The Spartan Way: Eat Better. Train Better. Think Better. Be Better.

by Joe De Sena

Pride. Use it to your advantage. You can make public accountability even more effective by posting your commitment goals on social media and frequently updating your progress. Here’s an example: In an experiment, researchers at Dominican University of California recruited 267 people from businesses, organizations, and networking groups for a study on goal achievement and accountability. The participants were randomly assigned to five groups: Group 1 was asked to only think about business goals they wanted to accomplish in a four-week period and rank them by importance, and difficulty. Groups 2 to 5 were given the same task but were instructed to actually write down their goals and rate them on paper. Group 3 was also asked to write an action plan for each goal. Group 4 also wrote an action plan but was asked to share their goals and action commitments with a friend. Group 5 went the farthest by doing all of the above, but each also sent a detailed weekly progress report to a friend. At the end of the study, the people who used more commitment tools achieved significantly more of their goals. Lead researcher Gail Matthews, PhD, reported that in Group 5, which publicly committed to their goals and shared weekly progress updates, 76 percent of participants either completed or nearly completed their goals. Compare that to just 43 percent of participants in Group 1, who only thought about their goals.