The Power of Goals Setting

Goals, particularly those that are written down, possess an explosive power to bring dreams to life.

Nowhere was this better illustrated than among students at Yale University in Connecticut, USA during the early fifties. At the request of their governing body, the students were invited to fill in a survey that stretched to well over 200 pages.

Redefining the word ‘exhaustive’, the survey covered everything from their views on education to political attitudes. About the only it didn’t cover was sex. Hidden away in an unobtrusive corner of the survey was a segment on goals. No one paid much attention to it at the time. The seemingly innocuous section simply asked whether each candidate had:

1. Set out goals for their future
2. Written them down

And that was that. The questionnaires went back into a cupboard for 25 years and gather dust on some very large shelves. In the mid-seventies, someone at Yale remembered the survey. For the sake of completion, the governing body commissioned a follow-up report, contacting the (now middle-aged) students to see how they had got on. The results had the force of a nuclear explosion.

Analyst found that the 10% of students who had set goals for themselves were more financially successful than the other 90% put together.

Then came the real revelation. Only 3% of the students had written their goals down. This tiny minority had acquired TEN TIMES greater wealth than the other 97% put together. These same students were also healthier, happier and far more fulfilled in their relationship with their partners.

And you are still wondering why you should set goals!!!