Gary P. Latham

But it makes sense for us as individuals as well.

Scientifically speaking, Edwin Locke and Gary Latham synthesized more than 400 research studies on goal theory.

They explained that there is a linear relationship between the degree of goal difficulty and performance.

specific difficult goals lead to higher performance than no goals, as well as vague abstract goals, such as do your best.

There's decades of research backing up what we've just talked about.

So Edwin Locke and Gary Latham's goal-setting theory, one of the most replicated findings in organizational psychology, shows that specific difficult goals consistently produce higher performance than vague goals or easy goals.

This is across hundreds of studies.

It's not even close.

To answer that, we leave the realm of philosophy and corporate history and we enter the hard empirical science of goal setting theory.

Specifically, the decades of exhaustive research conducted by psychologists Edwin Locke and Gary Latham.

This is where we get into the actual gears of human achievement.

Locke and Latham spent years trying to isolate the simplest, most effective variable that explains why some individuals perform radically better than others on the exact same task.

And borrowing a few concepts from Edwin Locke, a pioneer of goal-setting theory, can aid you in creating your own plan.

In his book entitled A Theory of Goal-Setting and Task Performance, Locke and his colleague Dr. Gary Latham outlined five key principles that must be in place in order to motivate us to succeed in the pursuit of our goals.

Principle number one, clarity.

If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right the first time.