Goal-setting, in both business and personal life, is extremely important. As Zig Ziglar said, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” Just having goals in mind isn’t the key to achieving your goals, though. Various studies, one of which is referenced below, have shown us the one thing you need to do to increase your chances of achieving your goals.
Setting Goals
As we roll into the second half of the year, you may be starting to consider your goals for next year.
Given how your year has gone, maybe your primary ambition is to survive until a more optimistic next year.
As a business owner, perhaps you’re going to create a recurring revenue stream or finally hire that general manager. Or maybe you’ve decided to start preparing for an exit.
Personally, you may have specific goals you’d like to achieve. Maybe your goals include a comfortable retirement, a dream vacation, becoming debt-free, eating better, or spending more time with your family.
Whatever your goals are, the most important thing you can do now is write down your plan to achieve them.
A Revealing Study
This point was driven home recently by a study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology. The project was designed to examine the impact of stimuli on participants’ exercise levels. Researchers divided a random sample of participants into three groups.
Group One: Baseline
For the first group, the researchers asked the participants to track how frequently they exercised. They were told to read a passage of an unrelated book before beginning.
Group Two: Motivated
For the second group, researchers wanted to measure the impact of motivation on their exercise levels. The second group was also asked to track their activity levels and then read a motivational passage from a book outlining the benefits of exercise for maintaining a healthy weight.
Group Three: Motivated & Documented
The third group was asked to read the same motivational excerpt as the second group, but had the additional task of writing down their exercise goals for the coming week.
The Results
When the researchers sat down to analyze the results, they were surprised to find that among the motivated group (group 2), just 35% exercised once per week. That was slightly less exercise than group 1 (36%), even though they were motivated to work out.
Wow! In this case, the motivation worked slightly against them rather than helping the participants achieve their goal.
When the researchers analyzed the third group’s exercise log, they were stunned to find that 91% of them had worked out. The only difference between groups 2 and 3 was that group 3 was asked to write down their goals. That simple task seems to have almost tripled their likelihood of succeeding.
The researchers concluded that motivation alone has virtually no impact on our actions. Instead, it is motivation coupled with a written action plan of how you’re going to achieve your goals that has the most significant impact on your results.
Food for thought as you start planning to make your next year your best yet.
Do you write down your goals?
If not, what’s holding you back from putting your goals in writing?
