by Jim Noh-Kuhn, Dream Business Coach

With a practiced eye, I feel that the answers to my question of “what are your business goals, what is it that you want to achieve” become articulated right there on-the-spot. Usually the answer had already been a thought, perhaps even for a very long time. But it all-to-often had never been spelled out, literally.

Is this you? Do you have an idea as to what your goals are, thoughts, but have not committed to writing them down?  Or, perhaps those ideas, those goals are new: “how could I have written them down when I’ve only just now thought of them” you say. That could be true, but what about the last set of thoughts/goals – how successful were you at achieving those?

The inferred commonality is that these business goals were not written down. The other inferred commonality, equally important, is that these goals were not achieved.  There is a direct correlation between those two inferences: if you write down your goals, you are much, much more likely to achieve them than if you only think your goals through. If you don’t write them down, you are much, much more likely to not achieve them.

This sounds so silly, so easy, that it can’t possibly be true. But it is. So what to do about it? Take advantage:

Start with a comfortable medium: pan & paper, MS Word, a post-it note, the back of a napkin, it doesn’t matter. Then write down what it is that you want to accomplish. Don’t worry if it’s the most important thing, or if it’s realistic. Don’t worry about knowing how you’re going to achieve it. Don’t worry about punctuation, or getting it just right. Just write.

Then put the pen down, or back away from the keyboard, and look at it; take it in and notice how you feel. Then, do not, under any circumstances, delete it, nor crinkle it up and throw it away.

The third step is to write a second version. No matter how well written, the first version needs a rewrite. That’s why you stopped in the previous version to notice how you feel, because there will be something about that first version that is gnawing at you, and you need to fix that. Spend some time in this next draft to make the goal specific; Also, apply a time element to it – don’t just say “own my own house”, make a commitment, like “own my own house within five years”.  You may not yet know what all has to happen in those five years, but don’t worry about that yet. Establish a time frame, and if it later needs to change, then it can change.

Beyond this step, there are many possibilities. There will be another blog on this in the near future. At this point, you are already more likely to achieve your desired outcome than in the past. So take your newly re-written goals and do something with them: put the post-it note on the fridge, make it your screen saver, or even just chuck it in a drawer and ignore it – you’re still more likely to achieve it.