In the vacuum of our solitary lives, when faced with an extremely difficult or scary task we usually quit partway through or don’t even bother starting.
Diets are abandoned. Gym memberships go unused. Projects languish.
The dropout rate for online classes is around 96%. That’s not a typo. Only 4% of people who start an online course from their cozy, quiet living room go on to complete the course.
However, that changes when everyone’s watching you. It’s much harder to quit. Social pressure can be powerful fuel for surmounting the difficult and scary.
So use it to your advantage. Commit publicly to a new task or goal and be sure that friends and family who will keep you accountable know about it.
Give a friend $100 and tell her she can keep it if you don’t drop 5% of your body fat in eight weeks.
Announce a new project on your favorite social network and give your friends permission to get on your case if you don’t post weekly updates.
If you’re unable to finish difficult things, perhaps the pressure you put on yourself isn’t enough. The pressure your networks can put on you may be just the thing.