Day 4 of the 5-Day Success Challenge

An important piece to achieving success is to have written goals. On Monday, Day One of the 5-Day Success Challenge, I encouraged you to write down the three “quick-wins,” or new habits, you want to begin developing.

Written goals do convey a higher sense of purpose and accountability.

For example, according to a Harvard Business School study, written goals can translate into earnings of 10 times more than those who fail to establish goals or put their goals in writing.

In the study, Harvard graduates were asked if they had goals and, if so, were they written down? Three percent had written their goals down, eleven percent had goals but had not written them down and eighty-six percent had not yet established goals.

Twenty years later, they polled the same group. The 11% who had goals (but not written down) were making twice as much as the 86% who had no goals. However, the 3% who had written down their goals were making 10 times more than the average of the other graduates and 98% of all the wealth resided with the same 3%.

Have you written down your goals for this week; this month; this year; the next 3- 5 years?

Success, no matter what it looks like to you or how you may define, requires a commitment. Pulling your goals from your mind and onto a sheet of paper will breathe life into them and give them legs to start the process of moving from point A (where you are right now) to point B (where you want to go).

Please enjoy the following inspirational quotes to help get you jump-started:

“Goals are not only absolutely necessary to motivate us. They are essential to really keep us alive.” –Robert H. Schuller

“Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal.” –Elbert Hubbard

“You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things - to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.” –Edmund Hillary

“Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.” –Aristotle

“Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” –Fitzhugh Dodson

“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal: my strength lies solely in my tenacity.” –Louis Pasteur

“If you’re bored with life — you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things — you don’t have enough goals.” –Lou Holtz

“My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out.” –Ronald Reagan

“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” –Bill Copeland

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