Heads up! We’re halfway through the year. How’s that New Year’s resolution coming along?
Back in January, I wrote that the most powerful word in goal setting is the word “yet.” If you haven’t reached your goal yet, then good news. You’re like the rest of us.
Like Christmas in July, let’s take a mid-year reset. That January version of ourselves is still out there waiting for us.
To help us rediscover the path, this week I’m sharing a chapter from my ebook Crack the Code: The Simple Formula for Predictable Goal Achievement. Download the free digital copy here.
Chapter 2 below.
+ Attention
“Where your attention goes, energy flows.”
– Anonymous
In this second step of the formula, write down your goals every day. Yes, I recommend writing them down every day. And write them as if they’ve already been achieved.
To grow, plants need sunlight. Kids need vegetables. Your goals need Attention.
“If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing every day.”
– Zig Ziglar
3 Reasons for Attention
Reason #1:
The act of writing down your goals is a physical demonstration of attention and energy. When you focus your attention, it engages a part of your brain called the Reticular Activating System. Also known as RAS, this part of your brain filters the millions of pieces of information thrown at us each day.
Your RAS decides what gets through to your conscious awareness. That’s why when you buy a new car, you suddenly start seeing that model everywhere on the road.
By writing your goals down daily, your brain will start to look for ways to achieve them.
Reason #2:
The simple act of writing your goal down, even if you’re scribbling them in a hurry, is a subtle commitment to your subconscious that this is important.
A Study by Dominican University in California found that the mere act of writing your goals down made you 42% more likely to achieve them. That is the likelihood when writing them down just once!
Reason #3:
The act of writing crystallizes our thoughts. By writing our goals down every day, we may realize that we actually want a modified version of our goal. Or perhaps something else entirely different. It’s completely OK to refine your objective. In fact, that’s great!
“Thoughts disentangle themselves passing over the lips and through pencil tips.”
-Anonymous
My Formula for +Attention:
I write down my goals each morning while drinking coffee and before my crew wakes up.
Each morning, I write: I have 1,000 subscribers on my Blog by the end of the year. I imagine what achieving that milestone will feel like and the people I could help inspire. I just timed myself. This step takes about 19 seconds.
Don’t Quit at Halftime
It may be 90 degrees out, but are you starting to feel a little more like January? The New Years’ version of each of us is still out there.
Go get ‘em.