It just made too much sense not to be true! The oft-quoted Harvard Goal Setting Study stated that people who write down their goals are wildly more successful than those who do not. I’m a list guy myself from way back, so I have confirmed (to myself) the validity of this study in my own life every weekend by writing down my goals for Saturday morning.
I’m so much a list guy that if I do something NOT originally not on the list I write it on the list somewhere squished between two “real” goals so it looks more legit to my wife if she happens to come across it and realize what an amazing husband I am, but mainly it’s just so I can line it out.
So now I find out that the Harvard (or Yale) Study is just an urban/collegiate myth! According to Sid Savara in a follow-up to his blog posting entitled “Why 3% of Harvard MBAs Make Ten Times as Much as the Other 97% Combined” he discovered that no credible evidence has been found that the study was ever performed or existed. His mea culpa blog posting called Writing Down Your Goals – The Harvard Written Goal Study. Fact or Fiction? busted this very old myth. When something issues forth from the halls of Harvard (or Yale actually), who’s gonna need to fact-check it?
Makes you wonder how the goal study got started and when. The myth dates back to the 50′s so perhaps it started down in Roswell, NM. I’m just kidding here, please everybody let’s not start yet another urban myth! However, the fantastic statistics, juicy as they are, spread like wildfire – being passed around and or borrowed among and between all the self-help gurus out there including Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, and Zig Zigler.
I have to tell you that I was crushed by this bit of news. I liked the statistics that supported my habit of writing it down, get ‘er done, cross it off the list, be successful! I was about to throw out my Saturday “to do” pad destined to walk around Home Depot on Saturday mornings not knowing why I went there (that’s actually called a “habit” covered in another blog posting). I was in a daze.
Luckily, Sid the myth buster and amazing fact researcher, discovered that a small study was actually done on “Goals Research”. This real study validates the effectiveness of written goals. Personally, I think the study might have been originally on apathy or the virtue of fortitude since only 55% of the original participants actually completed the study.
I doubt that the researcher Gail Matthews, Ph.D called to find out where the missing 118 participants went to but I can conclude that they probably didn’t write the appointment down! Before the study even started – evidence mounted on the benefits of written goals but I digress.
Admittedly, the sample population of the study was small. However, I will grab on to it as proof that written goals are better than “in your head” goals. Goals and action commitments that are sent to a supportive friend are better than those written down and kept to yourself.
Finally, the best way to achieve your goals?
Make your goals and commitments to achieve them, write them down AND give weekly progress reports to a supportive friend. Do you have a supportive friend in business that will help you achieve your goals? No? How about a business coach as a faster way to your goals and thus your success?
Here’s the link to the researcher, Gail Matthews Ph.D. at Dominican University of California so you know she is a real person, and here’s a link to the results of her goals research study so you can read it for yourself.
