As CD Baby founder Derek Sivers pointed out, many people have a tendency to quit working towards their goals once they’ve shared what those goals are with others.
The mind has a way of mistaking the talking for the doing. We’re satisfied too soon.
But there’s also something to the conventional wisdom of being held accountable. If I tell you I’m going to start going to the gym four days a week in the New Year, won’t I feel ashamed if I haven’t lost any weight by June?
For some people, that promise — plus the fear of failure — can be a great motivator, especially if you’ve asked for your community to hold you to your word.
In 2015 I got my community directly involved in one of my big goals, putting out a new album.
My PledgeMusic campaign was more than just an announcement; by asking fans and friends to play a part in the release, I was suddenly accountable to more than just myself. I didn’t set a strict deadline, but this album needed to get done! (It’ll be out next month, just in case you’re wondering whether the thing got finished).
When it comes to your goals, what works for you? Keeping them a secret until you’ve succeeded? Announcing your plans to the world? Or making yourself accountable to others?
If you want to shout it out, let us know in the comments below what your big musical goals are for 2016.
If you want to keep it a secret, but still clarify the goal by putting it in writing, visit Scream Into the Void (a website John Oliver created so internet trolls could type out mean things without hurting anyone’s feelings, but I think it works equally well for this application).
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[Picture from Shutterstock.]
Chris Robley is an acclaimed singer-songwriter and award-winning poet from Maine.
His Beatlesque indie-pop and milltown Americana songs have been praised by The Associated Press, No Depression, KCRW, The LA Times, Boston Globe, NPR, American Songwriter, and others.
His poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, and more.
Robley has received a Maine Literary Award in Poetry, Boulevard’s Emerging Writers Prize for Poetry, and in 2016 was selected by former US-poet laureate Robert Pinsky as a finalist for the Dorset Prize.