92 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
92 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
---
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created_at: '2014-03-30T17:18:04.000Z'
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title: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)
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url: https://sivers.org/zipit
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author: diggan
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points: 70
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story_text: ''
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 21
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story_id:
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story_title:
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story_url:
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1396199884
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_diggan
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- story_7496923
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objectID: '7496923'
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year: 2009
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---
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[Articles](/blog):
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# Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them
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2009-06-16
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Shouldn’t you announce your goals, so friends can support you?
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Isn’t it good networking to tell people about your upcoming projects?
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Doesn’t the “[law of
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attraction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_attraction_%28New_Thought%29)”
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mean you should state your intention, and visualize the goal as already
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yours?
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Nope.
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Tests done since 1933 show that **people who talk about their intentions
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are less likely to make them happen**.
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**Announcing your plans to others satisfies your self-identity just
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enough that you’re less motivated to do the hard work needed.**
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In 1933, W. Mahler found that if a person announced the solution to a
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problem, and was acknowledged by others, it was now in the brain as a
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“social reality”, even if the solution hadn’t actually been achieved.
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NYU psychology professor [Peter
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Gollwitzer](http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gollwitzer/) has been studying this
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since his 1982 book “[Symbolic
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Self-Completion](https://books.google.com/books?id=29xuRaMr1sIC&hl=en)”
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([pdf article
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here](http://interruptions.net/literature/Wicklund-BASP81.pdf)) — and
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recently published results of new tests in a research article, “[When
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Intentions Go Public: Does Social Reality Widen the Intention-Behavior
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Gap?](http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gollwitzer/09_Gollwitzer_Sheeran_Seifert_Michalski_When_Intentions_.pdf)”
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Four different tests of 63 people found that **those who kept their
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intentions private were more likely to achieve them** than those who
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made them public and were acknowledged by others.
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Once you’ve told people of your intentions, it gives you a “premature
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sense of completeness.”
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You have “identity symbols” in your brain that make your self-image.
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**Since both actions and talk create symbols in your brain, talking
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satisfies the brain enough that it “neglects the pursuit of further
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symbols.”**
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A related
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[test](http://psycnet.apa.org/?fa=main.doiLanding&doi=10.1037/0022-3514.91.2.232)
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found that **success on one sub-goal** (like eating healthy meals)
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**reduced efforts on other important sub-goals** (like going to the gym)
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for the same reason.
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It may seem unnatural to keep your intentions and plans private, but
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[try it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V68SMFrpFt8). If you do tell a
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friend, make sure not to say it as a satisfaction (“I’m going to run a
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marathon\!”), but as dissatisfaction (“I want to lose 20 pounds, so kick
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my ass if I don’t,
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OK?”)
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Thanks to [Wray Herbert](https://twitter.com/wrayherbert)’s
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[article](http://www.newsweek.com/does-announcing-your-goals-help-you-succeed-79645)
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about this. Also [please see this
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article](http://www.colipera.com/csi-ted-talks-what-derek-sivers-was-really-saying/)
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for more clarification.
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