In January, we discussed the change plans my students were undertaking in their Advanced Organizational Behavior class. Since then, we reviewed each of the six sources of influence that Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, and Switzler’s (2011) identified in Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success.
The Six Sources of Influence (In Review)
Source 1 – Personal motivation (What do you need to do to “love what you hate?”)
Source 2 – Personal ability (How will you “do what you can’t?”)
Sources 3 & 4– Social motivation & social ability (What must you do to “turn accomplices into friends?”)
Source 5 – Structural motivation (How will you “invert the economy?”)
Source 6 – Structural ability (What will you do to “control your space?”)
Â
What Was Accomplished?
My students wrapped up their semester-long change plans in early May, but I did not think at that time to post the results. This is what happened:
- One student went off social media to spend that time in the scriptures. He reports being a lot happier as a result.
- Another student surveyed her co-workers about her behavior as a servant leader. She received pre- and post-test results to learn from her peers how much of a servant leader she was and she adjusted her behavior accordingly.
Most of the change efforts fell within one of two categories: Losing weight and saving money.
Losing weight:
- One student focused on eating right and limiting calories. She lost 8 lbs.
- Another tried to lose 30, but she only lost 11 lbs.
- Another student tried to lose 15 lbs. while he trained to run a 5K. He lost 11 pounds but he still has not yet run the 5K.
- Another student tried to lose 20 lbs., but she only lost 13 lbs.
- Another tried to lose 20 lbs., but she only lost 13.5 lbs.
- Another student tried to lose 30 lbs., but only lost 22 lbs.
- Only one student who set their sights on 30 pounds actually lost 30 pounds.
Losing 30 lbs. in three months is just remarkable. But consider the other failures that lost 11 or 13 pounds. Did they fail at their stated goals? Yes, but in just under three months that is about a pound per week. That sounds like success to me.
For those who fell short, I say, wait. Give it a few more months. If you keep doing what you are doing, you will get there.
Saving money:
- One student set out to save $1,000 over the course of the semester and saved $1,821.72.
- Another student set a goal of $3,000. She saved $3,065.
- Another set and reached her goal of $4,000.
- Another young lady set out to pay off $4,000 in debt and she reduced it by $5,728.
- Another cut every expense to the bone and saved more than $8,000.
Would you like to reap similar results? There is no secret here. Do what they did and you will get what they got. We began this project in late-January. As I write, it is late-April. It only took three months. You can achieve similar goals by the end of summer if you begin now and focus your energies on your goals.
What About You?
Complete this sentence: In three months I will: _____________________________________.
You know it can be done. I reviewed all of the tools you need to use to do it. What are you waiting for?
______________
Dr. Darin Gerdes is a Professor of Management in the College of Business & the Director of Educational Technology at Charleston Southern University. All ideas expressed on www.daringerdes.com are his own.
This post was originally created for Great Business Networking (GBN), a networking organization for business professionals where Dr. Gerdes is the Director of Education.