It’s July! And that means we’re more than halfway through the year. How are you doing on your goals? Did you write them down?
Did you know writing down your goals, dreams, aspirations increases your chances of success A LOT. Why?
When you take the action of writing down a goal, two things are happening, 1) external storage and 2) encoding. The first is literal, like a piece of paper you can refer back to over and over. The act of writing something important down and then being able to see it puts this goal top of mind.
The second, encoding, is a biological process where information you deem important (because you wrote it down) gets stored it in the hippocampus.
You don’t have to tell me. I’ve been a journaler since childhood. I get up and write in a journal every single morning. It helps me clear my brain and get centered for the day. I also make lists of goals in the beginning of the year, mid-year and check in quarterly. I know this helps me get where I want to go. Once a task or a goal is written down, it’s there and I feel compelled to check it off the list.
Study after study proves this is true. Taking pen to paper not only helps you remember information, it helps you focus on what’s important and achieve your most important goals. There’s research to show that actually writing with your hand embeds the information into your memory better than typing because there’s a deeper sensory connection between the fingers and a pen on paper than touching a uniform keyboard.
Let’s take a moment to tarry, if you will, and take a look at 2021 so far. I love doing this is in July. What have you accomplished this year? Write it down and give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve probably done more than you think.