Here is a most interesting concept I came across today. it talks about how you should never share your goals with someone because if you do, you are more likely to not achieve them as compared to if you had kept the goals to yourself. What does that mean and how can it be? Well psychologists call this phenomenon “Substitution” – basically by sharing your goal with someone and receiving appreciation for it tricks your mind into thinking that you have already done some of the work towards it. This gives you a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment without actually doing anything.
Of course, if you tell your trainer your fitness goals, that is probably different since you are then actually taking a step towards achieving your goal since telling your trainer about your fitness goals (or your dietician your weight-loss goals, or your investor your financial goals, etc.) is an integral part of you working to achieving those goals. But telling your friends or colleagues about your goals is something that you should avoid.
Here’s a video from TED (I love that site) that talks about this (very short video):