Give Yourself The Semester
Another school year has begun. If not in your household, most likely in your neighbor's. Stores are stocked with supplies, and churches, masjids, and synagogues are blessing backpacks.
Although I no longer have kids in the house to shuttle out the door, or a class to get to myself, after 25 years in education the season is hard not to notice. And this year it struck me:
Students have more structured accountability built into their lives on an average Tuesday than most executives have in a whole year.
There is a start and end date to each term. Assignments with clear instructions and due dates. Teachers and principals to make sure you show up and work is turned in on time. When we graduate, most of this tends to go away. Most of us keep the ambition, but we lose the scaffolding.
Research from the Association for Talent Development, which I first came across in Stephen Newland's work, shows what that scaffolding is worth:
"Having an idea or goal: 10% likely to complete the goal"
"Consciously deciding that you will do it: 25%"
"Deciding when you will do it: 40%"
"Planning how to do it: 50%"
"Committing to someone that you will do it: 65%"
"Having a specific accountability appointment with someone you've committed to: 95%"
Students tend to sit at the end of the list (95% likely to achieve their goals), whereas most coaching clients come to me closer to 25%, just consciously deciding to achieve something.
Here is my encouragement. Pick a concrete goal and give yourself a semester.
Write it down and be specific. More than just some SMART objective, visualize what success will look like. If the goal is an annual salary of $175,000, that is good. However, it is better if you can picture your life once this goal is achieved: student loans paid off, the kids' college fund complete, an annual vacation, or a change in living arrangements.
Then set the due dates and put terms to it too. Make a syllabus and stick to it. Then lastly — and this is the most important part — find yourself a professor to hold you accountable.
That last part is the element many people skip, and it's worth 30 percentage points. Telling someone your goal is 65%. Sitting down with them every other Thursday to report on it is 95%.
Yes, it can be awkward and uncomfortable to have accountability, because you have to agree in advance to a time when you might have to say, "I didn't do it." That discomfort isn't a flaw in the system, though. It's what makes the system work, and it's why I love coaching.
What's your one goal for this semester? How can b3 Remarkable help you achieve it?
