On Not Blurting Out Your Goals

In my last entry, I mentioned that perhaps Keeping Your Goals to Yourself would help you actually achieve things rather than pretend you're doing something.

While spending time with my friends after class, I would stop myself whenever I thought of telling someone what I was going to do for the rest of the day. I would also zip my lips when I wanted to talk about any of my supposed ideas or projects. What surprised me was how often I had to catch myself so that I wouldn't spill whatever it was I was working on. Did I really say things but not do them that often? What an eye-opener!

This blog in particular is actually something I've kept secret from everyone for now, at least until I build up a big enough archive. It's not necessarily secret in that I hide it from everyone... I just haven't announced it publicly yet. I didn't keep it to myself because of the video, though. I did it because I didn't want to let anyone see it until I had put enough work into it to make it presentable, until it actually had enough content to be of value. I had done that mistake with my self-improvement blog, Kasiyahan, announcing it before it had enough posts to stand on its own.

So far, it seems to be working. I've been posting every day for what will be 11 days now, which is a feat for me. Sure, I've done National Blog Posting Month once before, but that was with a challenge in mind. I wonder if I can struggle past 31 posts this time out of pure self-motivation?

That isn't to say that you can't soundboard ideas with friends, though. I think this pertains more to actual projects that you want to make into reality. I'm sure most of us all have our daydreams, and the ratio of Ideas vs. Ideas Fulfilled leans more toward the former. It becomes even smaller if you split it into Fulfilled Successfully vs. Tried but Failed.

For now, keeping my goals to myself is working well so far. The only person I have to answer to, besides the people I owe obligations to, is myself... and I don't want to disappoint myself any longer.

- Mel

Keep Your Goals to Yourself

I ran across this video today by Derek Sivers entitled "Keep Your Goals to Yourself", which is exactly what it says on the tin. He claims through scientific study that proclaiming a goal out loud to the world (and possibly even to yourself) makes you less likely to actually do whatever it is you said you'd do.

Why is this? Apparently, just saying what you're planning to do tricks your mind into thinking you're already doing it. Much like hoarding objects for a specific hobby but never actually practicing said hubby, saying it out loud starts to feel like accomplishing something... when, really, you're not.

You know what? This hit the nail right on the head on my own attitude toward work and personal projects.

To be honest, I have done this a million times. I'll keep saying, "Oh, I should do this..." or "Oh, I'm gonna do that..." ... and never actually doing it. My mind is satisfied that I vocalized those goals, now I'm done for the day and can laze around- wait, what? That makes no sense! No, self! Do something!!

I was curious if actually being quiet about my goals would work, so for today, I kept some of what I was planning to do today to myself. While I didn't finish all of them, I managed to actually act upon at least three tasks, which is better than nothing. The funny part is, the one thing I said out loud that I'd do once I got home? ... I ended up not doing it, because just saying I'll do it became a substitute in my head for actually doing something about it!

Now I'm at a loss as to whether I should proclaim to the world that I will continue to keep things to myself on this public post, because I may just end up not doing it-- oh, drat. Let's backtrack and pretend that never happened, eh, friend? ;)

Follow Our Doodle a Day Project!

I just posted the latest entry to the blog for our project called Doodle a Day. It's exactly what it says on the tin: it is a personal challenge that I have decided to embark on with my friend, Mika, to draw every single day and not worry so much about our work.

I've been in a bad artist's rut for the past few years, and since I want to delve more seriously into becoming an artist (freelance or wherever life takes me), I better make up for lost time, and I better get used to drawing a lot again. So far, I've been able to meet my quota of at least one doodle a day, but hopefully by practicing frequently I will be able to do more than one sketch in a day, and perhaps finished art every few days.

The journey to re-learning art begins slowly but surely.

Please feel free to follow our progress on Tumblr!