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I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but you should watch this TED talk about publishing goals: https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yo... The TLDR is "people who talk about their ambitions may be less likely to achieve them." As with many TED talks, the message is thought-provoking but not guaranteed to be based on solid science.

In any case, best of luck. I hope you achieve your goals -- but please don't interpret this encouragement as false social reality.

⬐ maroonblazer

I've found that using one of Sivers' alternate approaches - "I'm going to do x and please kick my ass if I don't" - works remarkably well. Of course you need to choose people who actually will kick your ass, otherwise you start figuring out who amongst your network will let you slide and tell only them, defeating the purpose of the exercise.

⬐ None

None

⬐ codeisawesome

"kick my ass" can also be translated to a major monetary penalty - Steve Kamb tells us about his friend who bet $500 to his friends if he didn't lose weight

⬐ powermeat

stickk .com

⬐ slashdotdash

Thanks for sharing the Ted talk, will take a look.

⬐ dreeves

Sivers later clarified that it's only true for "identity goals" where telling people about the goal is part of what the goal is. Like "I want to be a runner." By saying so you're making it sort of more true in that you're identifying as at least a wannabe runner.

I believe that for specific, discipline-oriented goals -- like "I want to run 3 times a week" -- you're well advised to shout it from the rooftops, as common sense would dictate.

Sivers's clarification, along with his original TED talk: http://sivers.org/zipit2

This talk from Derek Sivers comes to mind:

http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

This might actually make it harder to stick to your resolution, as there is some research evidence that publicly announcing your goals partially fools your brain into thinking that they are already accomplished.

http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

http://sivers.org/zipit

Also a TED Talk by the same guy: http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

Thanks! It was SO tempting!

But keeping my mouth shut about it helped me slog through it and get it done, instead of basking in advance glory. It's too easy to slack off, if you've already felt the warm fuzzy joy from people's compliments on starting something. I didn't want to feel any of that until it was done.

More on that thought process, here:

http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

⬐ josscrowcroft

This was a fantastic video. Thanks!

⬐ jmotion

This is almost as if the question was placed in by Derek so he could plug that Ted talk! Saw that video a long time ago and ever since then I've kept my mouth shut. I've learnt a lot from you (another.. ideas are just a multiplier of execution :) )

He has also done a TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you....

It seems like you might be better off keeping your goals to yourself.

http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

This is an interesting concept and I once tried to build a company around it. Productizing the concept led to me understand some of the problems inherent with goal setting, and what you can do to counter them.

Most people share a similar set of vague goals. "Eat healthier." "Make more money." "Do what I love." "Fall in love." But very few want to take the time to break down how they would accomplish it. The more time you spend on this step, the closer you'll get to understanding challenges you might face and learning how to overcome them.

The act of sharing your goal makes you put less effort into achieving it[0]. We get a kind of high from imagining ourselves completing it, and this partially satisfies the urge to complete it.

How do you set a time limit for your harder goals? And what happens when you don't achieve them within your established timeframe? For many people, failure can be depressing. Know in advance that timelines are fluid and that missing a milestone is okay.

It's hard to group daily life tasks under your broader, overarching goals. Take time out daily (ideally at the start of the day) to remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing. At the end of the day, review whether what you did helped or hindered your stated long-term goals.

Just a few suggestions from a year's worth of seeing how 20,000 people try to accomplish their goals.

[0] http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

⬐ ebertx

I recently read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg which from my perspective goes in line with some of the things you stated. It's changed how I view setting goals. I still will decide on some specific result I want, but I focus most of my energy on deciding on and trying to inculcate habits that will move me toward the desired result.

Anyway, the book is good. I think it covers an important aspect of goal-setting that can easily be overlooked.

Sivers did a ted lighting talk about this: http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

⬐ natarius

Thanks for sharing

But there's negative value in telling people what you're really up to. I first heard it from Derek Sivers who said that Repeated psychology tests have proven that telling someone your goal makes it less likely to happen [1]. And it actually makes sense...

So it might be better to engage in some little public self-embarassment than go around telling what you're up to...

[1] http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

⬐ smcnally

interesting, thanks. Hemingway said the same about writing: he'd work until he knew where he would pick up the next day. Then he could stop. In between, he'd not want to talk about what he'd worked on or planned to next sessions as that would get in the way of actually doing it.

I've had success writing code this way. If there's a wall, talking about it helps; if there's a flow, shutting up and letting your subconscious at it helps more.

I thought that you were more likely to achieve goals if you hadn't told people about it? http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

Don't tell people what you are working on before you finish it.

http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

⬐ Schwolop

I cannot disagree more. Opening up my ideas to ridicule and critique has been the best thing I've ever done. I don't waste time on the bad ideas, people get behind the good ones, and people see that I'm always doing something. I don't have to deal with the "what happened to that project you were working on" question much because my standard answer is "Boy was that a good learning experience! I showed it to X, Y, and Z and they gave me great feedback and inspired a bunch of new ideas that are more interesting. Take a look!"

Sure, I don't finish everything, but the important bit is that the things I fail to finish are less good than the things I do finish. This is the "fail fast" mantra in a slightly larger nutshell.

⬐ nyellin

I'm not advocating working on projects in secret. Once you have something even slightly ready, by all means share it.

Incessantly talking about what you're going to do before you've done anything isn't admirable in my books.

⬐ Schwolop

Ok, I agree with this now, but it's different to what you originally stated; "Don't tell people what you are working on until you finish it."

I'd say "Don't tell people what you are working on until you start it."

⬐ jawr

I think there is merit in your argument; having something more tangible than an idea means a lot more, especially when the op sounds like he is quite open with his ideas and willing to express that initial excitement.

Maybe restraining yourself from this might make you work towards having something more substantial that you can then in turn "show off".

TED video on this topic: http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

I got to know this law by Derek Sivers's TED talk[1] and I totally agreed with him especially about personal programming project. A downside of this approach is that you cannot get a feedback until you unveil first version.

[1] Derek Sivers: Keep your goals to yourself http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/derek_sivers_keep_your_goal...

And keep your mouth shut about them: http://ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yoursel...

⬐ samstave

And write them down.

One of the teachings of the Masons, Mayans and Rosicrucians when setting goals; write them down, read that list often, keep that list secret. Rewrite the list often. Repeat.

⬐ smalter

Word.

Recently read Gleick's excellent The Information (http://www.amazon.com/Information-History-Theory-Flood/dp/03...) which made a similar point.

Moving from oral to writing as the primary units of information of communication allowed us to make huge improvements in thought. Argument became enunciable and then able to be analyzed, rather than being a big game of telephone.

http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you... Derek Sivers shares a different opinion, can't really argue against it for you if it works for you, but it's good for other people to be mindful of all their choices.

http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

Try your best to keep your goals to yourself. When you start explaining your idea to someone else, the thought is that you receive a dopamine reward associated with completing that goal. Common wisdom suggests that if one tells all their friends about their awesome idea, they'll be more motivated to finish it, but this just isn't true. Individuals who explain and take credit for their idea are more likely to feel more accomplished than those who keep it to themselves.

This was one of the biggest things for me. Be humble. Keep ideas to yourself and reward yourself on results, not just ideas.

⬐ gyardley

With all respect to Derek, I suspect this advice depends on personality type. For me, common wisdom is 100% correct.

A goal no one knows about is easy to quit without loss of face. But if all my friends know I'm doing something, I'm bloody well going to do it.

I always tell my friends I'm going to do something when it's something that really needs to get done. So far, whatever dopamine reward I get from talking about it has overpowered by the knowledge that I said I'd do it and it's not done yet.

As always, your experience may vary.

⬐ bmelton

I suspect that most advice like this DOES depend on personality type, but with enough different people offering their insights, presumably the majority of personality types are covered, if one chooses to read enough motivational literature.

My motivation is progress, most of the time. If I'm not making progress, I'll often switch to some easier task that I know I can get done quickly to get my brain in the right space and make 'getting into the zone' a downhill process.

Sometimes, switching back to whatever task was slowing me down is like going back uphill again, but I often find that I'll usually abandon the easy task because, while doing that, the harder task has been mentally solved (once you stop thinking about a problem, yadda yadda).

Of course, where I generally suffer is in getting all the easy tasks done. Solving a problem is fun. Writing a login page isn't, generally speaking. Making a 'reset your password' form isn't. So all those things often get left by the wayside, and I end up with an awesome project that is completely unsellable because the last 10% goes untouched while I work on something else.

⬐ no-go-mojo

I work that way too, which leaves a lot of unfinished projects, because I do the hard/interesting stuff, and think "oh this is done, I just gotta do x, y and z which I'll wrap up later." Now I've started to set a check point before I start which must be crossed in order of my project to be finished.

⬐ quadtodfodder

I personally tell everybody on fucking earth what I'm doing. Largely because when I'm into something, that is all I think of - I'd be hard pressed to talk about something else.

The weather? War? Religion? WHY ARE YOU WASTING MY TIME WITH TRIVIAL TALK? I AM MAKING THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER OVER HERE!

Poster may be talking about something similar to this

http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

"After hitting on a brilliant new life plan, our first instinct is to tell someone, but Derek Sivers says it's better to keep goals secret. He presents research stretching as far back as the 1920s to show why people who talk about their ambitions may be less likely to achieve them."

⬐ hippich

From my experience, telling everybody around may work both ways - it may put you in to frame where you HAVE to get to your target, or get enough discussion to experience it and forget about it. But in general, I would say yes - for me it is better to keep things in secret, try to build dependencies on these targets and slowly go through it.

Related: http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you... (one of Derek Sivers' TED talks)

Derek Sivers said the same in a post called 'keep your goals to yourself' at I read here before.

There's certainly some truth to it.

I failed in secrecy before though, so Im giving transparency a shot.

I am also hoping that it will help me connect with people who can help me make it happen.

Edit: The post was called zip it - http://sivers.org/ There's a TED Talk - http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

>I have everything already set, I bought my domain, I bought a VPS, S3

This is your problem. By taking these preliminary, preparatory steps, you are satiating your brain's motivational desire for action without taking any actual constructive steps. Thus you do not have the will or urge left to write the code.

Stuff like buying a VPS or setting up S3 is easy and quick, therefore your reptile brain makes it easy for you to do such things first, as it prefers instant gratification. This unfortunately depletes the motivational neurotransmitters that signal you to take action, because as far as your brain is concerned, action has been taken.

The answer is to do that stuff last. Or, in a business setting, get someone else to be responsible for it.

This is an extension of some ideas from the great Derek Silvers, which he relates in this TED talk, which you should definitely watch: http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

⬐ dolinsky

Ian Ayre (and others) have challenged the study that Derek Sivers based his 'keep your goals to yourself' talk on - http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/are-public-...

I think the OPs problem is primarily about fear [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2185833], not instant gratification. It's necessary when building a website to get a VPS and S3 account (or equivalent) to host the site/files on. I completely understand what you're getting at by suggesting that putting easy things ahead of hard things gives a false sense of accomplishment, and I tend to agree. I just think there's something different at play here for the OP to focus on.

On a related note, I know that Derek frequents this board often and I've had the pleasure of learning from some of his insights along the way. I'd love to hear his reaction to the above article or a link to such a post from the HN crowd.

⬐ JonnieCache

Very true.

An important idea, not often acknowledged, is the fear of success rather than the fear of failure. "Oh God, how long before they figure out I'm faking it?"

See the following article: http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/08/the_worst_thing_that_...

Note: while I am linking this article for its ideas, this is IN NO WAY an endorsement of the author's somewhat antagonistic and disjointed writing style. Please persevere with it.

--Studies show that publicly committing to a goal significantly increases one's chances of accomplishing it successfully.

Thats not quite true according to this ted talk.. (but I'm sure studies have found the other way round as well)

http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

Whoops, you're right. It's really the same logic, though.

Another factor is likely the one behind this video: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/derek_sivers_keep_your_goa...

We were really nervous about getting to the interview stage, despite the greatly increased odds of being accepted once you get there.

If I remember correctly, I didn't tell anybody, including my family -- the fear of telling them I was probably going to get in and then having to tell them I didn't was just too great.

⬐ StavrosK

Ah, that's very prudent, you're right.

⬐ citizenkeys

And you would know. You're not just a YCombinator winner, you're also founder of the very popular weebly.com ( http://www.weebly.com/ ).

:-)

...except that announcing your goals makes you less likely to follow through with them. This TED talk by Derek Sivers explains it far more eloquently than I could: http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

⬐ hasenj

Didn't watch the video yet (I'm at work and no ear phones atm), but I think it depends on your personality type.

Announcing your goal might work for some people, probably the extroverted ones. For me I think it won't work.

Announcing my goals always drains my energy; I will have to argue with people and tell them how full of shit they are, and I have to listen to them ridiculing my ideas, etc. I just hate doing that.

⬐ oscardelben

I guess it depends on people. For me announcing goals make them a lot more likely to happen. Also, from what I remember about that TED video, the studies were not really convincing to me. Anyway, see what works for you, that's what's important.

⬐ hasenj

Well, after watching the video, I have two notes:

first, putting the ad after the video is a brilliant idea. :)

now about the talk, I don't believe in controlled psychological/sociological experiments very much, the real world is way too different from a room with 30 people working for one hour, the conclusions just don't scale to the real world.

In the real world, people don't generally accept your goals or congratulate you on them. Like if you tell someone that you want to quit your day job to start a startup, they would think you're crazy.

Also, in the real world, people will call it out on you if it doesn't look like you've achieved anything after a while.

⬐ xenophanes

> announcing your goals makes you less likely to follow through with them

But people aren't probabilities. Our destiny is a matter of choices not random chance. So that doesn't really make sense.

⬐ lionhearted

> ...except that announcing your goals makes you less likely to follow through with them.

Not exactly. I know that study, and I've seen that Sivers article/talk, and it's good.

The worst thing you can do for goal-setting is to casually talk about your goals like they're inevitable.

Public commitments do help motivate, though.

The best might be publicly committing while acknowledging that you're not there. When I talk about my goals, you'll often hear me say, "This is neurosis-inducing, because I'm behind schedule."

That, of course, leads to lower happiness levels and higher neurosis levels, but I get a lot more done than most people do.

I agree with Derek not to talk about your goals casually to other people. I think public commitments, especially emphasizing that you've still got a lot of work in front of you - I think doing it that way is a net gain.

⬐ thewordpainter

i fully believe in quiet confidence as the best mentality. in fact, if you always under-promise & over-deliver, you can't go wrong ;)

⬐ dhh

Good pitch, I haven't personally found this to be true with the goals I've shared with other people. I get much more fired up to prove that I'm actually going to do it once it's out there. But obviously the science shows that might not be true for all.

⬐ zck

It makes a difference that you're a polarizing person -- there will be people next week mocking you because 37signals isn't a $100million company yet, so you have more impetus to actually achieve it compared to a person who tells his or her friends, who will be supportive and forgetful of failures.

He probably meant this talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/derek_sivers_keep_your_goa...

⬐ rudasn

yes, that's it

Derek Sivers explains in a 3 min TED talk, http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you..., that by keeping your goals to yourself, you become more motivated to achieve them (because you haven't made them part of your "social reality"). In the very early stages I suspect that might be the biggest benefit of stealth mode..

⬐ duck

Basically a short talk on this - http://sivers.org/zipit