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You Must Set Goals to Achieve Them

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In the book What They Don’t Teach You in Harvard Business School, Mark McCormack tells of a study conducted on students in the 1979 Harvard MBA program. In that year, the students were asked, “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?”

Only 3 percent of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13 percent had goals, but they were not in writing; and a whopping 84 percent had no specific goals at all.

Ten years later, the members of the class were interviewed again, and the findings were astonishing. The 13 percent of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all. And what about the 3 percent who had clear, written goals? They were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together.

Goals sound like a good idea, but most of us never get around to setting any. With the evidence cited above, it may be time to revisit the topic. One of the main reasons we don’t set goals is we don’t know how. Below are some helpful hints:

Put them in writing. Make sure they are in a place where you will see them regularly.

Apply deadlines. Pressure is a good thing when you benefit from the end result.

Share them. Identify people in the company who can best help you reach your goals.

Things rarely just “happen.” If you want something, you have to plan it and diligently pursue it — now! Remember — “you can’t plow a field by turning it over in your mind.”

Let the Association help you achieve your goals! For information about our regionally recognized professional development courses, please contact me at 814/833-3200, 800/815-2660 or dmonaghan@mbausa.org.