Key Takeaways
- People who write down their goals are more likely to achieve them.
- This technique can be used to help you save for a down payment for a home.
- By writing it down, your goal becomes fixed in your brain, helping you to find ways to fulfill it, even if it seems almost impossible.
There was an article many years ago about the efficacy of writing down one’s goals. There were a group of classmates who were checked in on 40 years after graduating, to see where they ended up in life. Three people from the class had written down their goals. By and large, those three people achieved their goals, whereas the rest of the class did not fare as well.
The three who wrote down their goals were successful, having fixed those goals in their minds. You may be skeptical about this technique, but it really does work, and it’s because of the way our brains operate.
Now, perhaps you have a goal of buying a house. If so, you can write this goal down to help ensure you reach it. Let’s walk through an example of how to do this.
Say you want to be able to purchase a home five years from now. Write down your goal as a vision narrative, which is a very specific list of what you want. For instance, your list may read:
- White picket fence
- Three bedrooms
- Two stories
- Countryside with rolling hills
- Five minutes to schools
- Ten minutes to the highway
- Twenty minutes to the airport
- Main room has a wide-open space with windows
Once you’ve done this, you move on to the second part of the exercise, which is to determine the math, so that you know the specific amount you’ll need to save each month. Let’s say you need $15,000 for your down payment. If your goal is to reach this within five years, that means you’ll need to save $250 each month, for 60 months.
If you’re looking at this and thinking that it’s difficult to save even a fraction of that each month, then return to your vision narrative and read it again. Allow this goal to become fixed in your brain, and you may be surprised to find that you’ll figure out ways to save what you need. Perhaps it will mean stopping some subscriptions, shopping differently, or foregoing certain small luxuries that cost $3, $4, or $5 every day.
You see, your brain grabs on to ideas when you write them down, visualize them, and read them. Your brain will be constantly working out how to get to that goal, and you’re likely to have saved that $15,000 after five years by doing this.
This really is using the power of your brain, and it’s a technique that can be used throughout your life to achieve something you really want. It’s very powerful and it works really well, so consider this whether you’re thinking about buying your first home or your dream home. Until next time, enjoy.
If you’d like to read more on this topic, here are a few of Gary’s previous posts that you might enjoy: