Goal setting: making it public or keeping it private?

Some really interesting research that was carried out last year challenges a fairly fundamental piece of advice facilitators hand out during programmes i.e. disclosing your goals in a public setting will make them more likely to happen.

The research is summarised nicely on Psyblog.

The research acts as a helpful reminder that objectives need to be accompanied by other thinking and behaviour:

• how do I make my objective achievable?
• why is the objective important to me?
• how will I feel if I achieve it?
• what actions do I need to take?
• who can help me achieve my objective?
• what will get in the way?
• how will I celebrate?!