Categories: Career, Productivity, Success
When I first started reading Self-Help books, I found that almost every author had a major chapter dedicated to setting goals. They nearly always mentioned a study done by Yale University that proved the effectiveness of goal-setting.
It goes like this….
In 1953, researchers at Yale University interviewed the graduating students of that year about their hopes and dreams for the future as they entered the world of work for the first time. They were asked a series of questions, one of them being: “Do you have list of written goals?” About 10% had goals, and 3% had written them down.
In 1973, the researchers decided to follow up on the earlier study and see how the original participants had done. What they found astonished them. The 3% who had a list of written goals were all at the top of their fields. In fact, each of them were wealthier than the other 97% combined.
This – the gurus claim – is clear proof of the power of Goal Setting.
It certainly would be… if the study were real.
An investigation by FastCompany Magazine into this study found that it probably never took place.
It appears that guru after guru copied the story from one another, adding a little to it to make it more exciting. None of them seemed to check the source to see if this game of Chinese whispers had a real beginning.
Does this mean that goal-setting doesn’t work? Of course not! It just means that it isn’t a magic pill for success. Having aims and a direction in life is obviously a requirement of anyone wanting to achieve things. People don’t win Olympic medals accidentally.
But emphasis must be place on the “written” aspect. Psychologists are still trying to work out why writing down goals makes them far more likely to be realised than unwritten goals (i.e. Dreams). It may simply be because writing down a goal forces you to be specific – and we usually only write down things we are serious about. Seeing it on paper may make it more realistic to us, and clarifies it in detail.
Written Goals need to be four things:
- Personal. They must be about you. You can’t say, “my boss will be nicer.” That’s outside your realm of influence.
- Positive. Don’t write down what you don’t want. Write down what you do want. “I want to loose 10 pounds,” should be, “I want to be fit, healthy and feel great.”
- Time Limited. If you don’t put a limit on it, there will always be a tomorrow. Be specific. “By 5pm on April 5th.” And don’t give yourself too long.
- Realistic. Be imaginative, but don’t ignore reality. Don’t set a goal to be the first person to walk on the Sun.
Examples:
- I want to be earning £25,000 a year within the next year.
- I want to have written someone a letter in Spanish by December.