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Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.

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Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.

#21

Post by cturner »

Maro wrote: post #13

When I did the Ironman last year, I told everyone about it: friends, family and co-workers. I did it on purpose. It was a risk I took, because would I have failed to prepare for the race or finish the race, everyone would have thought I'm a "looser" or "quitter". I used this fear as additional motivational fuel. Also, to my surprise, most people told me I'm an idiot for even attempting an Ironman and that I wouldn't…

That is amazing. Anyone who does ironman is amazing.

> It's kind of cheating

If you ran, swam and cycle the distance you made it, no cheapting about it.

Amazing - nice work!

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.

#22

Post by wglb »

I don't think so.

Who was it that said that one of the forces keeping an entrepreneur going was the embarrassment factor--having announced the plan, then being committed to prevent the shame of failure.

Studies of this sort leave me questioning the true amount of science in social science. The business about "symbols in the brain" is pretty lame. (As if that is where the mind is--but that is another discussion altogether.)

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.

#23

Post by PebblesRox »

I'm not convinced that announcing plans causes people not to fulfil them. The studies may show correllation, but I wouldn't assume cause and effect. Another explanation could be that the people who keep their plans to themselves are the kind of people who are more likely to carry them out.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.

#24

Post by PebblesRox »

wglb wrote: post #22

I don't think so. Who was it that said that one of the forces keeping an entrepreneur going was the embarrassment factor--having announced the plan, then being committed to prevent the shame of failure. Studies of this sort leave me questioning the true amount of science in social science. The business about "symbols in the brain" is pretty lame. (As if that is where the mind is--but that is another discussion altoge…

I agree that the bulk of this article is speculation. "Identity symbols" and a "premature sense of completeness" may be one possible explanation, but the article presents them as the only explanation of the correlation shown in the studies.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.

#26

Post by gruseom »

ABrandt wrote: post #11

First of all, I was immediately turned off by this article when it cited a study from 1933 . Sure he used other evidence later, but I've come into the habit of being seriously skeptical of any scientific work done more than twenty years ago. I may be reading this article wrong, but this seems to fly in the face of Steve Blank's customer development model and other wisdoms that are being thrown around these days. To m…

I've come into the habit of being seriously skeptical of any scientific work done more than twenty years ago.

That has amusing implications for us, twenty years from now.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.

#27

Post by ALee »

It would seem that for some public shame (announced plan that you never completed) is a motivator, while for others public announcement gives you a sense of reward.

Most studies show that the biggest motivator for anyone is when it costs you and not accomplishing the goal costs you even more.

There is a study on going to the gym and they found that the primary motivator for working out is if you pay for a gym membership and are reminded that you're losing money. It does not work if it's a gift (money you never had). It would be interesting to see if it matters between extroverts (get energy from talking to strangers) and introverts (lose energy when talking to strangers).

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.

#28

Post by Adlai »

Maro wrote: post #13

When I did the Ironman last year, I told everyone about it: friends, family and co-workers. I did it on purpose. It was a risk I took, because would I have failed to prepare for the race or finish the race, everyone would have thought I'm a "looser" or "quitter". I used this fear as additional motivational fuel. Also, to my surprise, most people told me I'm an idiot for even attempting an Ironman and that I wouldn't…

Congratulations on the Ironman.

I don't think that article is really about Ironman-type goals, though. By the time you are preparing for the Ironman, I'd imagine that you would be quite dedicated to your training. As I understood it, that article is about goals which you have to start from scratch -- for example, choosing to start running and train for your first 5K race.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.

#29

Post by kscaldef »

Maro wrote: post #13

When I did the Ironman last year, I told everyone about it: friends, family and co-workers. I did it on purpose. It was a risk I took, because would I have failed to prepare for the race or finish the race, everyone would have thought I'm a "looser" or "quitter". I used this fear as additional motivational fuel. Also, to my surprise, most people told me I'm an idiot for even attempting an Ironman and that I wouldn't…

I had a very similar reaction. I rode a century (100mi) bike ride this spring, and telling people I was doing it was an important part of staying motivated. Also, because the ride was a charity fundraiser, once I had people sponsoring me (i.e. donated money to the cause) I felt like I couldn't back out.

I think the difference between this sort of goal and what's described in the article is that with a lot of intellectual pursuits, just telling people that you've been thinking about it and sketching out how you would do it gets you 80% of the respect and satisfaction for 20% (or less) of the total effort. On the other hand, you don't get much cred for just saying you're going to do a marathon or tri or century.

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