Sometimes it’s a great idea to tell others about your plans, especially if you can get them to hold you accountable. Announcing your progress toward a new habit might make you more likely to keep going with it, because your friends and colleagues will give you grief if you don’t. When it comes to plans you haven’t even started yet, though, shutting up about it turns out to be the best policy.
Psychological research suggests that people actually work harder to achieve their goals when they keep their intentions private. In one study, researchers split law students up into two groups and had them both answer a questionnaire about strategies for becoming better lawyers. One group went over their responses with the researchers afterward, and the other didn’t. When the students were asked to work on an optional legal research task, the group that kept their answers quiet worked much harder.
When you discuss your goals with others, you’re achieving much of the psychological satisfaction of actually accomplishing those goals, and psychologists say that makes you less likely to actually do your work. It’s easier and more tempting than ever to discuss future plans, with the widespread adoption of Twitter, Facebook and blogs. These are all great tools for promoting work you’ve already done, but don’t let them sabotage the work you have yet to do.
Changing the way you talk about what you plan to do might help you change the way you think about it. If you really can’t stand not to share your brilliant idea, don’t brag about it as if it’s already done. Instead, ask the person you’re sharing with to make sure you stay on track toward actually accomplishing what you’re blabbing about.
Software developer Eoghan McCabe puts it quite succinctly on his blog:
Hamlet worries about what dreams may come after his suicide, but oftentimes shared dreams are suicide themselves. So I suggest you try the opposite: shut up and get busy. There’s nothing sweeter than sharing a secret worth sharing.
Do you announce your goals, or do you tend to keep them to yourself? Let us know what works for you by leaving a comment.
Jay is a freelance writer based in Seattle, WA. He blogs about software for Download Squad and contributes interviews to Geek Monthly magazine, among others. You can also find him on Twitter.
Photo Credit – gustty
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A study. One study. A new theory based on the observations of one small group.
Here is another interpretation. The group that shared their stories, didn’t work as hard on subsequent exercises because it wouldn’t make them better lawyers. It was an experiment and the outcome has no effect on their real world. If you follow these lab rats for the next 20 years, then analyze their accomplishments (success), it might have some bearing. Pseudo-science….bah
NOT sharing your goals, means you can delude yourself into believing you succeeded. When you didn’t reach the level of your inner thoughts, you just share a lesser version of your dreams. No one knows what you really wanted to achieve!