Anybody reading this right now shares a skill that was revered and deeply appreciated by our ancestors. It’s a skill we rarely think about. The skill is: LITERACY. We can read and write.

Image: A large copy of the Rosetta Stone.

Nevertheless, even with literacy at our fingertips, one who does not read and write is no better off than one who cannot read and write. In spite of our literacy, we are still a long way from fully understanding and tapping the power of the written (and spoken) word.

Experience has indicated to me that paying close attention to, and working with, our language and, in particular, charting our life through written goal setting (and occasional goal review) can yield impressive results.

Goal setting is a way of exercising your literacy and experimenting with the power of language.

When someone has the courage and clarity to write down their goals and dreams, then in that moment they are saying to the multiverse that they believe this can come true and that this is possible. Immediately in that moment an invisible force comes to their aid.

One thing I’ve discovered in my life is that the world makes way for those who know where they are going. As you write down your goals, you are telling that invisible force or God(dess) or your Creator or Nature or Infinite Intelligence or The Source or your Higher Self (whatever fits your cosmology) which way you are heading with your life. You are deciding what you are ordering on Earth’s menu.

Image: Alex Grey, www.cosm.org

Writing things down is a way of clarifying what’s on your mind and in your heart, amplifying that prayer and beginning its boomerang momentum into the multiverse.

Give your dreams an action plan on paper (or a computer). Once you write down your dream, then it becomes a goal. My belief is that simply writing down a goal is sometimes enough to give it sufficient momentum to produce an outcome. In some other cases, more focusing and work toward the goal over time is the effort required. And with some goals; they remain elusive; however: “God’s delays are not God’s denials.”

Barbara Brown, in her book Supermind: The Ultimate Energy, describes a study in which chronic headache sufferers were asked to keep a diary of the frequency and severity of their headaches. Although the record was intended to be a first step in preparing the participants for further treatment, most of them found that when they began to keep a diary, their headaches disappeared! Asks Brown: “Do you know of any great thinker, or person of achievement, who does not make notes of ideas that occur to him?”*

*(Brown, Barbara, (, 1983, paperback, p. 69,)

What To Write Down?

Writing things down is critical and important. No business could run without things being written down. Certainly your life and relationships are more important than any business—so activate your literacy by writing important things down.

Think on paper. Jot down your goals — your progress. As Tony Robbins taught me as a teenager: “If your life is worth living, it’s worth recording.” Not necessarily a diary, but whatever is easiest for you—maybe you jot down notes on your phone or mobile device.

Try to be very specific about your goals and means of achieving them, without tying yourself to a rigid schedule or sequence of events. Write your goals down, write the steps to achieving those goals down, review both the goals and steps and alter (over time) if necessary. Start and continue to take action based on these steps and goals but avoid becoming to attached to the steps. Remember to follow the signs and allow synchronicity to guide. That’s the formula I’ve followed for 30 years. Its helped me to avoid being too controlling; I just let Faith and The Holy Flow guide while adjusting the steps towards the goal as necessary.

Through all the trials, tribulations, and challenges you endure in achieving your goals, remember that the benefits and fulfillment inherent in achieving goals last and these are yours to keep forever.

Consider planning your next day in advance on paper. You will create order out of chaos quicker with a list than with any other tool. Create a useful list: Every night, before you go to bed, write out the six most important things that you can take action upon the next day. Unpleasant things should always go to the top of the list and be done first!

With graceful determination, plan the most healthful, most thrilling, most romantic, and most spiritual year of your life…on paper. Elaborate on your best self—skills to activate, aspirations to acheive, feelings of love to embody, etc. This is part of the process of clarifying the dreams and goals that quickens their arrival.

The Magic Lamp

According to Keith Ellis’s book The Magic Lamp, Yale University surveyed its graduating class in 1953 and discovered that only 3 percent had a written goal. Twenty years later, Yale surveyed the class again: the 3 percent who had written down their goals had amassed a net worth greater than the other 97% combined.

“If it is not written down, it doesn’t exist.” — Anais Nin