None of us likes to be viewed as a quitter (unless, perhaps, you want to quit smoking). As a result, when we tell people we're going to do something, a powerful inner urge is created to live up to the expectation that we've set. So, to increase your chances of accomplishing your goal, tell your friends what you're going to accomplish and by when-- and ask your friends to hold you accountable!

If you're serious about achieving your new goal, you're 40% more likely to accomplish it if YOU FIND A FRIEND, FAMILY MEMBER, OR ANOTHER PERSON to work on it with you.

Finding someone you know is best because you'll both have more fun working on it with that person, and you'll feel more positive peer pressure not to wimp out. And LifeTango.com can help. Once you create a goal on the site, you can set the "Share Level" to "Friend" and then use the site to send an invite to your friend to work on your goal with you. LifeTango will then help the two of you track your progress together.

Or perhaps your goal is private and you don't want to share it with someone you know. Or perhaps none of your friends or family members shares an interest in this goal. That's okay. You can search the LifeTango.com community to find someone who shares your interests. Just use the Search box (at the top of any page) to search for people with goals like yours.

Okay, in reality, there are some ways that are better than others to record your goals, but whichever way you choose, you're better off than not writing it down. But if you want to maximize your chances for success:

• Record it somewhere where it won't get lost. Slips of paper are too easily misplaced. (LifeTango gives you a place to record your goals without worrying that you'll lose them.)



• Post reminders so that you see the often. In fact, associate your goals with visual cues--like a picture of the house you want to buy or the vacation you want to take. (LifeTango lets you upload pictures and associate them with your goals.



• Create reminders between now and your target due date (LifeTango will automatically email you reminders as you approach your target date.)

First, if you set a goal that is too general, you won't know when you've accomplished it. If you wanted to lose 15 pounds, but you set a goal to simply "lose weight," you might give up after losing 5 pounds. Or you might lose momentum along the way because you didn't give yourself a specific target to shoot for.

Continuing the example from "Make it Measurable" above, it's better to set a goal that is positive than one that is negative. Yes, the goal to "Lose 15 pounds" is better than the goal to "Lose Weight," but better still is a goal to "Achieve a weight of 130 pounds" (or whatever your end target would be).

Any meaningful goal takes time to accomplish. But therein lies one of the hidden land mines that undermines our ability to accomplish our goals. At the beginning, we're excited and motivated, but it's natural for that excitement and motivation to wear off. Why? First, our lives get busy and we lose sight of our goal. Second, any real change is hard, and we all have a tendency to resist change--especially when it's hard. Finally, it's human nature to lose interest in things over time.

That's where milestones come in. Let's say you set a goal to pay off your credit card debts in one year. Great! Now figure out what you need to do in Month 1 to keep you on track to accomplish that goal by the end of the year. Do the same for Month 2, and so on.

Milestones help you do three things

• First, they help you make a goal that may seem unachievable more realistic by focusing you on smaller, more achievable tasks that help you on your path to the bigger goal.



• Second, they give you something to focus on in the short-term so you don't lose sight of your long-term goal.



• Third, they give you a sense of accomplishment and added motivation as you accomplish one and start on the next.

Finally, do something today. Not tomorrow. Not on Monday. Today.

Today. Today. Today.

When you do something, you send a signal to yourself that it's important to you.

As human beings, we want to act consistently (at least our subconscious wants us to act consistently). When we do something, we signal to our subconscious that that thing is important to us (and the more we do it, the more ingrained it becomes).

The more you do something, the more it becomes a part of how you see yourself, and once you come to view yourself in positive ways that are associated with your goal, you've won the battle.

My wife provides a perfect example of all of the recommendations above.

Tell Someone
A couple of years back, she decided to run a triathlon. First, she told her friends of her goal. The night before her first triathlon, she wanted to back out, but she couldn't stand the thought of facing her friends afterward and telling them she'd wimped out.

Set Milestones
She also found a training schedule. That schedule essentially provided a series of milestones she needed to achieve to be ready for the triathlon.

Make It Measurable
Her goals for her first triathlon were measurable (though admittedly they needed some refinement). Specifically, she didn't want to quit before she started, she didn't want to give up in the middle, and she didn't want to die.

Do it with a Friend
For that first triathlon, she didn't have a friend to do it with, but for her second race (a 10k), she and her sister decided to do it together--in other words, she found a friend she could work with on her goal.

Tell Someone
She also posted her 10k goal on LifeTango for her friends, family, and the broader LifeTango community to see.

Make It Measurable/Be Positive
Then for her second triathlon, she set a goal to complete it in under 75 minutes--a positive, measurable goal (and one that's a little more constructive than "not dying").

Do Something Today
Most importantly, however, by DOING IT (in this case, by spending a lot of time putting one foot in front of the other out on the pavement), she's come to view herself differently. We live in Western Washington where it rains a lot. When she first started, she said she wouldn't run in the rain. But an amazing thing happened…

One day, after coming back from her morning run, she said to me "Well, I'm a runner now."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I ran in the rain, so I guess I'm officially a runner," she said.

By DOING, my wife has come to view herself in a new light--she now views herself as a runner and she's set a goal to run a marathon. The fact that she's now completed two triathlons, a 10k, and a half marathon will all help her toward her goal of running a marathon, but perhaps the most important thing is that she views herself as a runner. It's what she does. She runs in the rain. It's what she pictures herself as, and that happened because she performed actions consistent with that vision until her inner view of herself was consistent with her outer actions.