Okay, so I listened to a new TED talk today (I swear I will write about other things in the future). This one was really interesting and I had to share. Derek Sivers spoke on the idea of keeping your goals to yourself. He stated that psychology tests have shown that when you tell someone your goal it makes the goal less likely to happen. Apparently, telling someone tricks your mind into feeling and thinking that the goal has been achieved so you never actually get around to doing it! I have actually heard something about this before. I’ve heard writers say that you shouldn’t talk about what you are writing, because once you write it you have no need to put it down on paper. I’ve also sort of experienced it for myself. When I start a new eating plan and don’t talk about it, I tend to lose weight, but the second it’s noticeable and people say something to me I start cheating. I feel like the pay off has come even though I’m not actually at my goal. Also, when I tell people that I’m dieting I seem to cheat all the time!
Now clearly, I have put goals on this site and I’ve talked about my weekly personal challenges, and for those I think it’s fine. You all are my accountability. I want to be able to come back and say I accomplished what I set out to do. And I’m not going to quit writing about the idea of goals or how to set them or even some of the mini-ones I set for myself, but for the bigger stuff, I totally get this line of thinking. Think of your goal, write it down, put it on your bulletin board, bathroom mirror, cell phone wallpaper. Make it as in YOUR face as possible. Just keep it from everyone else.
