The Importance of Writing Down Your Goals
By: Dr. Adrian Granite
We are often hesitant to set goals for ourselves due to the fear of not meeting them. Many times they are related to diet and weight loss, but they can be anything from financial to traveling. We shouldn’t let the fear of “failure” prevent us from achieving something great.
I was never one to really set goals for myself. I had ideas in my head of what I wanted to do or where I wanted to be in a year, but I never wrote anything down. People have always told me to write them down, but I never understood why. I wasn’t scared to not meet my goals, but I recently realized why writing them down really matters.
When I started writing this blog 2-3 years ago, I never had a goal. I would write when I felt like doing it or had an idea. Time quickly flew by and other things started to take precedence. Eventually, a year passed before I wrote another post. I wasn’t thrilled with this. I decided to redo parts of my website over the winter and set a goal of writing a blog post every week starting in January 2015. I even went ahead and wrote this out on the website. I figured that if I wrote it on my website for everyone to see, I would make it a priority. I was very good about writing every week and then my wife and I took a trip to Puerto Rico.
I did not have my laptop for a week and was busy relaxing on the beach. Writing was not on my mind. Initially, I was upset that I did not meet my weekly goal and it was out there for everyone to see. After our vacation was over, I continued to get busy with other things and writing took a back seat.
When things calmed down, I realized that it wasn’t the end of the world. I have been much better about writing than ever before. If I did not set myself the initial goal, I would probably still write once a year. This is still a win for me.
