The Kinetic Machine: a commonplace book

Stare in WONDER!

HPK

QUOTE:

Have you ever told your friends or family members about your plans to stop smoking, lose weight, exercise more, learn a foreign language, or achieve some other goal? I sure have. And the reason I told other people about my resolution was to commit myself to following through with it. “If I go public with my intention,” I told myself, “I will be more motivated to do it, because I’ll be ashamed to fail in front of everyone I’ve told.”

Well, it turns out that was the wrong thing to do. In a recent issue of Psychological Science, a paper titled “When Intentions Go Public” reports on an experiment that found that people who talk about their plans to do something are less, not more, likely to follow through with those plans than people who keep their mouths shut.

“Announcing your plans to others satisfies your self-identity just enough that you’re less motivated to do the hard work needed,” writes Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby. “Once you’ve told people of your intentions, it gives you a ‘premature sense of completeness.’”

HPK