Why you must not tell your plans too early!
Have you ever made plans and told all of your friends but ended up not doing anything about it. Do you know why that happens?
If you ask my friends from School [from 8th to 12th Grade], they would tell that I am one talkative person who just talks everything out and everyone knows all of my plans but if you ask my friends from my bachelor (undergrad) days or at work they would say this guy won’t talk or even socialize much!
I totally changed who I was because I stumbled upon few experiences that changed the outlook of my life and unlocked some knowledge! and I would want to share that with you and I hope that would make you talk less and achieve more!
There was interesting research done on this topic and you can read it here and some of the things that I share here are backed by it.
Early Gratification —
The moment you announce your grand plans to people, the act of telling already gratifies you and you will have a sense of accomplishment, which is a big hindrance for you to actually go ahead and do the work necessary to achieve your goals or execute your plans.
Ensure that you must feel gratified only at the end of execution or if you have larger plans, you must ensure to have little rewards on the way, but there is absolutely no need to announce your entire plan to anyone.
I try to follow this as much as possible and I have personally seen results. The more I talk about a plan, I can sense that it creates a mental block, and makes it difficult to actually work on the task.
Seeking Approvals
Another reason why most of us announce our plans to others is to get approval. Deep down, we think that if many people agree or approve our plan then we would be successful, but we often forget that a plan is successful only by working at it and not by getting approvals.
Approvals are just a ‘feel-good’ factor, it does not help. As I mentioned, this also contributes to your early gratification and that is absolutely unnecessary.
Energy Usage
Have you observed how you feel after announcing your plans and goals? I always feel that my energy or spark is gone as soon as I speak about it. I either start feeling too proud or too empty.
It takes a lot of energy to explain to others your point of view and why you have made this plan and how that would impact your life etc. Instead, use that energy to start doing your tasks little by little and soon you will see that there would be a snowball effect and you would be well on your way to executing your plans successfully.
Negative Feedback
One important thing, the more you tell your plans you may get more opinions and if you hear too many bad opinions then you may drop your plan even without taking the first step.
So keeping your plans to yourself will save you from all the negativity. Always track your plans, let the data guide you instead of people’s opinions.
If you need to announce your plan then only do it to the following people
a. Your Mentor — This is some one who is a pro in what you are trying to do and is willing to help you achieve the goal and the inputs from Mentor would be very much valuable. They help you to set realistic plans and achieve them based on their experience.
b. Your Accountability Partner — This is someone who is on the same boat and has similar goals. You both check on each other’s progress and also motivate each other to get there faster and share your knowledge. You both must look each others as equals. (There can be accountability partners who are not trying to achieve the same goal but at least they must have the same level of hunger as you have to achieve something.)
c. Your Closest People — These people are the ones who gives you emotional support when you fall and cheer for you when you win. It could be your spouse, your best friend or your sibling or any one! Usually they are just one or two people.
If they do not fall in any of these categories they don’t need to know what you are up to. Learn, Create, Fail and Succeed by yourself.
remember…
“ your action speaks louder than words
and the world will hear it! ”
