Have you set your goals for 2008?

In is book What They Don’t Teach You in Harvard Business School, Mark McCormick reported the results of a study that tracked Harvard MBA graduates from 1979 to 1989. In 1979, the graduates were asked whether they had set clear, written goals for the future and made plans to accomplish them.

Here’s what the study found: Only 3 percent had written goals and plans for accomplishing them; 13 percent had goals, but they were not in writing; 84 percent had no specific goals at all, aside from getting out of school and enjoying the summer. These statistics may not surprise you.

However, these may. In 1989, the graduates were interviewed again. The 13 percent who had unwritten goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all. And the three percent who had written goals were earning, on average, 10 times as much as the other 97 percent of their classmates! The only difference between the groups was the clarity of their goals.

So where do you fit? Have you written down your goals for 2008? If not, what better reason do you need? Go for it!