Does Telling Everyone About Your Goals Make You More Likely to Achieve Them?
I read a blog post a couple of months ago that talked about the question of making your goals public or not. The article cited a psychology study conducted in 2008 involving 63 law students whose goal was to read more law journals. It tested whether the ones who announced their goal in public were more likely to follow through with their intention.
In the past, it has generally been thought that announcing your goals in public is a good thing. The idea is that by committing publicly to a course of action, you increase the stakes and make giving up on your goal not just disappointing to you, but socially unacceptable too. People don’t want to look bad in front of their friends and family and get the all too familiar “I told you so”.
Well, that’s the conventional wisdom. But this study found the opposite result. Students who told everyone didn’t follow through on their goals as much as students who kept it quiet.
How can this be? Well, the study said that depending on the nature of the goal, you could actually be sabotaging your chances of success by telling others. Basically, goals where your intent is to be a “better person” are bad for public commitments. An example illustrates this best:
Let’s say Bob decides to tell his friends he is going to run a marathon in a year’s time. His reason for running the marathon is to “be a healthier person”. If he announces his goal to his friends, they will probably say things like: ”Wow, Bob you’re so health conscious. It’s so impressive that you are going to push yourself and do a marathon. You must really take your health seriously. I could never do that”.
In this case, Bob has received social approval from his friends just by declaring his goal. He feels like “a healthier person” from their praise without even having to put on his running shoes. In this case, his motivation to actually do the marathon is lowered because he has already received positive validation.
On the other hand, if Bob was running the marathon for a more concrete reason like losing 20 pounds weight, then his motivation is unaffected by his friends’ praise. They can compliment him all he likes, it still won’t make his waistline any smaller.
I must admit I was initially a bit sceptical of this theory. Surely, Bob would still be motivated to complete the marathon, because if he doesn’t then he looks foolish in front of his friends. His motivation for acting would be the thought of his friends saying “I told you so”.
But when you think about it, in the real world, how many of Bob’s friends would even remember that Bob had pledged to do the marathon a year later (when the race was scheduled). Hardly any. And the ones that remembered probably wouldn’t say anything. And probably on a subconscious level, Bob would know this. He would realise that there were really no negative public consequences to not completing the marathon.
Maybe there is something to this theory then? Maybe public announcments don’t work as an incentive, because most of our friends and family are too self-absorbed to remember that we made any announcements in the first place? And we know that they are self-absorbed, so we don’t get any extra motivation from telling them?
In fact, this week, I had my own personal experience with public announcements. On Monday’s blog post about How to Eat Less, I talked about how I changed my eating habits and lost weight, just by changing my approach to food. I received a lots of social approval from friends who read the post.
Following this, for some reason, I almost instantly felt less motivated to think about what I was eating. For the last month, I had been consciously thinking about every food choice I made. In the last two days since the post was published however, I’ve abandoned all caution and ate anything and everything.
Could it be, because I had approached my new food habits with a goal of “being more healthy” instead of a firm weight loss target, that as soon as I got positive validation for my behaviour, I had lost significant motivation to continue with my actions. Was this because my friends’ approval signalled to me on a subconscious level that I was already a healthy person? Interesting…
Action Step
Think about your goals. Are they firm concrete targets or more about being a “better person”. If they are firm targets, shout them from the rooftops. If not, keep it quiet for now because to quote the Gambler: “There’ll be time enough for counting when the dealing’s done.”
Have you had any experiences of telling people a goal and despite the threat of public shame you still didnt complete it? Let us know in the comments section.
See also:
Intersting post.
I think with goals it is vital that you know Why you want to achieve something. In my experience people are good at explaining the What but less effective at articulating the Why.
I also came across an interesting thought that the Why needs to bigger than the How.
So I think accountability helps when it comes to goals but ultimately the desire needs to be there in the first place.
Duncan Brodie
Goals and Achievements
http://www.goalsandachievements.co.uk/
[Reply]
Comment by Duncan Brodie — August 6, 2009 @ 10:50 am
Wow. This was such an excellent post. In my experience there are certain people you don’t tell your goals too, because they actually send an energy that can actually slow the success of it. It sounds strange but I think when you are too open about your goals to certain people that want the same thing as you, but aren’t in a position to get there, a jealous energy is created, and slows the progression. That’s just my personal experience. It’s best to set goals that excite you, and keep it with you. Telling people your goals just to get their “approval” may backfire…
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Comment by Baker — August 6, 2009 @ 5:57 pm
I love the topic of this post! I had a love/hate relationship with this concept about making goals public, in order to help motivate me to accomplish them. I tried this theory out by doing my 7 day challenge, and the accountability factor did squat for making me want to achieve my goals! I found that I’m what too stubborn, and wanting to please others is not motivation enough to make me want to pursue my goals! I have found that the best aspect of this is the support that other people can give you. Not just BS ego building, but really just positive enthusiasm to help you keep going when you don’t really feel like it.
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Comment by Karen — August 6, 2009 @ 10:59 pm
Thanks for quoting/spreading my post. Honestly I think you did it better than my original. I really like your Bob and the marathon example.
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Comment by Derek Sivers — August 7, 2009 @ 12:36 am
@Duncan
Thanks for the comment.I totally agree. Public shame is nowhere near as effective as a strong why.
@Baker
Thanks for the comment.
A cynical friend of mine often says: “Half of your friends don’t want you to succeed, and the other half don’t care if you succeed. So don’t tell any of them!”
@Karen
That’s a good point. Motivation can be positive (”You can do it”) as well as negative based (”If you don’t do it then…”).
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
@Derek
Glad you liked the post. I appreciate the kind words.
[Reply]
Comment by Kaizan — August 7, 2009 @ 1:55 am
I would agree in certain contexts. Reading a law journal or saying that you will study more is not a goal that people around you would be able to measure. They would just have to take your word for it. Once you make a claim like this, if you are judged as a truthful person or someone very interested in the law most people would believe you until you flunked a test or were kicked out of your law program for bad grades.
However, if you make a committment to people who are involved in the same arena as you and can view your results or progress then that’s a different story. (Basketball team, charity organization, etc.)
[Reply]
Comment by Bakari — August 8, 2009 @ 4:57 pm
Kaizan, I have always been very private about my goals and I don’t think it impacts whether I achieve them or not. I think that has more to do with my personality than anything else though. So I believe it is not just a public vs. private thing but also dependent upon the personality of the person involved. Some people are driven by external influences and others like me are driven by internal influences.
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Comment by Stephen - Rat Race Trap — August 8, 2009 @ 5:43 pm
Interesting post! I always ponder about this idea. It makes sense though. Usually in my family, when I speak about my goals, I would get negative feedback that would act as demotivators; whereas the glory and appreciate feels much better.
It’s also a personal issue with me. I feel that all talk and no action deserves no respect. I’m a man of my word; if I say something I’m going to strive to accomplish it. I don’t really see these goals as proving anything to the world or anyone for that matter, but myself. It’s about me and my character; not my reputation. I try to avoid any negative feedback whenever possible and for the close friends that can encourage, I might share a few words.
Great post! I didn’t know there was actually a study done on it. That’s fascinating! I enjoyed reading this post. Thanks for sharing!
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Comment by taney — August 9, 2009 @ 5:02 pm
For me it depends on who I tell. The farther removed they are from me the better. Telling people makes me feel accountable if I dont take the steps necessary to achieve my goals. When I tell the people closest to me (close as in related, not really a huge part of my life), I get negative feedback. Though I can see though the lines, its still discouraging.
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Comment by Carla — August 10, 2009 @ 3:23 am
Fascinating post, I think that Bakari makes an excellent comment in that accountability plays a huge part. I would also like to add that not everyone has the same motivations or the same fears. For myself, making my goals known to the those whom I hold in high esteem is as good as a promise, as I would hate for them to think I didn’t make every effort possible to live up to my obligations. On the other hand, I have friends that will swear they will lose weight, end a bad relationship, stop drinking/smoking/insert your vice here time and time and time after time again when it is obvious that, as soon as they have the chance, they will go back to their old habits.
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Comment by Tyler@Feet to the Fire — August 11, 2009 @ 3:11 am
I think it varies for all people. For me, I love showing off. Not the extravagant way or the a#$%^&* way, but in sports mainly. I love trying to be the best and when I succeed at goals I have told others, I love it even more. But to do so, I usually share my aspirations and through that succeed.
Still great thoughts in your blog!
Dave
LifeExcursion
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Comment by Dave — August 11, 2009 @ 2:42 pm
One of my friends always tells me ‘we will see…’ makes me want to prove to them i can do it!
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Comment by Jessica — August 17, 2009 @ 4:40 pm
I really appreciated this post. My gut reaction to the title was “Of course it does!”, but I was aware from the start that I didn’t have any hard evidence to back that feeling up. I think there’s probably even more complexity to the issue–like Jessica’s point about how people react to what you’re announcing, and Bakari’s about the people who hear being closely involved in what you’re trying to accomplish–and I’d love to learn more about this over time (and intend to!); thanks for the great introduction to this issue.
Luc
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Comment by Luc Reid — August 20, 2009 @ 2:18 pm
Great post and I like the research component! In my personal experience with telling or not telling others my goals it has seemed that when I get approval and approbation for the goal it seems like it leaches my drive…well that led me to trying it the other way. Then I waited for others to notice. This worked well for me on things like weight loss.
Zig Zigler had some interesting comments on who to tell about your goals. With what he called “go up” goals, things like becoming the best salesman in a group, he said that you only tell those who can help you get there. And you DONT tell the current best salesman… lol.
At the end of the day I think what motivates you to achieve a goal is very individual. My thought is keep track of what works for you by writing it down, after a few times you begin to get a sense of your motivation buttons.
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Comment by Wayne Key — August 24, 2009 @ 5:26 pm
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