The Power Of Writing Your Goals On Paper
- Jan 27, 2023
- 5 min read
Written by: Elena Manole, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
It’s the beginning of January, oh well, kind of. You’re thinking about your year ahead. You’re done with new year’s resolutions, they don’t work, right? But you still want to reflect on the year that’s gone and think of the year which is coming your way. What do you do to make things easier for you?
You know that reflection and setting intentions are important for you. You know that writing down your goals is useful, you had that experience before. But you’re still not convinced to sit down with it. It feels overwhelming and overpowering. What if I actually don’t reach them?
You’re in the right place then. Continue reading…
Whether it is an analog version or a digital one that you will choose, writing down your goals has to become your priority for the rest of your life. Why?
Writing down your goals will help you achieve them more easily
Research done in this field shows that 42% of those who write down their goals will eventually reach them. Why? First of all it makes them more concrete. There is something that happens in the brain that when given a certain task, it will do anything to complete it. It is trained to do that. And most of the time it is trained to reassure security and food. In this day and age we know better. We can train our brains to look for the thing we need most.
Give yourself a budget, write down a number, and you will be sure to find that item, or that service with that number on the price tag.
Do a test and see what happens. We all know about the famous experiment with the yellow cars, right? I bet you’ll see only yellow cars in the next day or two if you train your attention to do so.
Same with the goals. Let’s say you want to lose weight. Write down the goal. By the end of march I want to weigh … You can choose to focus on a specific number or to focus on something else, like I will fit in this pair of jeans, or I will feel lighter and more comfortable in my skin. And let’s not go into the topic of body image and weight issues, but whatever your goal (“Feeling fit and strong”, “Feeling sexy and desired”), whatever is your goal, write it down.
Writing down a clear vision of how you will feel about the goal once reached
If you want to increase your success rate by 1.4 times then writing a vision of your achieved goal is the key. Visions are extremely powerful. I write (about) them all the time. It’s essential to have them in your personal and professional life.
When you write a vision down on paper, you want to merge it with your future and write about it in the present moment. Once you reach your goal, how are you feeling inside? Who is around you to celebrate it with? What was the path in getting there? Did you struggle alone? How did you face the setbacks?
Writing down your goals and vision will help with encoding
“Encoding is where things get a lot more interesting. Encoding is what happens in the brain when we see something, and the information gets transferred to the hippocampus for analysis. This part of the brain is where the brain decides what is important to store in the long-term memory and what it can discard.
In the decision-making process, the brain will have to sift through a lot of information. How does it know if something is important to you? Well, if your mind sees that it is something that you have written down, it will assign greater importance to it. As a result, it is more likely to sink in and be remembered.”
Passage from newtechnorthwest.com
Writing down how you’ll approach setbacks will help with facing them when the time comes
It is important that when you write your goals down and subsequently you write your vision related to it, you think about the steps in between.
What were the reasons for success? (i.e., I did it before! I have a great support network, this is inspiring for me, I want to know what I am capable of, etc., etc.).
Learn to think about both your reasons for success and your roadblocks. In reflecting on these two bits you will be prepared for both scenarios. Because roadblocks are inevitable, especially when you aim for something beautiful (knowing you, I might dare to say, that you are aiming for something impossible :). Because roadblocks are solvable. And those setbacks are there to hold space for us, to teach us some lessons and help us grow.
Imagine only for a moment that you don’t have any setbacks and that you do it all perfectly. Even writing this, it makes me chuckle. Yes, we would love to do all things perfectly. But it might not always be the case. It is hard work to try to be perfect. It doesn’t leave room for mistakes, and so it doesn’t allow us to learn. And if there is anything that I am convinced of is that life is all about learning my lesson and moving on.
So, are you prepared to fail? What will you do when this happens?
Not reaching your goals can also be a success
Last year I set some goals for myself which were quite tough to achieve. But I still put them down, checked in with them on a monthly and weekly basis as I planned my week.
End of the year, I may have achieved a handful of them (one of which 2023 showed me that it wasn’t the best move ‒ at times even I make mistakes). This might be a bit depressive. And yet I learned so many things about myself in that process. I set the bar high, and in aiming for that I grew as a person. I had the chance to learn something really important about myself and I made some really great connections in between.
The sheer amount of lessons I learned that year are just beyond my imagination and I am eternally grateful for that.
Elena Manole, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Elena is a time management and productivity coach. She teaches female entrepreneurs how to bring more balance to their life and structure their days so that their priorities are on top of their list. Her clients thrive on accountability and clarity as well as compassion and gentleness. Elena is a hands-on productivity teacher passionate about all things done in a mindful way. She helps her clients fulfil their deepest visions and desires without sacrificing anything in their life. Today she lives her vision and makes a point to remind herself, and her clients, that living a life based on values means that we don't have to wait for the next goal to be reached in order to be happy and fulfilled.
