In the year 1979, Harvard MBA study on goal setting analyzed the graduating class to determine how many had set goals and had a plan for their attainment. Interestingly enough, the results of the 1979-1989 Harvard MBA study are exactly identical to the supposed 1953 Yale study.
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In the Harvard Business School MBA study on goal setting, the graduating class was asked a single question about their goals in life. The question was this:
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Have you set written goals and created a plan for their attainment?
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Prior to graduation, it was determined that:
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84% of the entire class had set no goals at all
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13% of the class had set written goals but had no concrete plans
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3% of the class had both written goals and concrete plans
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The results?
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Well, you’ve likely somewhat guessed it. 10 years later, the 13% of the class that had set written goals but had not created plans, were making twice as much money as the 84% of the class that had set no goals at all.
However, the apparent kicker is that the 3% of the class that had both written goals and a plan, were making ten times as much as the rest of the 97% of the class.
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Ten times as much? If the study is actually true, which most people believe it not to be because there doesn’t exist a single shroud of verifiable evidence, then it would be saying a lot.
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My personal interaction with 100s of CEOs, MDs, Top Athletes, Founders, Top Achievers and Performers, have made my perception clear that they all do something, which the majority of the population ignores very conveniently. Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival.
Frankl came to believe that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose.
But the question is how do we find - a meaning in life? Are we even closer to it or which goals are we pursuing and why?
A person with a defined goal is far more powerful than 1000 people put together without a definite goal or aim in life. A plastic ball which has no direction of flow or destination, when thrown into an ocean. All external factors decide fate. A human is not a plastic ball.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?'
But still the question is not answered - How do we discover that and from where shall I start?
And the answer is - Take the first step : Discovering our true goals and aligning everything in life around that.
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