Starting off Fresh: Setting Goals

Happy New Years!

Let me just start by saying, Happy (almost) New Year!

Congratulations! If you are reading this, you have successfully survived 99% of 2010 and are quickly approaching another beautiful new year’s beginning. What now, though? To me, life has always been a continuous cycle in constant renewal. Always changing, always dynamic and never seeming to stand still.

Currently, as I’m writing this, I’m drawing inspiration from one of my favorite bands, Pink Floyd, and their song Time, off of the masterpiece, Dark Side of The Moon. “Every year is getting shorter. Never seem to find the time.” Whenever I hear those lines, I never deny the truth within those words. As I get older and older, time seems to go by faster and faster. I always seem to think, am I doing what I want to be doing with my life?

If there is one thing Incept has taught me, it is the importance of setting goals. Whether it be a personal goal for self betterment or something more professional, such as a goal to meet for a specific clientele, it is undeniable that achievement feels great on all levels.

During my research for this blog post, I uncovered an interesting long-term study from 1979. Harvard University interviewers ended up asking fresh graduates the simple question of ,“Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” The majority of the graduates did not have any goals at all, while a small minority of the graduates had goals in mind, but nothing written down. Out of everyone involved, only 3% actually had written out specific goals.

Interestingly enough, ten years later, in 1989, Harvard followed up by interviewing those same graduates from the class of 1979. They found that those individuals who had noted they had a goals in mind when they graduated, were earning about twice as much as the majority group that had noted no goals a decade prior. The real kicker is that the small 3% of graduates that had written out and planned their goals on paper were earning almost ten times the amount of all the graduates included in the interview.

That goes to show you the importance and reward of setting goals in general.

So, now it is almost 2011. It’s nearing the time to make and actually hold onto resolutions. My challenge to you is this: I want you to write down your biggest resolution or goal and attempt to maintain or achieve it. Whether it’s buying new car, losing weight, going back to school, whatever it may be, write it down!

Do you have a goal you want to accomplish? Tell me about it below. I’d love to hear about it and have conversations with our readers.