I learned an AMAZINGLY powerful lesson in 1991. It changed the way I approach business (and virtually every important aspect of my life).

Flash back to the days of Boyz II Men and the original Super Mario Brothers…

It was the unbearably painful 3rd hour of church (yes, I go to church for 3 hours every Sunday). I was sitting in Sunday school, fidgeting in my chair and wondering what I was going to eat for dinner.

I had just gotten my braces off and couldn’t stop moving my lips over the sliminess of my newly straightened teeth when my ears perked up at something my teacher said…

He told our entire class of awkward, naive 13 year-olds that if we wrote our goals down on a piece of paper, he would buy us a spanking-new-Franklin-Covey-genuine-leather planner, worth $80.

• I didn’t care about my goals.
• I cared less about the planner.
• But the fact that my teacher was going to spend $80 on me, that meant something.

So I Wrote My Goals Down…

Later that week (the deadline he gave us was fast approaching), I pulled a tithing slip out of my Sunday school bag and got to work:

(So I’ve always been a little obsessed with making and saving money. Don’t hate.)

I had no idea that he was teaching us a seriously valuable lesson.

I carelessly stuffed the paper into my scriptures, too anxious and eager about the new planner to care about my scribbled goals.

The Afterword…

I pulled this paper out of an obscure place in my scripture bag a couple of years later. Shocked, I realized that I had accomplished every one of those goals:

• I had been struggling in a class at school. I ended up getting all A’s
• I had gotten a job and for the age, I probably made a lot of money. I had saved basically all of it.
• Yep, I read my scriptures more.
• Church more often…check!
• Beach more often…check (really??? this was a goal???)

I gained much more than a new day planner from my Sunday school teacher: His lesson taught me the power of writing down goals.

You can listen to Tony Robbins or Bob Proctor or whoever your favorite motivational speaker is until you’re blue in the face. You WON’T understand the power of WRITING goals down until you do it.

I haven’t accomplished every single goal I’ve ever written down; but I’ve come close.

It works.

Try it.

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