<story><title>Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.</title><url>http://sivers.org/zipit</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Maro</author><text>When I did the Ironman last year, I told &lt;i&gt;everyone&lt;/i&gt; 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&apos;m a &quot;looser&quot; or &quot;quitter&quot;. I used this fear as additional motivational fuel. Also, to my surprise, most people told me I&apos;m an idiot for even attempting an Ironman and that I wouldn&apos;t be able to finish it. (Lesson learned: Culturally, here in Eastern Europe &apos;we&apos; don&apos;t have the &apos;can do&apos; attitude.) That was another huge boost, showing these people how limited their mindset is. It&apos;s kind of cheating, because you&apos;re using external factors to motivate you, but you need all the &quot;help&quot;  to do extraordinary things.&lt;p&gt;Think of Ali when he was preparing for the Foreman fight --- he used an entire nation to motivate him for the Rumble in the Jungle. Whenever he got a chance, he went on TV and said he would destroy Foreman. He absolutely commited himself in front of the entire world and it worked for him. Foreman, on the other hand, was different, he was more introverted, and although he lost that fight, he was still a great boxer.&lt;p&gt;So, on a personal level, I strongly disagree with this article. I&apos;d rather strive to be like Ali than accept some mediocre average.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5o-yxwBJuk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5o-yxwBJuk&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kscaldef</author><text>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&apos;t back out.&lt;p&gt;I think the difference between this sort of goal and what&apos;s described in the article is that with a lot of intellectual pursuits, just telling people that you&apos;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&apos;t get much cred for just saying you&apos;re going to do a marathon or tri or century.</text></comment>
<story><title>Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.</title><url>http://sivers.org/zipit</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Maro</author><text>When I did the Ironman last year, I told &lt;i&gt;everyone&lt;/i&gt; 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&apos;m a &quot;looser&quot; or &quot;quitter&quot;. I used this fear as additional motivational fuel. Also, to my surprise, most people told me I&apos;m an idiot for even attempting an Ironman and that I wouldn&apos;t be able to finish it. (Lesson learned: Culturally, here in Eastern Europe &apos;we&apos; don&apos;t have the &apos;can do&apos; attitude.) That was another huge boost, showing these people how limited their mindset is. It&apos;s kind of cheating, because you&apos;re using external factors to motivate you, but you need all the &quot;help&quot;  to do extraordinary things.&lt;p&gt;Think of Ali when he was preparing for the Foreman fight --- he used an entire nation to motivate him for the Rumble in the Jungle. Whenever he got a chance, he went on TV and said he would destroy Foreman. He absolutely commited himself in front of the entire world and it worked for him. Foreman, on the other hand, was different, he was more introverted, and although he lost that fight, he was still a great boxer.&lt;p&gt;So, on a personal level, I strongly disagree with this article. I&apos;d rather strive to be like Ali than accept some mediocre average.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5o-yxwBJuk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5o-yxwBJuk&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cturner</author><text>That is amazing. Anyone who does ironman is amazing.&lt;p&gt;&amp;#62; It&apos;s kind of cheating&lt;p&gt;If you ran, swam and cycle the distance you made it, no cheapting about it.&lt;p&gt;Amazing - nice work!</text></comment>