Long-Term Goals = Success? Read online You've probably heard of the “Yale Goal Study". Here's the study. In 1953, researchers interviewed Yale’s graduating class. They asked a simple question: “Have you written down your goals for life?” Twenty years later, they tracked the same students down. And discovered something dramatic. Just 3% had written specific goals. And that 3% had built more personal wealth than the other 97% combined. It’s a perfect self-help story, with a simple lesson. Make...

Commitment Devices Read online Often we plan to do something and don't. Donating blood, going on a run, watching that webinar. We want to, but forget. This drives marketers insane. People sign up for their events—but no one comes. Katy Milkman, a brilliant professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, found a solution¹. She used a commitment device. Milkman and her colleagues teamed up with a large American utility firm to see if they could prompt more of the company's...

Incentives: Do they work? Read online I've been critical of incentives in the past, citing examples where they backfire. But this¹ incredible 2016 study altered my opinion. Across 63 schools, 10,649 pupils in their final year of GCSEs took part in an experiment. The schools in the study. The students were split into three groups: Control group: these students received no financial incentives Financial rewards: would receive to £320 for attendance, behaviour, classwork and homework...