As we roll into the fourth quarter of the year, you may be starting to consider your
business goals for next year.
Given how 2021 has gone, maybe your primary ambition is to survive in 2022.
Perhaps you’re going to create a recurring revenue stream or finally hire that
general manager. Or maybe you’ve decided to start preparing for an exit.
Whatever your goals are, the most important thing you can do now is write down
your plan to achieve them.
A Revealing Study
This point was driven home recently by a study published in the British Journal of
Health Psychology.The project was designed to see what impact stimuli would have
on participants’ level of exercise. Researchers divided a random sample of
participants into three groups.
For the first group, the researchers asked the participants to track how frequently
they exercised. They were told to read a passage of an unrelated book before
beginning.
For the second group, researchers wanted to measure the impact that motivation
would have on their exercise levels. The second group was also asked to track their
activity levels and were then told to read a book’s motivational passage that
outlined the benefits of exercise for maintaining a healthy weight.
The third group was asked to read the same motivational excerpt as the second
group but had the additional task of writing down their exercise goals for the
coming week.
The Results
When the researchers sat down to analyze the results, they were surprised to find
that among the motivated group (group 2), just 35% exercised once per week. That
was slightly less exercise than group 1 (36%) even though they were motivated to
workout.
When the researchers analyzed the third group’s exercise log, they were stunned to
find that 91% of them had worked out. The only difference between groups 2 and 3
was that the third group was asked to write down their goals. That simple task
seems to have almost tripled their likelihood to succeed.
The researchers concluded that motivation alone has virtually no impact on our
actions. Instead, it is motivation coupled with a written action plan of how you’re going
to achieve your goals that has the most significant impact on your results.
Food for thought as you start thinking about making 2022 your best year yet.
