In our previous article we defined success as the progressive realisation of worthy ideals. These ideals are the things that are worth living for and dying for! Another way to think about it is to call it life goals. What do you wish to accomplish with your one life here on earth? What can you achieve and accomplish? What legacy would you want to leave?
A Remarkable Statistic about Goal Setting
I also made the point in the previous article that success is not scarce but it is rare: most people are not successful – regardless of how it is defined. But why? Did you know that research shows only 15% of people have set for themselves goals in life? That means only 15% of people know what they are working towards and living for. Less than 5% of people have their goals written down! That means at most 1 in 20 people have written down what they hope to achieve in life! But here is an even more remarkable fact: of the people that write down their goals, 95% of people achieve it!
A Simple Start to Become More Successful
Do you know what this suggests? By simply writing down your life goals, you set yourself in a unique group of people that are 95% more likely to achieve your goals! This should be mind-blowing… is it really that simple? If so, why?
There are three excellent reasons why simply writing down your life goals much more likely that you would achieve it:
- Firstly, writing down a Goal means you have to actually have a goal!
This should be self-evident: by writing down a goal it means you had to have thought of what your life goals are. By doing this you are already different from 85% other people who are aimlessly existing and expecting life to produce worthwhile results for them.
- Secondly, writing down a goal saves the ideal in an external storage
When something is written down, it is like saving it on an external hard-drive. It is not in your brain mixed with all the other thoughts that is competing for your attention. There is now a copy of that idea or thought, should the one in your mind get “corrupted”.
- Thirdly, writing it down transfers the thought to a longer term memory storage in your mind.
We know this is true: when we are studying for something, it is always helpful to write it down. By writing it down we are utilising more brain functioning power to record the idea, so our brain makes a more permanent memory of it.
Hopefully you are so fully convinced of the benefits of have written down goals that you immediately stop reading and start by writing down your life goals… so what are you waiting for… come back and read the rest of this article when you are done.
Helping your Children Set Life Goals
How can we now apply this simple principle in our home schooling adventure? Teach your children to set goals for themselves. Here is a simple exercises with them to help them get started.
Ask your children to think of everything they would love to have achieved, done, experienced, seen etc. by the time they are Granny and Grandad’s age.
Let them write it down in a sentence that is positive, present tense and personal.
For example:
- I am an Olympic gold medal winner.
- I am a billionaire.
- I am a pilot.
- I am a missionary to an unreached people!
Help them to make the sentence be a positive sentence in the present tense if they struggle. Also help them to identify the “identity” associated with what they want to achieve (not “I won a gold medal” but “I am a gold medal winner”)
In the beginning they will find it hard, until they start dreaming and then they are likely to start flowing with ideas and visions of what they can become.
Do not judge, mock or belittle their dreams or ideals. Most of all do not stifle it!
Conclusion
It is likely that these life goals might change over time, but they are there because of something that is already in them that connects to the identity they imagined. They might “grow” out of it, but having it written down means that it is now somewhere else outside and inside so that if it really is a part of who they are supposed to become, they hopefully grow more and more into it!
