Obviously, writing blogs is not the biggest priority for me and the iDIMENSIONS team – the last one was posted in 2015! Shame on me/us!
That’s about to change.
Going forward we will publish at least one blog per month. That’s may sound like the goal of an underachiever, but considering we haven’t done one in almost 2 years, that could actually be a tall order.
I thought it would be good to tell you about this, to make it public for all the world to see (no more, no less to apply some pressure on myself and our team members in Philadelphia, Bucks County, PA and New York City. This is certainly something that has worked for me before – if there is something I really need and want to achieve, I tell other people about it. I did it when I finally decided to finish my master’s degree in history 9 years ago; when I decided to lose weight in 2011, and – not to forget – when I formally started my business and executive coaching company in 2010.
It worked!
Well, of course, there are different views on whether or not to share your goals with others in order to put you in a better position to achieve them. Indeed, research has shown that people who make public announcements of their intentions are significantly less likely to follow through on them.
What’s behind this contrarian research finding? How to explain this? Well, somehow it has to do with one’s motivation and the extraordinary satisfaction one can derive from picking a difficult challenge and successfully dealing with it. But if you tell others about the goal you spread out the sense of achievement and you may reduce your motivation to actually reach the goal.*
Hmm, works contrary to my own and others’ personal experience. I know this for a fact, but there is nothing like a bit of contrarian advice based on research to make you reflect and improve your ways. Another insight for the toolbox. Good to keep in mind for me, especially since as a business coach I help business owners and executives with goal setting and goal achievement. I help people improve, so I have to constantly improve as well.
Now, with this blog, it appears I didn’t follow the contrarian advice. I told you about my goal. Yes, I wrote one blog, but the goal is to produce at least one blog each month. The test will be to produce the next blog and keep it up every month from now on … maybe I can prove the contrarian advice wrong (at least that it doesn’t apply to me as far as blog writing is concerned).
Stay tuned for further blogs in the near future!
* The contrarian insight is provided by Peter M. Vishton, Ph.D. in The Great Course lecture “Outsmart Yourself” (Lecture 1)
