The topic of following through doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves. Given that poor follow through robs us of success and that learning how to follow through better makes people more productive and satisfied, shouldn’t the topic resonate more with more people? Out of desperation, I asked Artificial Intelligence why people don’t take following through more seriously. You may be as surprised as I was by AI’s thorough and insightful answer.

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A Follow Through Master program enrollee who recently re-discovered the Right Before Wrong follow through strategy is convinced that this strategy deserves a lot more attention than it gets. Although Right Before Wrong may not be quite as bold as some of the other follow through strategies, she reports that it’s been extremely easy to use and remarkably effective.

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According to an AI search I did, an accountability partner is “a person who supports another in achieving personal, academic, or professional goals by providing regular check-ins, encouragement, and honest feedback.” But does it always have to be a person? (Spoiler alert: No!)

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A Follow Through program enrollee recently came across a 2023 interview that was featured on the popular The Art Of Manliness Podcast. He thought fellow enrollees might benefit from listening to the interview, and he urged me to mention it in a blog post. So, here goes.

Podcast host Brett McKay introduced the interview as follows: “You get really excited about an idea to start an exercise program, or become a better partner, or get organized. And then you do… nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

Come on in to read more and listen to the 1-hour podcast interview.

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It may seem counterintuitive and even reckless to set things up to AUTOMATICALLY make an extremely consequential decision like quitting your job based on whether or not something that’s barely relevant happens. But if you’re hopelessly stuck in the mud, inventing a somewhat arbitrary tiebreaker can help you get unstuck and move on. The strategy works by letting you essentially replace a decision you can’t make with one that nevertheless gets the job done.

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There’s a Catch-22 when it comes to following through: Although you can dramatically amplify your follow through ability by using follow through strategies, you need some natural follow through ability – let’s call it raw willpower — to use follow through strategies.

Bottom line: Unless/until you have enough raw willpower to make yourself use follow through strategies, you’ll be deprived of the truly impressive benefits that people who make a practice of using follow through strategies routinely enjoy.

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I’ve always been intrigued by what we can learn about one field by studying another field that seems on the surface to be totally unrelated.

That’s why years ago I decided to read a physics textbook just to see if physics might shed light on how to help people follow through on their own good intentions. To be honest, as I flipped through the pages, I stopped often to question my sanity. What could I possibly learn about following through in a physics book?

But guess what? I learned a lot.

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It’s that time again for New Year’s resolutions. But remember that a New Year’s resolution is really nothing more than the special holiday edition of the promises you make to yourself every day. Yes, a New Year’s resolution is a good intention with a bow on it. It’s a bold promise that’s prone to failure. In this blog post I offer some simple advice for increasing the chances that your New Year’s resolutions will succeed.

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Whenever you have an urge to do something that you don’t intend to do, it’s worth experimenting with ways to make it harder for you to do the wrong thing. The trick, of course, is to find the “sweet spot,” that is, to make it hard enough to violate your intention without making it so hard – so inconvenient — that you’ll quit making it hard!

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