I just finished watching this great video on how to tenaciously pursue difficult goals.
There is really little have I have to add to what Dr. Hsieh mentions, except perhaps to expand on one of her suggestions - the usefulness of sharing your goals with others. Amongst many entrepreneurs and business owners, the concept of a master mind group essentially performs the same purpose. I don't like the name, but the concept is sound and I have been using it myself over the past year. Essentially, in a master mind group, you gather together a group of 2-5 individuals with similar goals and regularly discuss progress towards those goals. It informally creates a system of accountability. There have been months where, before we met, I start feeling rather sheepish because I did not complete the goals I had set for myself. Knowing that I was to meet and discuss my failure prompted me to get my butt in gear and actively work in ernest.
I really liked her disclaimer at the beginning though, about how tenacity is important, but only if you have the right goals. Tenacity toward bad goals is still bad. One of the reasons I have written so much about goal setting is because I realize just how important the selection of goals is to a happy, successful life.
Here in Miami Dade County Public Schools, they unveiled a new teacher assessment protocol a couple of years ago. Part of it was goal setting and making that goal public. The info cited studies that have shown that making goals public increases the likelihood of meeting them. You got any hard data on that?
ReplyDeleteCurtis, I don't have any hard data, but I would not be surprised if it exists. I'll see what I can find in the next few days.
ReplyDeleteHere is an article looking at public goal setting of emotionally disturbed students... not too far from being a public school teacher ;)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005789484800088