It is normal to feel trapped in the temptation to tell others about our projects and their respective goals. To show the world that we are moving forward and to publish on social networks how we are laying the foundations for our future; but studies recommend that don’t count your goals if you want to fulfill them. Will it harm us?
Different psychological tests have shown that telling others about our goals makes it less likely that we will achieve them.
Why it is better that you do not count your goals.
Derek Sivers, entrepreneur and founder of CD baby, explains that when counting our goals, a phenomenon called “social reality” occurs; where by expressing what you want to do, the mind feels that it has already been achieved. And as a result of the satisfaction that this provides; the motivation necessary to complete the tasks necessary to achieve our goals is lost.
Studies that recommend that you do not count your goals.
- This “problem” has been studied for years. In 1926Kurt Lewin, father of social psychology, pioneer in the study of group dynamics and organizational development; He called this phenomenon “substitution.”
- In 1933Wera Mahler found that when people knew about our goals, they already seemed to come true to our minds.
- In 1982, a book was published talking about the subject, called “Symbolic self-completion”, written by Peter Gollwitzer, professor of psychology at New York University; who years later, in 2009, would do a test with 63 people; where it was found that people who do not say anything about their goals are more likely to achieve them, compared to those who say them publicly.
Also read: How to achieve your goals in 100 days.
To do?
Knowing this, we have 2 alternatives, not saying anything and leaving the compliments for when the goal is reached. Or say what we want and lose the motivation to get it.
If we choose the second, there is a way to do it right:
Instead of saying the goal, for example, “I’m going to lose 20 kilos”, let’s tell what we have to do to achieve it. For example, “I have to go to the gym 5 times this week”; in this way the brain he is not going to confuse the “say” with the “do”.
“Subgoals as substitutes or complements: The role of goal accessibility”, a study carried out by Ayelet Fishback, Ravi Dhar and Yanmin Zhang in 2006, talks about something similar that happens when achieving a goal and how the satisfaction that this provides makes us lose the focus on the other tasks that we must perform to meet the final goal.
Also read: Incredible method to achieve goals used by large companies.
Conclusion.
There are only 2 things that we must take into account to get closer to what we dream of so much:
- As unusual as it may seem, DO NOT say what we want to achieve.
- Do not be fooled when meeting one of the objectives, since in order to achieve our goals, we need to do more than one thing!
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