Goals: If It's Write, I Guess I'm Wrong!

I'm an advocate of personal development books, or tapes, or mp3's, or videos. I've gleaned a bit of insight into myself and others and have had several "ah ha" moments. The thing about all that stuff is that its pretty much variations on a theme. If you've read Napoleon Hill, Jim Rohn, John Maxwell, Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins...well, it's worthwhile, insightful, and each puts their own spin on things.

One thing, however, that's pretty much the same, is how they approach goals. Basically, to achieve a goal, you've got to write it down, every day in some cases, read it every day, write the steps you'll take to get there, make it personal and timely; for example, "I am a senior vice president on Dec.31, 2014" or "I own a Corvette Stingray on Jan 1, 2015" or "I earn $50,000 a month by Aug 31, 2014." You get the idea.

And I did that. For a long time. And I know I'm going to catch a bit of flack for this but - I have never achieved a goal that I've written down. There. I said it (or typed it).

You see, in my case, it seems that as soon as I write it down, there's a great big subconscious "Yeah...right!" that comes calling. No matter how much I want the thing, writing down that goal is pretty much a sure sign I won't achieve it. And I've tried. Everyone says this is the way to do things. In fact, just last week in a meeting it was said that if you don't write down a goal its just a wish that will never happen. I let that stuff go. Dream boards, written goals, etc...well, I always wondered when does it go from being a goal to a constant reminder of continual failure.

I thought there must be something wrong with me.

Then I read "Start" by Jon Acuff and he wrote a whole section about this. How goal setting in that manner worked for the author, and you have to do it this way, so you give it a try. How everything about the previous thirty of forty or fifty years you've spent on Earth indicates you won't do well with this approach but they say do it this way, this is the only way. And you try for a week or a month or a year and it doesn't take and you (I) assume you're lousy at goal setting and quit. He says its like you're a bird reading a book about how to be a fish.

And that's me. Right there. So I thought about the things I did achieve and how I did that. When I set out to buy a sports car I knew there were things I had to do so I was mentally focused on it...every day. Didn't write a thing down but I knew I had to save this much money, I had to make sure I worked these hours. And I did. When I started my weight loss and fitness journey I never wrote that goal down but I was focused on doing the work every day, eating better, getting it done and lost 50 pounds.

So, for some of us, writing these things down is the worst possible thing to do. Some of us know where we want to go and get there without having a scrap of paper or a dream board. Some of us just have a daily mantra of "Do. Go. Do. Go." It may not conform with the goal-setting mainstream but it beats feeling like a failure.

So. There it is. Now here I go and do.