How to Keep Your Goals Secret ?
Let us start from the beginning, Why would you want to keep your goals secret?
“If I share my goals with everyone, I will be constantly motivated as others will keep reminding me of it”. — by People who do not stick to their goals
The above statement seems to make perfect sense, right? If we share our goals with everyone then the constant pressure and fear of embarrassment might keep us on the right track, as a bonus they might also give us more ideas, right?…Wrong !… it rarely works that way…here’s what really happens.
First possible scenario:
“Hey, I’m gonna create this really cool App…”
“Wow, your ideas are really cool, you are pretty awesome!”
Second possible scenario :
“Hey, I’m going to hit the gym everyday before I hit the sack”
“Ha, nah, you too lazy, I know you well, let’s go play video games”
“ 0_0 ”
In the first scenario we might get praised from the other person, this is worst possible outcome as our brain tricks itself into believing that we have already achieved our goal and it will start to relax. The second scenario is where the other person tricks us to either procrastinate or just leave the goal altogether. The last reason to keep goals a secret is so that the idea doesn’t get stolen.
Okay Pavan, I’ve got the point, now tell me how to keep the goals secret?
Keeping the goal a secret is often times more difficult than actually achieving the goal, I will share you some of the ways by which I’ve kept my goals a secret and I encourage you to share your methods as well in the comments.
I categorise my approach based on the type of Goal (sometimes Goals might require a combination of strategies):
- Strategy 1: The Goal requires feedback from an audience, such as an application or a video game.
- Strategy 2: The Goal requires consistency and need to track my progress.
- Strategy 3: The Goals that I just can’t keep my mouth shut about.
Strategy 1 : Goals that require feedback from audience
For these I anonymously post my ideas on social media ( such as Reddit, Stack exchange ) and receive unfiltered criticisms from people (and realise how dumb that idea is…. >_< ). This strategy is one of the best ways to get feedback from large audience and often from a mix of people of different environment and culture.
Strategy 2: Goals that require them to be tracked
For these I use To-do lists and Trello, that way I can plan things out ahead and track the progress. This is also useful for adding Reward system. For instance, “ If I consistently hit the gym for 6 days straight I get to eat a Burger on Sunday. ” this can easily be tracked using Trello or any similar app ( chose one that is available across all devices — mobile, PC )
Strategy 3: Goals that I just can’t keep my mouth shut about
These are the most tricky ones, sometimes you just want to show off what cool things you are doing to your friends and you just can’t seem to stop yourself from doing so…I’ve solved this by buying an electronic writing tablet ( like this one ) on which I write my goals and then just erase the contents after a day, I act as if I’ve already shared the information about my goal…this helped me clear my mind and work on the actual task, hopefully this works for you too.
After you’ve achieved some momentum with your Goal and you feel confident that you will stick to it, you can then share it with your close friends ( Master Mind group )…in fact it will boost your speed as you will start to have fun together. Hope this blog has helped you, share your feedback and your approach in hiding your goals (^_^ ) !
“Tell the world what you intend to do but first show it.” -by Napoleon Hill
