Why Every One Must Write Down Their Goals? (Tips & Strategies)

"To achieve a goal, you must write it", we all have often heard this phrase from our parents and grandparents. But it is not just a phrase, it really does work. Writing down your goal is a simple yet efficient trick to make your dreams come true. But for many people, this simple task is quite tricky. Still, when you will get to know how effective it is you will indulge in writing them yourself. So in today's article, I'll be explaining to you why writing your goals work.

How Writing Down Your Goals Will Increase Personal Success (Tips & Strategies)

But before we start, here are a few statistics from Harvard business study related to goal settings:

• According to their research, it was found out that Eighty-three percent of respondents lacked any kind of goal.
• Fourteen percent did have some plans, but they had not written to them. As per their studies, this particular group was much more likely to succeed than those who had no goals at all.
• Then there were three percent of people who had goals, and they even wrote them down, and as per the studies, they were three times more likely to succeed than the other two groups.

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There was another study done by the Dominican University of California. They conducted a survey of five different groups.

• The first group was asked to only think about their goals, and rate them as well but not write them. This group achieved a 43% success overall.
• The second group was asked the same, but they wrote their goals as well.
• The third group wrote their action commitments as well other than what the first two groups did.
• The fourth group was also made to share their action commitments with a friend.
• The fifth group who did all the things and with that also sent their updates to the friends was much more successful, with 76% of the success rate.

So, as per these studies writing down your goals, sharing your goals, and the achievements with your friends ensured that you will be much more successful than others. So now you know that writing down your goals really works. Let's now move to the next section and explain to you why it works.

Connection of Writing and Brain- Tips to Writing Down Your Goals Effectively

In the schools, we always made a copy of the notes that were explained in the class, and it helped us remember those notes as well, but have you ever thought why?

Writing down the goals helped you encode them in your external storage. These notes reminded you about your goals, and if you saw them daily, you were told about them every day. This helped as a memory booster. The brain also encodes it in your long term memory because it decides that it is essential for your memory. It knows that it is more critical for you because you have written it, and thus it gives it much more emphasis to such written information. This process is known as a generation effect in Neuropsychologists. According to this process, the information you read is much more critical than you write for your brain.

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For example, if you see an exciting recipe video and you think about it later, then your brain will remember it. But if you make some points and note down that recipe in your own words, your brain will know that this information is much more relevant to you, and you want to focus on it more. Because the mind understands the importance of this information, it is inclined to recall it actively. If you also add the picture, then you will boost this effect further.

Importance of Recalling for Achieving the Goals

Basically, when you create a goal, write it down and start thinking about it, the brain understands that this is important for you. So, it starts working on achieving these goals, and because it is important information the brain helps you to find ways to turn your goal into reality. While writing down the goals, we add many details to it, and it helps us to know whether we can achieve them or not or what is that thing that is missing to make them.

Writing down the Goals brings more Clarity

Once you have written your goals, you know what is achievable for you and what is not attainable. Now you have much more clarity, and if it is needed, you can tweak them further to make them more achievable.

Writing down the Goal helps you Reduce your Stress Level

Writing down goals helps as a stress buster because we leash out our stress and emotions by writing them instead of sulking with them. This also helps us to have much more control over emotional reactions in case of both failure or success. Moreover, once you accomplish your goals, you will feel much more positive and happy than ever.

Writing down your Goals help you Achieve Bigger Goals

Sometimes not being able to achieve the goals can be overwhelming. Therefore, what we can do is to break our goals into smaller parts and try to make a timeline to achieve them. You have to ensure that your targets are concrete and achievable at the start. Once you finish the smaller goals, you will be able to achieve bigger goals.

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Writing down the Goal helps you Track your Progress.

This is one of the most essential parts of writing the goals. No one is perfect, and we all fail; thus, it is necessary to keep track of your progress. Once you create a checklist of your goals, you will be able to track down your progress easily. This will help you in realizing the mistakes you are making, and you will stop making those mistakes again and again. This process will also make you feel encouraged, as you can see the progress you are making every day.

Noting down the Goals helps you Polish your Writing Skills.

Many people have goals and want to write, but writing doesn't come to them quickly. In that case, to bring your vision to reality, you can first polish your writing skills. Just because you are not so comfortable in writing, you should not hold yourself back.

Here are a few tools that can help you improve your writing skills

• Grammar Girl: it is a blog that gives you quick tips on writing and helps you improve your writing.
• Grammarly: it is a proofreading tool that helps you improve your grammatical mistakes sentence formation and writing style, and it is straightforward to use as well.
• Handmadewritings: It is a website that offers editing and writing services, you can use it to polish your content.
• Readable: It is a software that helps you analyze your readability.

Writing down the Goals helps in Analyzing the Information Related to them.

Thinking is not as sufficient as writing. When you are thinking you could be imagining things and that could be far from reality. When setting up the goals, you need to work on them. You should do the research on how to achieve your goals; also, you must have proper information about your targets so that you can make a well-informed decision.

Writing Goals works as a Persistent Reminder

Gathering information and analyzing it are two different things. But it is far different from taking action on your goals. But analyzing and gathering information is a very essential and fruitful step to achieve your goals. But you must know how much data you need and when you should start taking action. If there is no sense of urgency and you will spend all your time only gathering information after some time, you will find yourself nowhere.

• #TIP1: The very first thing that we do is that we write the goals and paste them at some visible spot so that we can read them every time we pass through it. But here's a small change that you should do to this process. Don't hang them in the same place and leave it just there. Instead, keep changing its position every week. This simple thing is important because when your goal sheet is hanging at the same place forever, after some time, your brain stops noticing it, and that's not a very good sign. But when you keep changing its location, you ensure that your mind keeps seeing it.
• #TIP 2: The second tip is to keep a copy of your goals in the front sheet of your diary. So, every time you will open your journal, you will read your intentions. Or you can clip it to the next day page of your diary every day. Every day after reading it, passing it on to the next page is even better.
• #TIP 3: If these things don't work, you should rewrite them in a notebook every day. There are a few phrases and chapters from school time that we all still remember because we had to write them. I had a teacher who's favorite punishment in school was to make us rewrite phrases like "I will not repeat the same mistake again" or "I will never forget to do the homework again." She would make us write these phrases hundreds of times and she would give this punishment every time we do something unwanted. I think I will never forget her and her way of punishment ever, all though I don't really remember my notes so well because I never wrote them. But in-school times to get rid of this punishment, my friends and I really did do her homework daily, and that's what made me realize that writing down the goals did work.

When we write down our goals, we tend to read them every day. This reading is a constant reminder, and it helps us to stay focused on achieving those goals. But here are a few tips that will enhance this entire process, and you will be able to make them for sure in case you follow them:

So, once you start writing down your goals, you will soon begin doing them too.

Writing down the Goals is Encouraging.

This is a very essential step in being successful. Once you start writing your goals, you will soon see that you will also begin to review them. You will not just read them but restructure them and check them to see how far you are from achieving them. You will also make your friends and family read it. This will motivate you too, and alongside, you will be more improved.

It is another benefit of writing the goals. Yes, when we write what we wish to achieve, it boosts your confidence, and it is encouraging as well. Instead of wasting time on thinking that you cannot climb Mount Everest, why not believe that you want to climb Mount Everest? Won't it be more exciting? The next thing that you will do is to find out how you can climb Mount Everest and what all you need to do to climb it. Then you will make your checklist. Upon completing every step, you will be closer to Mount Everest, and it is fascinating to see that every day you are reaching the finish line. One day you will really see the sky from its peak.

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Quick Links

One of the best parts of writing the goals is that you cross them when they are achieved. The satisfaction that we achieve on passing it is matchless. After all, accomplishing a goal is what we want.

Conclusion: Why Every One Must Write Down Their Goals? (Tips & Strategies)

So, I hope now you know why writing down your goals is an essential exercise for your brain and how it helps in making your dream come true. Therefore, bring a diary and pen and start writing your goals today. It could be as small as what you will cook for breakfast tomorrow and as vast as getting your dream job.

Don't limit yourself in things, think as big as you can and write it day after day, Soon you will be doing something to achieve it too. Moreover, don't be afraid of sharing it with others. Some of them could be rude critics as well but take their criticism as a challenge, and one day, you will prove to them that they were wrong about you. If you follow this simple self-help book, you will soon see that you will become a pro, and all your dreams will turn into a beautiful reality that once you thought was impossible. So don't wait anymore and start writing what you dream.