How Writing Your Career Goals Makes You More Likely To Achieve Them

career goals

Have you ever heard anyone say “you’re more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down"?

Some people use this method on a daily basis to focus on their most important to dos, while others choose to write down long-term goals so they’re reminded what they’re working towards on a daily basis.

Does this method really help you accomplish your goals?

Forbes recently published an article where “Neuroscience explains why you need to write down your goals if you actually want to achieve them”, based on a goal-setting study.

The obvious reasoning is that a sticky note or message on your desk acts as a visual cue, reminding you of your goal and keeping it top of mind.

“But there’s another deeper phenomenon happening: encoding. Encoding is the biological process by which the things we perceive travel to our brain’s hippocampus where they’re analyzed. From there, decisions are made about what gets stored in our long-term memory and, in turn, what gets discarded. Writing improves that encoding process. In other words, when you write it down it has a much greater chance of being remembered.”- Forbes

A person is more likely to remember something they’ve written themselves in their own words, compared to material that has been generated by someone else. This is why for years teachers have been telling students to write their notes in their own words, rather than word-for-word from a textbook.

“Vividly describing your goals in written form is strongly associated with goal success, and people who very vividly describe or picture their goals are anywhere from 1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to successfully accomplish their goals than people who don’t. That’s a pretty big difference in goal achievement just from writing your goals on a piece of paper.”- Forbes

How Does This Apply To Your Career Goals?

If your goal is to advance your career in energy management, gain more knowledge, or become a certified professional, CIET can help you check some goals off your list. CIET offers a number of certification programs and short thematic courses to help you thrive in your career.

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