Story of the Week
Most people believe that simply announcing your goals publicly — like on social media — will help keep you accountable. However, research suggests that this approach can actually backfire.
In a 2009 study conducted by Peter Gollwitzer, a professor of psychology at New York University, researchers found that when individuals shared their goals with others, they reported feeling closer to achieving those goals, even though they hadn't made any actual progress.
The act of sharing the goal itself gave them a premature sense of accomplishment, which reduced their motivation to put in the work required to achieve the goal.
Gollwitzer and his colleagues concluded that when someone notices your goal, the social acknowledgment serves as a reward that may cause you to reduce your efforts.
In other words, the satisfaction you get from having others see you as “the type of person who would achieve that goal” can trick your brain into thinking you've already done the work, reducing the pressure to actually complete it.
There’s even a famous TED Talk that went viral in 2010 by Derek Sivers, who brought this idea to the mainstream, saying that in order to succeed you should “keep your goals to yourself”.
I was always conflicted about that because sometimes when I did share my goals, I felt more driven to succeed than before. So what’s actually happening?
New research from Ohio State University in 2019 suggests that there may be a right way to share your goals after all.
In a series of experiments, researchers found that people tend to be more committed to their goals after they share them with someone they perceive as having “higher status,” or whose opinions they respect.
In one study, college students who shared their target goals with a so-called doctoral-level student were more likely to reach their goals, while those who shared with someone they believed to be a community college student did not perform better.
Similarly, students who shared their ambitious grade goals with someone of higher status tended to be more committed to their grades by the end of the semester.
The key, according to lead author Howard Klein, is that sharing your goal with a higher-up does more than keep you accountable; it also makes you more motivated because you care what that person thinks of you.
So, while sharing your goals on social media may not be the most effective strategy, selectively sharing them with individuals whose opinions you value and respect could provide the right kind of motivation and accountability.
In our entrepreneurial community in SPI Pro, we encourage our members to share their intentions all the time because my team, our Experts in Residence (EIRs), and other members are there to hold everyone accountable in this way by design.
Beyond that, it offers the opportunity for people to work together more closely and form mastermind groups and accountability partners.
As a result, people get massive value from each other in this way.
So here’s your call to action: whether it’s in SPI Pro, or in your own communities and groups, please share the goals you’re working on, but make sure someone whose opinion you respect knows what you're up to as well. It’s why mentorship works and why relying solely on social media does not.
You got this.
