The Harvard Study Never Existed, But the Power of Written Goals Does

Perhaps you've heard this famous Harvard Business School study on setting goals.

The study followed the class of 1979 to see how successful the students would be over time.

And what it found was astonishing.

After ten years, 3% of the class had a combined net worth greater than the remaining 97%!

It all related to goals, and how goals were set.

The study found that 84% of the class had no particular goals at graduation. 13% had written goals, but no concrete plans. And just 3% had written goals and concrete written plans for their lives.

Bet you can see where this is going . . .

It was this small cohort of 3% of students whose net worth surpassed everyone else in the class!

This study has been cited all over the place as evidence of why you should write down your goals and have a concrete plan.

The problem with this study, however, is that it never actually existed.

There was no 1979 Harvard Business School study. Some people say it was a study of Yale's class of 1953, but Yale University has said no such study ever took place. Others think it was a study from Dominican University, but there's no evidence of that either.

Instead, it seems, to have been traced to a Zig Ziglar pep talk.

So, does that mean it's all BS?

Well, I don't know about the science behind this, but I can tell you I've had two experiences with written goals that were, well, kinda freaky.

Back in 2007, when I was still a very, very unhappy corporate lawyer, I sat down over my Christmas holiday (it was a miracle I wasn't working then for some reason), and wrote down some "goals."

I say "goals" in quotes, because I did not actually believe I could achieve them. I was so miserable and depressed that I did not think any of them were possible, but I wrote them down in a desperate play for change in my life. I put them in the front cover of a journal. At some point the journal went into a box, and I did not see it for 10 years, when I found the journal again.

And when I saw it, and read what was inside that front cover, I was astonished. Most of the things on the list, which I did not believe I could ever achieve, had come true. I don't have it in front of me right now, but I do recall that among them were "Have my own real estate investment company" and "Buy a house."

Now, I would have chalked this up to chance had something even freakier not happened a couple of days ago to reinforce the message of how powerful it is to write down goals.

Perhaps a year or two after that goal-setting exercise, I was still a corporate lawyer drone. Over the holidays, I did another year-end exercise where I spelled out how I wanted my life to be. This time, I put it on index cards that I carried around with me. I remember doing the exercise and thinking, "there's no way this can happen." Somewhere along the way, the index cards got lost or put away and I forgot all about them.

Then, just before this past Christmas, one of these index cards somehow appeared on the shelf where I always put my wallet and keys when I arrive home.

When I say "appeared," I mean that it wasn't there when I put my wallet and keys down one night, but it was there the next morning. 

I don't know how it got there. 

Neither does my wife.

Here's what I wanted my life to look like, according to the card (which I do have here):
~ I exercise complete control over my time
~ I work as a successful entrepreneur and investor
~ I work and socialize with intelligent, creative, and interesting people whom I really like and respect
~ I earn at least $1,000,000 every year
~ I spend at least 25% of my time at my country retreat in Upstate New York

Of these "goals" (again, I never thought I could achieve them, I was just going through a desperate exercise), I have achieved 1, 2, and 3 completely. As for #5, I have the house, but am only spending about 10% of my time there because of kids' school schedules. I'm farthest from achieving #4, but I am on a path.

Thinking back to how I felt when I made that index card, it's amazing I've achieved 3.5 of the 5 goals, let alone any of them. I never would have predicted this level of success.

Now, the question is: why does this work, even though they were goals I never thought were actually possible?

I'm not sure, but I think that, when you physically write something down, it triggers a response in your subconscious mind that starts guiding the choices you make in life in the direction of your goals. Just thinking them isn't enough, especially if you were like me at the time and don't believe you can actually pull them off. But the act of writing them down involves courage and a kind of risk-taking (i.e., what if someone finds them and laughs at me?), and it starts to influence the decisions and choices you make.

And just think about how much more powerful it could be with a belief you can do it and a concrete plan!

Go and write your 2022 goals down now!