What about Goals

If you have done much research involving goals, you probably have seen the Yale study that says the 3% of the population who actually write their goals down accomplish 10 times more than the people who don’t.   Authorities at Yale have said the study was never done.   Since Yale’s disclaimer, other colleges have completed similar studies.  They still reflect the advantages of written goals but the difference is not as dramatic.  Generally the ratio is approximately double for the amount of written goals accomplished versus non-written.                  

There are two types of goals as I see it,  Goals and goals. 

Lowercase goals are the things we live with everyday.  The things we use to guide our lives in the direction we want to go.  These are the goals where it is helpful to write them down to help keep focus and remember why we want them. The second type, Goals, are much more fun and scary and all the really cool  intense emotions.  The difference as I see it is passion, or obsession, depending on which word has the least chance of helping me find a rubber room.   “G”oals are the ones that carry a passion and a wanting so intense that it is scary.  When we choose a Goal we never know how we are going to accomplish it, in fact, it may seem to be the impossible dream at the time.

When I have a Goal I will wake up in the middle of the night trying to figure out how, I will have mini panic attacks and I feel my stress level get stupidly high.  All the while I think maybe I shouldn’t do this or self doubt drives me to distraction, my personal favorite is “I really don’t deserve this.” This is where the passion for my Goal becomes critical.  Regardless of how many times I think it’s a bad idea or that maybe I shouldn’t be reaching for the Goal, I can’t let it go.  It is this focus that gets the Goal accomplished through all adversity.  Some gain it through writing and others get from internal focus and some don’t get at all.  So the question is; When you find your Goal, how do you maintain focus?