If you need further persuasion on the effects of goal setting, I’ve read of a study undertaken in 1953 at the Yale University in Connecticut, USA. – The study, to establish the effects of goal setting, was apparently performed on senior year students just prior to their graduation. It ascertained that 87% of the pupils had not carried out any form of goal setting exercise at all. 10% of the pupils had a general idea of what they wanted and had made some attempt to set themselves goals but only 3% of the graduating students had actually sat down and created a plan of action, a goal setting agenda. But the story doesn’t end there. In 1973, some twenty years later, the study was finally concluded and the results published. The study conclusively found that over the interim twenty year period, the 3% of students who had set themselves goals, had achieved far more, in terms of both professional and financial attainments, than all the other 97% put together! So you see goal setting really does work.
R. Ian Seymour
R. Ian Seymour, excerpt from Maximize Your Potential, Louisiana USA, Pelican Publishing, p.38