Considering how 2021 is half over, your primary goal may be to survive what the year has to offer.
Maybe you’ll start a recurrent revenue stream or perhaps recruit a general manager. Or perhaps you’ve started planning your escape.
Whatever your objectives are, the most important thing you can do now is to determine how you intend to achieve them.
A Remarkable Study
Recent research published in the British Journal of Health Psychology emphasized this idea. The project’s goal was to explore how different stimuli affected participants’ levels of exercise. A random sample of volunteers was sorted into three groups by the researchers.
The researchers asked the first set of volunteers to keep note of how frequently they exercised. Before starting, they were instructed to read a paragraph from an unrelated book.
And for the second group, researchers wanted to see how motivation affected their exercise levels. The second group was likewise instructed to measure their activity levels and then read a motivational paragraph from a book that described the benefits of exercise for keeping a healthy weight.
The third group was requested to read the identical motivational passage as the second group but had the added duty of jotting down their activity objectives for the following week.
The Results
When the researchers sat down to study the data, they were astonished to discover that only 35% of the motivated group (group 2) exercised once each week. Although they were encouraged to exercise, they got somewhat less exercise than group 1 (36 percent).
When the researchers examined the third group’s activity diary, they were amazed to discover that 91 percent of them had exercised. The sole distinction between groups 2 and 3 was that the third group was required to note down their objectives. That simple step appears to have nearly increased their chances of success.
The researchers came to the conclusion that motivation alone has almost little influence on our behavior. Instead, motivation combined with a detailed action plan outlining how you intend to attain your goals greatly influences your outcomes.
Consider this as you prepare to make the rest of 2021 your finest year yet.