So . . . goals. I've certainly posted about my own goals here before. Clearly, I am in favor of setting them. But this post is going to dig a little deeper into the what and why of goals, prompted by two recent articles (on the same research) and a blog post by a literary agent.
The references (Feel free to go read them first, then come back here. Or skip them. Either way.):
Does Announcing Your Goals Help You Succeed?To Score, Keep Your Goals to YourselfA Post About DedicationWhen this subject was brought up over on
Forward Motion, Zette chimed in with a discussion of not making your goals dependent on other people for their fulfillment. That's *not* what these articles are talking about, and I'm not going to address that here.
The first article describes the experiments, performed on law students, which measured their perceptions of themselves (as given by questionnaires) against their actual behavior (study of difficult criminal cases). A second study rated intentions for work versus perceived status. In the first case, those who talked about the questionnaires did less work; in the second, those who talked about their intended work habits rated themselves as better jurists.
The second article talks about the application of these results to all issues of identity and high-order goals.
If you talk about something -- and you get the acknowledgment of the work you intend to do -- you may be less likely to do the work. For example, if I say I'm going to start getting up at 5:30 so I have time to do a full yoga workout each morning (not likely! I barely got out of bed in time to make the 7yo's lunch this morning before the school bus came.), the approval and "Atta girl!" comments will make me feel as if I've already done it -- so then, why do I need to do it?
However, that second article points out that it's not true for everyone. It quotes a life coach who credits feedback from others for motivating her to run a marathon and write a book. She says, "Where (public) recognition might get in the way of the goal is when people aren't ready to take on this new and improved aspect of themselves."
The blog post? That takes the opposite viewpoint: "the saying of it makes it real. Makes YOU accountable." However, she does make allowances for being uncomfortable with being public. She says even writing it down in a calendar allows us to dedicate ourselves to the task.
I would even say that how publicizing our goals makes us react may be different from goal to goal for the same person. For example, I have no problem posting my goals and progress with my writing in all its various forms -- outlining, writing, editing, brainstorming, whatever. I talk about them here, I talk about them in chat, I post on the goals threads on Forward Motion.
On the other hand, the two times in my life I got serious about losing weight, I never said a word to anybody. I did it for approval, yes, but I didn't want to tell the person whose approval I sought that I was doing it. That might have led to crushing personal rejection. My personal image couldn't afford the risk involved in talking about it. I didn't keep an exercise diary, I didn't note what food I ate or didn't eat, and I didn't measure myself and record the changes. But the weight and the inches came off.
I think the truth of the matter varies for every circumstance and person. If you feel that it will help you to share, do it. If you're better off holding the cards close to your vest, go with that. And if you find that you're not making as much progress as you hoped with whichever method you chose, try doing it the other way around for a while.
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