Be Vocal With Your Goals

Whether you’re trying to make more time for yourself or whether you’re trying to lose weight, one thing you’ll often find yourself wondering is whether or not you should tell your friends your new goals.  On the one hand, telling friends goals is a great conversation topic, it’s fun to share things that are going on in our lives and we might be able to get advice from them – especially if they have recently given up smoking!  Having your friends and family in your corner ensures that they’re not going to inadvertently make your life more difficult – by offering you that cigarette for instance or by inviting you out to lots of events when you’re trying to cut back. 

The Downside of Sharing Goals

But there is also a downside to telling people your goals and you need to be careful of this.  Studies actually show that in some cases, telling your goals can make you less likely to achieve them.  This is particularly true for things like eating more healthily or giving up smoking.  The problem is that when you tell someone your goal, you can actually sometimes feel as though you’ve already achieved it.  You get the same congratulations from your friends (“That’s great!”)  and you get to feel as though it’s now a part of your identity.  If you had been getting social pressure from your friends to change, then you’ll find that this is largely gone now. 

In this case, sharing goals can actually be destructive! 

Combating Information Overload Perhaps then, the best way to judge whether or not you should share your goals is to think about the nature of the goal in question.  Depending on the goal that you’re trying to accomplish, the positives of sharing that information with friends may well have much stronger benefits.  For instance, if your aim is to try and combat information overload and to make more time and space for yourself – then this is something you should definitely tell your friends and family.  Why?  Because a lot of the stress will likely have been coming from them!  Unintentionally.  Tell your friends and family that you’re aiming to spend more time relaxing and catching up with chores and that you’re currently feeling a bit snowed under.  Simply letting them know will not only reduce the amount of pressure they place on you but might also result in offers to help.