Name: Here is Why You Should Never Tell People Your Goals
Uploaded: 2018-07-31T04:48:56.000Z
Duration: 4 min 43 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

One of the mistakes that I have probably committed hundreds of times is telling people about my goals.

Because most of the times, especially if I let people know about them, I do not achieve them,

and it feels horrible when you say that you are going to achieve something, and then you end up achieving absolutely nothing for one reason or another.

I might simply lose interest in the middle of a project and quit, or I might reset my priorities and postpone it!

I've always felt that telling people about your goals isn't the most effective method, but I never implemented it.

I tried couple of times, but sometimes I would forget about it in the middle of a long conversation.

When your friend asks you, "So what are you going to do next?" and then you do it unconsciously!

We all have been in that situation, because we all have personal goals.

Losing weight, learning how to play a guitar, go to the gym, travel, start jogging every morning, start your own business, learn a new language, write your first blog and so on and so forth.

We constantly set personal goals and we have this tendency to share them with people, as if we are seeking some kind of approval.

Didn't I tell you that I am starting a Youtube channel soon?

In fact, some people think that will encourage them.

When I tell people about my goals, won't I feel more accountable?

Ａ the end of the day, I have made a public commitment. Therefore, I will more likely work on that.

If I won't, I might find myself in an embarrassing situation.

Or when I tell my family about it, they might encourage me and motivate me.

Unfortunately, it doesn't really work that way.

Your friends might congratulate you but no one really cares about your goals except yourself.

But If you give it a closer look, whenever you tell people about your goals, in 95 percent of the cases, you do not achieve them.

As if you start losing interest in pursuing your goal right after telling people about it!

Something magical happens and you no longer have that motivation that you had before.

On the other hand, you usually achieve your goals, if you publicly do not talk about them.

It might seem strange, but there is a reasonable explanation behind it.

There are multiple studies that have been done to prove this, but let's take a look at one of them by Peter Gollwitzer.

163 people were asked to write down their goals.

Half of them publicly announced their goals, and the other half stayed silent.

In fact, those who announced their goal publicly in front of everyone, said that they are feeling very close to achieving them.

Soon after, everyone was given a task of 45 minutes, to work on something that will directly lead them to their goals.

The only rule was that, you can stop any time you want!

The surprising part was that, those who were silent about their goals worked the entire 45 minutes on average and said that there is still a long way for them to go,

while those who publicly talked about their goals worked on average only 33 minutes and stopped.

Sharing your goals will give you a fake feeling of achievement.

It will make you feel good as if you are bragging about it.

Especially when your friends congratulate you for that, you feel as if you already achieved them.

The gratification that public acknowledgment brings can delude your brain to mistake the talking for doing.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that you should not write down your goals and just keep them in your mind.

As a matter of fact, you are more likely to achieve them if you write them down, and come up with a practical plan!

Because if you just keep them in your memory, they will fade away slowly.

But be careful when you talk about your goals.

In fact, I would suggest, be completely silent about them until the moment you achieve them.

As they say, work hard in silence, let success make the noise.

And if someone still insist on asking about your goals, try to avoid the question or give a general answer, or use one of the tactics I suggested in the previous video which link you can find in the description.

And now it's your turn, what do you think?

Do you usually talk about your goals, or you just prefer to stay silent about them? Let me know in the comments below.

And as always, hit that like button if you have enjoyed this video and if you don't want to miss the next video, then hit this subscribe button and the bell besides it.

Thanks for watching and I will see you in the next one.