LifeTango.com Blog

It was a Friday evening last fall and my wife was nervous.  She’d set a goal to compete in her first triathlon and had trained diligently for the first few weeks, but then “life” had gotten in the way.  Too much to do, too little time, and as a result, training had taken a back seat.  So there she sat, the night before the triathlon, afraid she wasn’t ready, and wondering if she should drop out and wait to compete in another one the following spring.

Fortunately, Cara had done something that is critical to achieving your goals. At the time she hadn’t realized she was following a proven success technique, but she’d done it nonetheless.  And that one “thing” was perhaps more important than all of the training she’d done.

Early on, Cara had TOLD OTHERS about her goal.  In doing so, Cara had created an implied commitment to herself and her friends.

So, while the fear of the unknown (after all, Cara had never competed in a triathlon before, so she didn’t know what to expect), and the fear that she wasn’t ready were tugging at her to quit, Cara’s fear of telling her friends that she’d backed out was tugging at her to push forward.

The result? Cara competed in the triathlon, accomplishing three things she’d set out to do: (1) She didn’t quit before she started. (2) She didn’t die. And (3) she didn’t come in last.  In fact, she did pretty well for her first triathlon.  Since then, she’s run a 10k and is training for her next triathlon–with a goal this time of placing in the top 3 for her age group.  And most importantly, she’s still telling others what she plans to accomplish (plus now posting her goals on LifeTango.com).

Is there something in your life you really want to accomplish? Then set a goal (preferably using LifeTango) and TELL IT TO OTHERS.

Enjoy the journey!

Brent

We built LifeTango to help you get more fun, more fulfillment, and more “whatever you’re looking for” in your life. Here you can create your “life list” (the list of things you want to do in your life), share your list with friends and family, and find others in the LifeTango community who have similar interests or backgrounds.

But how did LifeTango get started? In the summer of 2004, my wife, Cara, and I were visiting friends in Minnesota when they told us about a “club” they had started with some friends. Like a book club, the group got together once a month, but instead of discussing books, they were creating and discussing the things they wanted to do in their lives. They would provide encouragement and support to one another, apply some friendly peer pressure, and when someone came up with a cool idea, other members would add it to their own lists.

Cara and I were inspired and started our own lists. Mine included things like going on vacation to Hawaii, writing a novel, getting in shape, and more. But a few months later, we’d misplaced our paper lists and weren’t making much progress.

Then it occurred to me–the internet is the perfect place to create a list you won’t lose, share your list with others (via email), and even find others across town or across the world who want to accomplish similar things.

There was only one problem–I’m not a web developer. I’m a marketing guy (and as any computer developer will tell you, marketing folks are barely one step ahead of the duck-billed platypus on the intellectual food chain). I took a shot at building the site, but . . . well . . . let’s just say you’ll never see MY version of LifeTango :).

That’s where Sean came in. A former roommate of mine in college, Sean’s been doing web development for the past decade. With his technical know-how, and my . . . well . . . uh . . . I brought the food (good food) to our brainstorming sessions . . . LifeTango was born. And after many late nights and long weekends, we’re proud to give LifeTango to you.

Hopefully, LifeTango will help you get more out of life by giving you a place to create your Life List, share it with friends and family (who can provide encouragement and support and even join you in accomplishing some of the things on your list), and find others in the LifeTango community who want to do similar things.

Let me know what you think by sending me email at brentj@lifetango.com, and most importantly, enjoy!

Brent