How Goal Setting Can Change Your Life

I began this exercise on February 12, 2020. How do I know the exact date? Because I wrote down the date and then began writing in the present tense what I wanted. One of my larger goals on my list was to leave the Chicago real estate world and enter the tech sales world in Austin, TX. Guess what? I achieved it. It took about a year, but I kept at it. What’s interesting about goal setting is 1. you know where you’re going at all times and 2. you’re knocking out immediate and intermediate goals while working up toward your long-term goals. In other words, you’re still achieving your dreams! You’re still showing yourself some progress. It’s such a beautiful way to live once you incorporate this new yet simple habit into your daily life.

I was listening to a real estate investing podcast, and this is when I really took the habit seriously. They were talking about setting real estate goals. The special guest was none other than Brian Tracy. If you don’t know who Brian Tracy is and you’re not interested in sales, personal development or career growth, that’s okay. He's an authority when it comes to these subjects. His wealth of knowledge and expertise on the subject of personal development is unmatched. Anyhow, there he was talking about this simple little ancient tool we can use to change our lives. It sounds so corny but it’s true! A simple activity such as writing down what you want with a pen and paper can change your life.

It's funny because before I came across this podcast, I heard this idea before. I tried writing my goals down, but not on the magnitude that Brian Tracy recommends. He talked about getting a spiral notebook and writing down everything you’ve ever wanted in this notebook. He even goes further to explain how writing in the present tense, as if you already achieved your goals will give you maximum value in this endeavor. It literally can be something as simple as, ‘I have a thriving, income producing website.’ ‘I am a successful entrepreneur.’ ‘I am at the top of my company in sales.’ Writing a one liner, in the present tense will get you to where you want to go.

How does a simple exercise such as writing your goals down increase your chances of achieving them? Well, at first I was looking for that answer. Then once I tried it, I stopped questioning it because it worked so well! I often joke with friends that if you didn’t use 2020 to reevaluate your life/career, you did 2020 the wrong way. Once I heard that podcast I instantly grabbed a notebook that was laying around (with cartoon doodles in it), erased the nonsense and wrote down exactly what I wanted. I spent a few hours until I was exhausted writing down exactly what I wanted. Tracy says it has something to do with programming it in your subconscious mind. When you constantly rewrite your goals with a pen/pencil and paper, you engage your mind in a way that becomes active, more alive. You begin to create ways to achieve your goals, you gain new insights, new ideas! Once you're done and you go about your day, guess what you’ll be thinking about all day long? And what did the great Ralph Waldo Emerson once say? ‘You become what you think about all day long.’

Obviously, achieving some of my goals (especially the time consuming goals) didn’t happen overnight. Brian gave us another piece of gold in his podcast: after you’ve written down everything you’ve ever wanted, grab a fresh sheet of paper. on this sheet write down your 10 Most Wanted goals. Once you’ve got this new list, prioritize it! Ask yourself this powerful question to help you with selecting the most important goals on your list: which goal on this list, once achieved, will make my life a little easier? Will allow me to breathe a little more?

I promise you, this one is the important part of this activity. Why? Again, Brian brilliantly links the “how” with the “what.” He introduces us to the link between the 80/20 rule and goal setting. The idea is that 80% of what’s on your list can be accomplished with only 20% of your goals. I'll give you an example. If you have 10 goals on your list, and you accomplish 2-3, those 2-3 may very well take care of the other goals on your list. say you have a goal of achieving a certain salary. you also have material things on your list as well (car, house, vacation, money in the bank). Well, if you finally land that job and perform well, you get the cash needed to take care of your other goals. That one goal, the goal of landing that job and performing well allowed you to achieve the other goals on your list.

Think about goal setting for your personal life this way: you get a new job, your manager creates plans, targets, metrics, KPIs, ways to measure you. Ways to measure how much value you bring to the company, They create goals for you, and for 40 hours/week what are you working on? Those goals that you were hired to achieve.

Why not take the reins of your own life and create your own KPIs? I read somewhere that if you don’t have goals, dreams, aspirations for yourself, you’ll be working for someone that does. So, what shall it be? Are you going to grab a simple notebook and a pen and get to work, or will you be working for someone that did?

Done.