How
are you doing on your New Year’s Resolutions? If staying
focused and gaining momentum are important to you right
now, it might be the perfect time to enlist a friend to
support you in achieving your goals.
Using a "buddy system" can be one of the most powerful
ways to keep you on track and accelerate your success when
you are trying to make a change in your life.
Consider this:
- Of the top ten ways to quit smoking, doing it alone
has about a 25% success rate, while getting involved
with a program that utilizes the buddy system has a 50%
success rate.
- Universities have discovered that expanding the
buddy idea into learning communities for freshman raises
their grades.
- Manufacturing plants use buddy systems to
effectively manage quality control.
- Health Care initiatives encourage the use of buddies
because the act of helping someone else make a change
motivates people to keep going on their own plans.
I used to think it was somehow "cheating" to ask for
help in achieving my goals. But if I look back on the
greatest successes in my life, they all happened with the
support of a mentor, friend, or team. Working with a buddy
created an energy that propelled me towards my goals more
powerfully than all the individual passion and motivation
I could muster. Interestingly, the goals I continue to
fall short on are the ones I stubbornly pursue on my own.
How can you use the power of a buddy to double your
chance of success?
- Find one or more people with a similar goal and
agree to meet regularly to share your progress, solve
problems together, and commit to action items.
- Choose someone who will support your success, but
has nothing to gain or lose by your success. Someone who
"needs" you to succeed will not always be open to your
choices. By the same token, even your best friend will
have a hard time supporting you if you are competing for
the same job.
- Choose someone who is confident enough to be direct.
If they always agree with you so they won’t hurt your
feelings, you are missing the chance to be challenged.
- Make a commitment with your buddy to support each
other fully until you each reach your vision of success.
Also, To hear a radio interview I did recently about
how to create a support system for yourself, you can
download or listen to this file:
Tools\show_937911.mp3
