Setting Goals and Getting Things Done

Writing your goals on paper is a commitment to making them happen. That is the first step to accomplishment. ~Mickey Maguire

When you write your long-term goals on paper, whether it's in some sort of organizer or journal, or on a sheet of paper and that you hang on a wall by your desk, you have taken the first step in making them happen.

Writing your goals on paper makes them tangible.

 
Once your goals are committed to pen and ink, you can read them daily. I recommend reading them first thing every morning and again before you go to bed at night. Then, take a moment and imagine those goals being completed successfully. When you write down your goals in long-hand, that is, cursive writing, it is like imprinting them in your mind forever. Make them as neat as you possibly can.

The hardest part of getting anything done is actually starting. Taking that first step is the biggest obstacle. But once the wheels are turning, you can gain momentum. The farther along toward your goal you have gone, the closer you get, the more likely you will see it through to completion.

Building momentum is called the "flywheel effect" and the concept helps you visualize how productivity works. With the flywheel effect, if you change directions, you slow the wheel and have to start it turning the other direction. Inertia is lost. If you change direction, again, you are starting the flywheel from a dead-stop and, once more, inertia is lost.

With that in mind, you have to write your goals on paper, keep moving in that direction, and see them through to completion if you want to actually achieve them. Then smile and add them to your list of accomplishments.

Take the first step today.