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.
#2This slightly overstates the case. Structured announcements ("I will have done X by date Y") give you a chance to fail in the eyes of people whose opinions you value. That helps. I have an online friend who used this idea a couple months ago. To make himself achieve his weight-loss goals, he announced that he'd be posting nude pictures of himself on his blog at a set date. I'm not sure how well it worked (he lost weight, but not as much as he'd hoped), but he did actually post the pictures.
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.
#3The third way is to announce something as complete. That gives you a real sense of motivation to get it done (see Vikings, burning boats).
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.
#4This slightly overstates the case. Structured announcements ("I will have done X by date Y") give you a chance to fail in the eyes of people whose opinions you value. That helps. I have an online friend who used this idea a couple months ago. To make himself achieve his weight-loss goals, he announced that he'd be posting nude pictures of himself on his blog at a set date. I'm not sure how well it worked (he lost wei…
Link? Or actually, never mind...
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.
#5Conversely, announcing your plans and having a financial stake in the completion of those plans is shown to work exceptionally well. The company, stickK (stickk.com), is founded on this principle. It is drawn from behavorial economist Dean Karlan, so it is based on incentives rather than rigorous psychological evaluation, but it seems to work well: http://www.stickk.com/about.php
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.
#6Conversely, announcing your plans and having a financial stake in the completion of those plans is shown to work exceptionally well. The company, stickK (stickk.com), is founded on this principle. It is drawn from behavorial economist Dean Karlan, so it is based on incentives rather than rigorous psychological evaluation, but it seems to work well: http://www.stickk.com/about.php
If the financial state is already having invested the money, I wonder if this is more or less motivating than a possibility of money later. The money paid is a sunk cost, so failing to follow up negatively impacts your experience and not the financials.
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.
#7That's really interesting. It's taken as read in marathon running that you should tell everyone you're going to do it and this well help you keep motivated to train during the winter. I did that because I was "supposed" to, but it didn't seem to affect my motivation much - however lots of people did prematurely say well done, hmm.
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.
#8"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, and then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.
#9Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.
#10I noticed this effect very early on as a kid, where I was often hacking away at some new project or trying to undermine some system.
Some of my ideas were pretty exciting, so usually I'd be bursting to pass on my excitement to someone else - usually my parents. (As any entrepreneur can confirm, coming up with a great new idea is very rewarding) However, I never failed to feel like I lost some intrinsic level of motivation whenever I explained to someone else what I was working on.
It felt like holding a secret only you knew and then letting it out spoiled it. After awhile I learned to contain my enthusiasm and direct it toward making a functioning product before telling anyone... this probably explains why I tend to be much more independent when it comes to my startup ideas...
Working in secrecy makes you feel like you're about to pounce a revolutionary new idea upon the world and take it by storm.