Do These 3 Things and Increase Your Chances of Achieving Your Goals to 76%

January 11, 2018 David Witt

 

Research conducted by Gail Matthews, a professor of psychology at Dominican University in California can help increase your chances of goal success from 43% to 76%.

In working with 149 adults from different business and networking groups, Matthews found that

  • Those who wrote their goals accomplished significantly more than those who did not write their goals. (+18 percentage points)
  • Those who sent their commitments to a friend accomplished significantly more than those who wrote action commitments or did not write their goals. (+21 percentage points)
  • Those who sent weekly progress reports to their friend accomplished significantly more than those who had unwritten goals, wrote their goals, formulated action commitments or sent those action commitments to a friend. (+33 percentage points)

Importantly, Matthews found that the improvement held up on goals ranging from completing a project, increasing income, increasing productivity, getting organized, enhancing performance/achievement, enhancing life balance, reducing work anxiety or learning a new skill.

Ready to stack the deck in your favor with a key goal for this year?

  1. Write it down.
  2. Email it to a friend.
  3. Set up a recurring meeting to send your friend a progress report.

Yes, you’ll be making yourself vulnerable and accountable—but you’ll also be setting yourself up for success.  Here’s to a successful and goal achieving 2018!

Learn more about Matthews study here.

 

About the Author

David  Witt

David Witt is a Program Director for Blanchard®. He is an award-winning researcher and host of the companies’ monthly webinar series. David has also authored or coauthored articles in Fast Company, Human Resource Development Review, Chief Learning Officer and US Business Review.

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