The Harvard and Yale Goals Studies A Myth, But…
Say What? The Harvard and Yale Goal Studies are Myths?
It’s true. They’re myths.
Thousands of articles cite a study done by Harvard back in 1979 that showed that the 3% of students who wrote down their goals earned 10 times more than their fellow students twenty years later. No such study was ever done. Nor was one done at Yale for the graduating class of 1953, as often mentioned as well.
Fast Company published an article in their Dec 1996/Jan 1997 issue completely refuting that these studies had ever been conducted. A version of the article in the magazine is published on their website here.
While the claims of these studies have fueled the sales of many a goal-setting program, and under false pretenses, there is ONE STUDY that provides some interesting results, done by Gail Matthews Ph.D., a clinical psychologist at Dominican University of California and a career and life coach .
Matthews admits that it was the perpetuation of the Harvard and Yale studies that prompted her to conduct her own research, and she has published her findings on the Dominican.edu website.
You can find the summary of that study here, but I’ll briefly summarize it for you as well.
Based on the participation of 149 adults (112 females and 37 males, ages 23 to 72) from the United States, Belgium, England, India, Australia, and Japan, in the fields of entrepreneurial, education, healthcare, art, human services, management, and more, up to and including C-level executives, Dr. Matthews found that those who set written goals, formulated action commitments, and recruited an accountability partner achieved significantly more than the others who did only a fraction of those things.
If you want to achieve more, according to this study, you should.
Set goals, and write them down
Make action commitments (to-do list or task list)
Make your goals known publicly to at least one person
Hold yourself accountable to that person with a weekly check-in.
For long term goals, all of these actions cement your commitment and ongoing progress which ultimately leads to a much higher completion rate for the goals you set.
Does this information give you “renewed resolve” to set and achieve your goals?
I will be launching an intensive goal-setting course on October 1st called Renewed Resolve. For more information on Setting and Achieving IMPACT Goals™ Starting Today, visit my page at www.MicheleJennae.com/RenewedResolve
