You’ll often hear business coaches talk about the importance of writing down your goals and objectives. And I’ve said the same thing myself. Often.
But is it true? Does it work?
If I’m honest, I’m not sure I actually believed it. But I do now – and here’s why…
About six years ago, I took a holiday in France with my wife and children. Which was going very well – until the car broke down.
And that gave me plenty of time to think.
How important is writing down what you plan to do?
For years I’d been writing courses about goal setting. For years I’d talked about the importance of writing down your goals. Of knowing what you wanted to achieve in the next three years, or the next five years.
But I’d never actually done it myself! Never thought about my own little empire – my own little training business.
So that was how I passed the day.
Writing down what my goals were.
The amount of money I wanted to see in the company’s bank account after year one, year two, and year three,
And what I was going to do to achieve that.
So I came up with a business plan. And yes, I was really proud of it.
Then I put it in a drawer, and never looked at it again…!
Five years later…
Five years later, I was tidying the room, and I found the plan. So I thought I’d take a look. Just to see if I’d actually achieved any of things I’d written there.
And it was extraordinary. What I’d written was almost a mirror image of what I’d achieved. In fact I’d done 80% of what was in that document without even remembering that I’d written it. Somewhere, somehow, everything there had just gone into my mental system. I’d started doing the things I’d written about simply because I’d taken the time to write them down in the first place.
Of course I’d thought about it all before that. In fact I’d thought about it a lot. ‘I’ll do this. I’ll do that. I’ll do less delivery.’ All that kind of thing.
But what made the difference was actually writing it down.
So yes, it works. And yes, you should try it too.
Very best!
David Solomon
Managing Director, Sun and Moon Training
@SunMoonDavid