TLDR: Wanna stay committed to your goals?
Write them down.
“There is something magical about writing things down. So set a goal and write it down. When you reach that goal, set another and write that down. You’ll be off and running.”
Robert B. Cialdini
Does writing down your goals help? Well,
You’re 1.4x more likely to actually do something about them if you vividly describe them – on paper – than someone who just keeps them in their head.
Here’s why…
- Better Clarity
- Improve Focus
- Increase Motivation
- Makes it contractual
- Harness the Benefits of Consistency
- Change Your Self-Image by Taking Ownership of Your Commitments
These are some of the benefits of writing your goals down.
Reason #1: Clarity – Am I Setting the Right Goals?
Seeing your goals written out will make you question them. Because it’s natural to question the things you’re committing to.
Is the goal clear enough?
Is it achievable?
Is it actually in line with the life I want to live?
Getting it out of your head and on paper gives you so much clarity and helps you better define your goals, making them more specific, actionable, and inspiring.
For example, a common goal for freelancers and business owners is “hit a 6-figure year” – with no direction as to how to get there.
Writing it out will make you question the roadmap you need to get there, maybe turning a goal like that into “Sign one new client every month”. This writing – and rewriting – process is something I go through every year when I’m setting my annual goals to get super clear on what my focus is for the year.
Reason #2: Focus – Are My Actions Aligned With My Goals?
Writing things out is one of the best ways to commit them to memory.
Why do you think teachers always remind you that “you better write this bit down” when they are about to say something important? Because putting pen to paper implants written goals in your brain in a way that just hearing something or thinking it for yourself doesn’t
This, along with being able to grab your notebook, iPad, or whatever you’ve written them on at any time, means you have a constant reminder of your long-term goals so you can remove distractions, weed out any projects that don’t align with them, and stay laser focused.
Reason #3: Motivation – Get That Endorphin Rush
The satisfaction of physically ticking your goals off in written form when you hit them gives us an endorphin rush that serves to keep motivating us to move forward and tick off the next goal.
I’ve found that my motivation and focus start to dwindle when I don’t have my goals on hand or forget to review them regularly. My motivation quickly picks up again as soon as I read through them.
That’s the power of having a written copy as a constant reminder.
The fact that writing down your goals works and helps you celebrate progress is indisputable. You can find evidence left, right, and center to back it up.
But if you’re wondering why it works so well, it’s what’s going on in our subconscious that’s really amazing…
Reason #4: You’re Creating a Contract With Yourself
A lot of the evidence I’ve found came from the book Influence, by Robert B. Cialdini – a read I’d highly recommend to anyone who wants to understand persuasion tactics and the psychological triggers that are influencing how we respond to situations every single day.
This relates to goal success because when people put their commitments on paper, they live up to what they write down.
The result? A huge surge in staff hitting their sales targets. And the beauty is that once a goal is surpassed you just write down the next one and keep going.
Reason #5: You’re Invoking the Consistency Principle
Once you’ve taken a stance on something, you are automatically more inclined to remain consistent with it. The more public that stance is, the more reluctant we are to change it.
This is the consistency principle.
By writing something down, we’re not just making an inner commitment to it, it also invokes the consistency principle:
“our innate need to remain consistent with thoughts or beliefs we’ve previously held or shared”
By writing them down we have physical proof of those thoughts, making them even more powerful.
Our need for consistency becomes even greater when we make a commitment – so in this context, the commitment we’ve made by writing down our goals.
This is literally visible in every aspect of our lives – not just goal setting – and interestingly, older people are more influenced by this principle than younger people.
Reason #6: You’re Changing Your Own Self-Image by Taking Ownership of Your Commitment
Think of it this way…
If I’m committing myself to goals around scaling my business, hitting big revenue numbers, hiring a team, etc etc., then I’m committing myself to actions of a 6-figure business owner, right?
By doing so, I’m changing my subconscious image of myself from “I’m a freelancer” to “I’m a 6-figure business owner” even before I’ve hit that 6-figure mark.
This shift in our self-image happens in our subconscious often without us even knowing, and the result isn’t just commitment to individual goals but a mindset shift that has much wider repercussions.
In my goals, you might find no mention of hiring a team…but that mindset shift will give me the confidence to bring on my first full-time employee.
It doesn’t mention networking either…but it’ll help me walk into a room and network more confidently.
Because in my mind I’m not a side-hustling freelancer anymore, I’m a serious business owner.
Do you see how this can have insane impacts on your self-image and how you run your business? Seriously, all it takes is 5 minutes to write down your goals!
I Want to Know More About Goal Setting…
Sold on the power of putting pen to paper when it comes to achieving your goals?
Feeling inspired to go write down a new list of goals right now, or spruce up the ones you set and forgot about a few months ago?
We’ve got a whole goal-setting series to take you through everything from setting annual goals to breaking those down into quarterly, monthly, and weekly goals to keep you on track…
And of course, you can (and should) use the power of writing things down at every step.
