A long rumored Harvard study once found that the 3% of the population which makes the effort to write down their goals makes over ten times as much as the other 97% combined. While further research has shown that this study was never actually conducted, it has spurred a number of other research tests to see how one can maximize their chances of achieving their goals.
One of these research studies was conducted by Dominican University, where participants were divided into five groups, one which simply thought about their goals, one which wrote their goals down, one which wrote their goals and formulated action steps to reach these goals, one which wrote down their goals, formulated action steps, and sent their goals and steps to a friend, and a final group which 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 so it was for short term goals and a total of 149 participants were part of the study.
The research findings showed that of the participants in the study who simply thought about their goal 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.
Hence, this research supported the positive effective of accountability as those who sent progress reports to friends accomplished more than those who did not. The positive effect of written goals was also supported as those who wrote down their goals accomplished significantly more than those who did not.
So, what is the moral of the story and how does it apply to web entrepreneurs and bloggers? Well, if you want to accomplish your goals, find out what you want to do, both in the short term and long term. Once you have a list of goals, write them down and create a series of action steps that you must do reach your goals. Lastly find a family member or friend and share your goals and the steps that you will take to accomplish your goals with them. Then check in with them on a weekly basis to share the progress you have made towards reaching your goals.
This post was written by Aditya Mahesh, founder of AMBeat Wire, the ultimate social news website for web entrepreneurs and bloggers.