photo credit Ethan Bloch
Sadly, we aren’t very good at being accountable to ourselves.
Oh, we start each New Year with the best of intentions. And then slowly – or sometimes quite quickly – it gets a bit harder, we break the resolution “just this once”. And next thing you know, it’s the next New Year’s Eve, and we’re making the same resolution agin. And this time we mean it, and we are really, really going to achieve it?
Sound familiar? No? Just me then?
Here are some secrets that Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig know that you should too.
The secret formula to their success is not some magic potion in their diet plans. It’s not some secret tool or chart they give you. The secret formula is being accountable to someone else.
You pay your money (that’s the committment) and then you have to turn up each week and get weighed and talk about how you have gone with your diet and exercise plan (that’s the accountability). And if you have fallen off the wagon, you confess AND MOVE ON. That’s right – falling off the wagon doesn’t mean the end of the goal achievement plan. You just brush is aside and get on with the plan, no excuses.
The study on goal setting by Gail Matthews from Dominican University demonstrated that those participants who made public committments to a friend were more likely to achieve their goals, and those who wrote weekly progress reports (accountability) were even more likely to achieve their goals.
Study on goal setting by Gail Matthews, PhD, Dominican University
So the question is – how do you set up this accountability, with someone who will hold you accountable? For weight loss programs, there are many options as discussed briefly above. Exercise accountability can be set up by hiring a personal trainer, or setting a regular meeting with a friend to exercise together (providing you don’t both make excuses for each other). Career or financial goals can be through an executive coach, smoking cessation might be with your doctor. Get your team together and set up the mechanisms – make yourself accountable for what you want to achieve!
This post is part of a series on goal-setting. Others are below:
Goal Setting – Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!
Goodbye to old (bad) habits
It’s about the JOURNEY (as well as the goal)
Harvard Business School study….or urban internet myths
Being Accountable
Mudmap
