I wrote down a goal to speak on stage. On the plane to Malta, I realised I'd done it

Does writing your goals down actually work? It did for me, and I only noticed three years later. In 2016 I wrote in a workbook that I'd be "a seasoned public speaker". In September 2019 I was sat on a plane on the runway in Ibiza, waiting to take off for Malta, when it hit me: I was being flown to another country to speak on stage, and I'd written that down three years before.

The runway

I remember it clearly. I was in a window seat, waiting to take off, looking out at the runway.

Then it dawned on me. Someone was paying to fly me to another country so I could stand on a stage and talk. That was the exact thing I'd written down in a workbook years before, then forgotten about.

I didn't need to dig the book out. I knew what it said. It was a proper eureka moment, sat there with my seatbelt on.

The workbook

The workbook was the study guide for The 12 Week Year. It has you write a long-term vision, then a three-year vision for your life and your business, then what the next 12 weeks need to look like.

I filled it in with a biro. Apologies in advance for the handwriting: it has never been one of my strengths, and I can barely read it myself now. Among a lot of other things, I wrote this:

And on the business page, three years out:

That workbook did more than set goals. It gave me the idea for my first book, a goal-setting book for people in music, and that book was the start of my last business.

Malta

The International Music Summit had booked me for its education programme in Malta. They put me up in a five-star hotel, with all the food and drink I wanted. There was no fee, and I didn't care. I was in a room with some of the most respected people in the music industry, as one of the speakers.

And what was I there to talk about? Goal setting. The ideas from that book, the one that came out of the workbook, where I'd written down the goal that got me on that stage.

It went full circle. The goal led to the book, the book led to the business, and the business got me the gig, where I taught the thing that started it all.

What writing it down did, and didn't, do

I'm not going to tell you the universe delivered it. Writing it down didn't book the gig. Years of showing up did: the book, the podcast, the webinars, the blogs, the events.

What writing it down did was point me. Once I'd written "public speaker", I said yes to the things that led there, even the ones I hated at first. I was terrified of speaking when I went on Dragons' Den. A couple of years later, people were flying me out to hear me do it.

Not everything on those pages happened. Some of it went the other way entirely. The personal page in the same workbook says I'll have "learnt to control my anger", and I'm still working on that one. I wrote about it in You're not an angry person.

But I'd still rather aim and miss some than not write it down at all.

Try it

Get a pen and write down what you want your life to look like in three years. Your health, your family, your work and where you live. Be specific. Then put it somewhere safe and get on with it.

One day you might be sat on a runway when it hits you.