GOALS: Why Your Last Goal Flopped (Part 1/4)

It happened again, didn’t it?

You set a goal for the new year. You got real inspired in early January. But now, your goal flopped.

When you missed one day, it wasn’t a big deal. You were busy.

Then you missed two and five and then ten days and then you started wondering if this goal was really for you after all.

That must have been someone else, right?

I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I’m trying to let you know you’re not alone.

I’ve let hundreds of goals fall to the side like this, and so has everyone else. But I’ve also accomplished dozens of big goals in my life—and so have you.

What’s the difference between those goals?

In this article, I’ll help you understand the four reasons why your last goal flopped. Then you can take that information and design better goals in the future.

Reason #1: You didn’t tell a friend

The biggest reason your goal flopped was because you didn’t tell a friend.

You didn’t have any accountability.

Everyone cites a popular study from Gail Matthews at Dominican University. It found that people were 50% more likely to achieve their goals if they wrote them down. But they were 77% more likely to achieve them if they told a friend and received a weekly accountability check-in.

Seventy-seven percent!

You can nearly double your chances of success by simply telling a friend and asking them to check in with you weekly.

Why is this?

“There’s something really powerful about groups and shared experiences. People might be skeptical about their ability to change if they’re there by themselves, but a group will convince them to suspend disbelief. A community creates belief.” A senior scientist at the Alcohol Research Group named Lee Ann Kaskutas said this to Charles Duhigg in an interview for his book The Power of Habit.

If we want something we’ve never had, we have to do something we’ve never done.

We have to be someone we’ve never been. But when we’re trying to change on our own, it’s hard to believe in ourselves.

A community helps us suspend disbelief long enough for the evidence to become undeniable. Next time you set a goal, find a friend.

Tell them about your goal and ask them ton check in with you weekly.

This will transform your nebulous, difficult dream into a concrete social reality that you can actually achieve.

Are you an overachiever?

Continue to next part: GOALS (Part 2)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4