Maybe it’s a bit harsh, and I’d hazard to say that personality plays a significant role, but I also wouldn’t completely disagree with his conclusion as I know many people who have said I’m going to do such and such, or go to (fill in the blank), and then fail to follow through. Usually it only affects them, but in some cases it impacts others, sometimes both organizationally and financially. Maybe you were counting on someone to follow through because your plans hinged on them doing what they said they would do. I’m not talking about work related things, but things that could relate to social events, travel plans, etc. For example, we’ve had people indicate strongly that they were going to join us on vacations and then bail leaving us having to fill in the balance if we wanted to still go on our trip. So I prefer to plan for me, and if others join then great, but I won’t hinge things on someone saying they will participate and help out. In the end when others say they will do such and such, I generally smile but don’t count on it and have contingency plans in place so that I don’t lose out when they don’t come through. I prefer to be reserved when people tell me they are going to do something grand. If they do follow through, I will cheer for them, if they don’t, I won’t be shocked.
I’m inclined to think it’s better to stand up and say “look what I did” than “look what I want to do” since what “I did” is an accomplishment, “what I want to do” is just as likely to become “what I wish I did”. I prefer the no regrets, or no one knows my regrets, approach to goals.
So it’s an interesting thesis he has. Perhaps we now have so many self help books because we are all so freely telling each other what we are going to do, and therefore we set ourselves up for failure by doing so? And when we fail to achieve our goals we seek help from books and people to help us achieve the things we really could accomplish if we just set our minds to it and kept it to ourselves?
I can’t judge, but I know that I do generally keep goals to myself and am pleasantly surprised when I get where I was trying to go, but there was usually a lot of work to get there. What is it they say? Anything worth having is worth working for?
So forgive me for being skeptical of your goals. It’s just my nature, and I am trained as a scientist…which means I was trained to be a skeptic.