How you can guarantee success with the goals you set

Last week I talked about three critical steps towards setting and achiveing goals. In that I had mentioned about a research done by Harvard Universtiy on graduating students, and they found that only 3 per cent of the students had set written goals and ten years later, they were the ones who were most successful amongs the peer group.

In fact, the research did not stop there. A few years later, another University (Dominican University) carried out slightly more elaborate research. They divided participants into five groups: one simply thought about their goals; a second group wrote their goals down; another wrote their goals and formulated action steps to reach these goals; a fourth group was asked to write down their goals, formulate action steps, and send their goals and steps to a friend; and a fifth group wrote down their goals, formulated action steps, sent their goals and steps to a friend, and created weekly reports on progress towards the goal. The test was conducted over the period of a month and a total of 149 participants were part of the study.

What do you think the research showed?

The participants in the study who simply thought about their goals scored a 4.28 on a scale of 8 in terms of achieving their goal where 0 is no progress made and 8 is goal fully accomplished. However, those in the last group who wrote down their goals, formulated action steps, sent their goals and steps to a friend, and created weekly reports on progress towards the goal scored 7.6.

Isn't this a powerful evidence?

In the past couple of years, I have been fascinated by the stories of some very successul people. What makes them succeed, and achieve extra-ordinary things in life? I used to think success comes with luck, being in the right place at the right time, and all that. In the past one year, I have enrolled myself in a mastermind group with a very well known coach, and this has given me opportunity to study some very successful people in business and social sector. Every month we get together on a Wednesday and visit a successful entrepreneur, some of who have acquired almost a celebrity status in their fields. What I find amazingly common among all these men and women is that they almost followed the same script: written goals, action plans, social commitment of their goals and follow through. They do this with such consistency that it becomes a habit, no matter if the goal is big or small.

More on this in my ebook. If you are interested to see how this can transform your life, click here and register. I will send you a free copy.