, which makes hitting those targets more likely.

As we begin a new year, many persons are thinking about resolutions or goals. There is a difference, by the way. If that is you, but you are new to all of this, start small and keep it simple. I suggest the following:

1. Throw out any negative mindsets around goal-setting and understand that with determination and a strategy, achieving goals is possible for anyone. Be realistic, but never allow your race, gender, nationality, place of origin, or social class, etc. to limit your dreams and expectations of yourself. Goals are not only for the middle class or the rich or those who live in the richer countries.

• Start by writing down three or so things that you would want to achieve in a certain timeframe. It may be a month, a year, two years, or more.

• Add at least one habit or character goal. What do you want to become better at? What do you want to do more of? How do you want to become a better person?

• Check on the goals you wrote down from time to time, perhaps every quarter or six months. That helps to keep them on the front burner.

• Don’t just write them down and leave them on the paper. You actually have to act on your list. The goals don’t work if you don’t.

So, there you have it, a simple framework for setting and achieving goals. Write down your goals, keep the process simple, and take consistent action.

I hope this year, you will achieve at least one goal that is very important to you and that can make a drastic difference in your life.