How Talking About Your Goals Is Killing Your Progress...And What To Do Instead

Happy New Year to all my fellow WIPs!

We made it through another 365 days of growth.

And that's an accomplishment in and of itself.

Today, on the first of a new year, we're all inspired to accomplish great things.

We're looking ahead at all the potential goals we can knock down in these coming months.

And that's beautiful.

Possibility is a beautiful feeling.

But many of us will make a critical mistake on day one before the year even begins.

We will talk about all the goals we plan to accomplish.

We will post on social media all the big milestones we want to reach.

We'll tell our friends about the projects we want to start this year.

And we'll make big bold statements about how great we're going to be in a year's time.

I don't doubt that growth. We're all works in progress after all.

But I see the problems that will hold us back from many of those goals.

Often when we talk about goals prematurely, we kill our potential growth.

And I know it sounds like some superstitious belief that isn't real.

But there are real downsides to speaking before you act. Here's why...

Many of the goals we truly want to reach are to impact others.

Some of us get college degrees to impress our parents.

Many guys want to get strong and ripped to get attention from girls.

Some of us want to get rich or famous to make our old high school friends finally think we're cool.

(I always thought you were cool.)

Humans are social beings. And many of our goals are extrinsically motivated.

We want to accomplish great things, that affect the people around us.

When you speak on a goal prematurely, you often are letting people know you have noble ambitions.

"I'm going to get six pack abs by the end of 2023!"

Now everyone who sees that post thinks I'm fit, I'm ambitious, and I'm a health oriented person.

And what happens next is praise, support, and admiration.

Everyone is excited and hopeful for me.

That's great to have people support my goals and dreams.

But something else is happening at the same time.

All the responses I expected from completing the goal, praise, support, and admiration, I'm getting right then and there.

So all my motivation goes right out the window.

Why would I then put in tens of thousands of hours of work for something I already received.

I wouldn't.

And so, a week later I'm no longer in the gym.

Don't accept praise for goals you haven't accomplished.

And that's just one problem.

Add in the fact of people getting jealous of your ambitions, or people starting to project their limiting beliefs onto your goals and there's no point in sharing that goal.

Nine times out of ten, accomplishing that grand goal will be a long, lonely journey.

So get used to the silence. You don't need likes or pep-talks. You need to take action.

And no conversation, post, or announcement is going to do the work for you.

Let your actions do the talking for you.

Here's a much smarter strategy for sharing goals you're serious about.

Take a picture of you right now.

Write down where you are currently in relation to the goal you want to accomplish.

Like for example, right now I weigh 200 pounds.

And then turn that into a post.

And in it talk about all the things you want to accomplish and where you hope to be in 6 months, a year, etc.

And instead of posting it today, you schedule it to post on the day you plan to achieve the goal or milestone.

So now you get all the benefits of feeling like you documented and shared the beginning of your journey.

But instead of getting false praise, your post is shared down the line when the work has already been done.

And it keeps you accountable because you don't want to be in the same place you started when that post shares 6 months down the line.

That's how to share your goals and actually accomplish them at the same time.

Be disciplined.

The start of your journey isn't supposed to feel gratifying...the view from the top i...

In progress,

Tim