To succeed in life, you need to have and achieve goals. Goals exist to turn dreams into reality by putting in hard work and being consistent.
But many people fail to reach their goals simply because they don’t enforce them enough. They keep telling themselves what they want over and over without creating a plan or telling anyone else. You can’t hold yourself accountable and get where you want to be if you’re quiet about it.
That’s why it’s important to write your goals down. Did you know that you’re 42 percent more likely to achieve your goals if you write them out? If you keep them in your brain, then you won’t feel motivated to take action and begin. And, most of the time, it’s the starting that’s the hardest part.
If you want to see real results from setting goals, here are four reasons you should write them down first.
See Clearly
Writing out your goals along with a plan helps you clearly see where you need to go. Finding the right direction is difficult enough, but seeing it in front of you helps you visualize what you need to do next.
If you keep everything in your head, it becomes challenging to figure out how to get to the finish line. When you write down your goals, you can even map them out and illustrate them if that helps your brain understand the process better. You might even find that you aren’t willing to go through the motions and would rather have a different goal.
For example, you might get the idea to start a podcast. It sounds like a great idea in your head. You might even imagine all the ways you could make a profit from it while enjoying the experience. However, when you go to map out the process, you become overwhelmed and start to doubt if it’s what you really want.
The point is that writing down what you want helps you figure out if it’s really what you want after all. Sometimes it takes a little soul searching to understand what you truly want. Using the written word to visualize your future helps you determine if you can see it through to the end.
Gain Motivation
When you write down your goals and follow your plan every day, it helps you gain and maintain motivation. People give up on their goals because they lose the drive they once had and it stops them from pushing through. Sometimes the hardest part about achieving success is staying motivated continuing on.
But when you have your goals in front of you to see every day and check off, it gives you momentum. It’s especially effective to see your goals and know that you’re slowly but surely working towards them. It’s important to create daily or weekly to-do lists that keep you on track and ensure you’ll meet your deadline.
Maintain a Realistic Approach
Unfortunately, many people mistake wanting for pursuing, which leads to less productivity and no results. They believe that they’ll end up meeting their end goal one way or another because they have a passion for something. But this isn’t how achieving goals works.
If you’re going to succeed at anything, whether it’s teaching yoga classes or buying your first home, you need to learn how to be realistic. Writing your goals with pen and paper gives you a clear idea of what you need to do and helps you maintain a realistic approach.
Before you wrote your goals down, you may have thought it would only take a few short days to start a blog. But seeing all the things you need to do to get your blog up and running helps you realize it’ll take much longer. Knowing this helps you better understand your timeline so you’re better prepared for launch and receive better results.
Track and Celebrate Your Progress
Without writing your goals down, you won’t know where you started. When you finally make progress, you can’t say for sure how much you improved or how much success you garnered. Tracking your progress is essential for any goal setting you do so you can look back and feel proud of what you’ve accomplished.
Along with tracking progress, it’s just as essential to celebrate how far you’ve come. Being consistent and seeing it through to the end is no easy feat. When you finally reach the finish line, you can look back at when you started and realize that nothing is impossible without hard work and determination.
Over to You
Creating and setting goals doesn’t have to be a pain. When you write them down, it’s much easier to follow through and see results. The reasons above should give you enough encouragement to write your goals with pen and paper and see what happens. Will you start writing your goals down from now on?