The repertoire of consultants, trainers, and motivational speakers, nothing comes before the power of setting personal goals. And in the annals of personal goal-setting, no story outranks the Yale University Class of 1953.
The story, as told by consultants, goes like this: In 1953, researchers surveyed Yale’s graduating seniors to determine how many of them had specific, written goals for their future. The answer: 3%. Twenty years later, researchers polled the surviving members of the Class of 1953 — and found that the 3% with goals had accumulated more personal financial wealth than the other 97% of the class combined!
It’s a consultant’s dream anecdote: a vivid Ivy League success story that documents the cause-and-effect relationship between goals and personal success. It’s powerful! It’s compelling! It’s also completely untrue — as the Fast Company Consultant Debunking Unit (CDU) found out.
Why People Do Not Set Goals
- Not serious… just words – no action. Need to reverse to action, not just words.
- Do not accept responsibility for his/her life. Still waiting for real life to just “happen;” buying lottery tickets instead of taking responsibility for their lives; “waiting for their ship to come in;” waiting for a lucky break; always waiting for a more convenient time.But who else will take responsibility for your life, if not you?
- Raised in a negative atmosphere. “Can’t” is the attitude of the household. “Oh, you can’t do that!” “Why do you think you are good enough to do that?”
- Don’t really understand or realize the importance of planning and setting goals.
- Don’t know how.
- Fear of criticism. Fear of being ridiculed when trying to rise above the norm. Fear of sharing goals with others, which helps to doom success. What is needed is association with people who understand the importance of goal setting, and who will help them reach their goals.
- Fear of failure. This greatest deterrent keeps the person in their “comfort zone.” There they are already successful, so there is little chance for failure.But that place doesn’t teach any lessons and does not stretch the individual to find out what they are really capable of accomplishing.
The wise individual understands that failure isn’t failure at all. It is a lesson; it is a temporary glitch on the way to accomplishing the goal.
As Brian Azar teaches – fail in fast forward. Let’s get all the “failures” out of the way as soon as possible.
