Writing down your goals in great detail, including in a letter to yourself, might feel a bit awkward, but it’s a practice that’s worked for many successful people — and neuroscience supports it.
“I shall be a bestselling writer,” renowned science fiction author Octavia E. Butler once penned in a letter to herself in 1988. “So be it, see to it.”
“I will live the way I please and achieve inner harmony and happiness,” Bruce Lee, a famous actor and martial artist, wrote to himself in 1969.
Writing your goals on paper can improve your chances of achieving them, largely because of a concept scientists discovered in 1978 called “the generation effect.” Essentially, ideas you generate yourself are more likely to be stored in your long-term memory than thoughts you read in passing.
Writing yourself a letter can also do more than help commit your goals to memory, says neuroscientist and author Erin Clabough: It can instill a sense of self-belief, and the motivation that comes with it, that you wouldn’t necessarily feel otherwise.
