Should You Tell Others About Your Goals?
In March 2026, Josh Kerr announced to the world his ambitious project: 222.
His goal?
To break Hicham El Guerrouj's 27-year-old world record in the mile.
At this weekend's Diamond League Athletics event in London, Kerr achieved his goal, running a blistering 3:42.66.
He called his shot.
And then he delivered.
This is an incredible physical achievement… but what makes it even more impressive to me is the mental component.
For many of us, announcing our most ambitious goals is something we instinctively avoid.
We would rather work quietly, away from the eyes of others, and let our performance do the talking.
For others, sharing goals is something they swear by.
The accountability, encouragement and expectation from others helps them stay committed when motivation inevitably fluctuates.
But which is best?
Should you work in silence, away from the world's eyes, and take others by surprise with your performance?
Or should you shine a light on your ambitions, let the world follow your journey and use that accountability to drive you forward?
To tell or not to tell, that is the question...
Below, I explore both sides of this debate using research from psychology, some hypotheses from neuroscience, and the experiences of high performers.
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The Argument Against Sharing Goals
Public recognition can create a false sense of progress
When we publicly announce important goals, especially goals linked to our identity, there is a possibility that the recognition we receive can create a premature sense of achievement.
Gollwitzer and colleagues (2009) examined what happens when identity-relevant intentions become public.
They found that when people announced goals linked to their desired identity, their subsequent engagement in the behaviours required to achieve those goals was reduced.
The key phrase here is identity-relevant.
This is not simply:
"I want to run a faster 5km."
It is more:
"I am becoming an elite runner."
"I am becoming an entrepreneur."
When other people recognise that identity before we have achieved the outcome, something interesting happens.
We receive social validation for the person we want to become before we have fully earned that identity.
In other words, the world starts to see us as that person before we have done everything required to become that person.
This does not mean we suddenly stop caring about the goal.
Instead, it may reduce the psychological gap between:
"Who I am now"
and
"Who I want to become."
That gap is often what drives action.
The athlete who says:
"I am going to complete an Ironman."
and receives:
"Wow, that is incredible. You are so disciplined."
has received something valuable: recognition.
The risk is that the recognition itself becomes rewarding.
The athlete feels a little more like an “Ironman” before completing the 6am 3000m swims, 120km long rides and intense post-work threshold sessions required to actually become one.
Perceived progress can reduce subsequent effort
Another relevant concept is that progress does not always increase effort. Sometimes it can reduce it.
Fishbach and Dhar (2005) demonstrated that when people perceive progress towards a goal, they can sometimes interpret this progress as evidence of success rather than as a reason to continue working.
The important point is this:
Progress can be interpreted in two different ways.
"I am making progress, so I should continue."
or:
"I have made progress, so perhaps I can relax."
The first strengthens commitment.
The second can create complacency.
Although Fishbach and Dhar did not specifically study public goal announcements, their findings provide a useful explanation for one possible mechanism through which public recognition may influence behaviour.
When we tell others our goals, we may receive an initial motivational boost.
"People believe in me. I am excited. I cannot wait to get started."
And this can genuinely be helpful.
However, if the reward of recognition becomes more satisfying than the process itself, the motivational boost may fade.
The goal that once felt exciting becomes normal.
The praise that once felt energising becomes expected.
The result?
You may still want the outcome, but the daily behaviours required to achieve it start to feel less urgent.
Your brain begins whispering:
"You've been doing great recently. Missing one session won't matter."
And sometimes, that one session becomes two.
The often discussed "dopamine hit" from telling others
This theory provides a potential neuropsychological explanation for why Gollwitzer and colleagues’ findings occur.
When we tell people our identity-related goals, the social recognition we receive can act as a psychological reward. This recognition may engage reward-related brain systems, creating feelings of validation, progress and movement towards the desired identity.
The potential issue is that this reward arrives before we have completed the behaviours necessary to achieve the goal.
In other words, we may receive some of the psychological benefits associated with success before we have actually earned the outcome.
This premature sense of progress or identity achievement may reduce the urgency to engage consistently in the behaviours required to achieve the goal.
At this point in time, I cannot find empirical evidence directly proving this specific neurological mechanism (although I have heard it in a lot of podcasts!). However, it provides a theoretically plausible explanation for why public recognition of identity-related goals may sometimes undermine goal pursuit, and it is an area I am excited to hear more about in the future.
(If you have a paper which proves this, please leave a comment below I would love to read it!)
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The Argument For Telling People Your Goals
Social support can improve goal attainment
The argument above might make it sound like sharing goals is always a bad idea.
It is not.
More recent research suggests that telling others about our goals can actually improve progress when it leads to meaningful support.
Howe and colleagues (2025) found that sharing goals increased goal progress because people received more social support.
This included:
encouragement;
practical help;
advice;
resources;
and increased effort.
The important detail here is:
It was not simply telling people the goal that helped.
It was what happened afterwards.
Sharing your goal is beneficial when it changes your environment in a way that helps you perform the behaviours required to achieve it.
Accountability strengthens commitment
Behavioural science and performance psychology consistently show that accountability can improve follow-through.
Examples include:
sending training data to your coach;
working with a training partner;
completing regular performance reviews;
setting deadlines with colleagues;
having someone check your progress.
The important distinction is this:
These are not simply public declarations.
They are systems.
They create feedback, structure and accountability.
There is a big difference between:
"I am going to win a championship."
and:
"My coach reviews my training every Friday and challenges me on whether my actions match my goals."
The second creates an environment that supports execution.
Social expectation can increase effort… but not always in a helpful way
When we tell others our goals, another powerful psychological factor appears:
Social evaluation.
Humans are highly sensitive to how others perceive us.
Once people know what we are trying to achieve, failing to act can feel uncomfortable.
Nobody wants to say:
"I am going to qualify for the Olympics."
and then avoid the difficult sessions required to get there.
This pressure can increase commitment.
However, the type of motivation created by this pressure matters.
Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) highlights an important distinction between different types of motivation.
Autonomous motivation:
"I want to do this because it matters to me."
Controlled motivation:
"I need to do this because I feel pressure from others."
Both can produce effort.
But they feel very different.
Public commitments can sometimes shift motivation from:
"I want to succeed."
towards:
"I cannot afford to fail."
In the short term, this may increase effort.
However, over time, motivation driven primarily by fear of disappointing others can come at a cost.
It may reduce:
enjoyment;
flexibility;
resilience after setbacks;
long-term adherence.
Challenge versus threat states
To understand this further, we can look at the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat states (Blascovich & Mendes, 2000).
The key idea is that people respond differently depending on whether they believe they have the resources to meet the demands they face.
A challenge state sounds like:
"This is difficult, but I have what I need to succeed."
A threat state sounds like:
"This is too much, and failure will have consequences."
Publicly committing to ambitious goals can increase accountability.
But it can also increase the perceived consequences of failure.
For some people, this creates energy and focus.
For others, it creates anxiety and pressure.
Threat states are associated with:
increased self-focus;
greater anxiety;
reduced attentional control;
more cognitive interference (a brain busy with often unhelpful thoughts!).
The highest performers are not necessarily those who experience the least pressure.
They are often those who can experience pressure while still believing:
"I have the resources to meet this challenge."
By Daieuxetdailleurs - Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=151469940
So… should you share your goals?
Based on the evidence, here are three practical recommendations.
Keep goals private when:
you are seeking validation more than support (you’ll likely get it, but it won’t help you achieve your goals!);
the goal is strongly tied to your identity;
you aren’t consistently doing the necessary behaviours to achieve the goal yet;
talking about the goal feels almost as rewarding as doing the work.
Share goals when:
you are asking for practical support;
someone can meaningfully improve your execution;
you are creating accountability rather than seeking recognition;
the relationship encourages focus on the process rather than just the outcome;
you actively WANT extra pressure and this creates energy and motivation for you (in other words, the extra attention facilitates a challenge state).
The key question to ask yourself is:
"Will sharing this goal with this person help me engage in the behaviours necessary to achieve it?"
That is the question that matters.
By jenaragon94 - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76848994
What can we learn from Josh Kerr?
Josh Kerr is a fascinating example because he appears to challenge the argument against sharing goals.
He publicly announced Project 222, and then achieved the extraordinary.
But the important question is not:
"Did Josh Kerr tell people his goal?"
The better question is:
"What happened because Josh Kerr told people his goal?"
The announcement likely created several positive factors that helped him in his quest:
increased accountability (the potential adverse effects would likely be sustainable for a 5 month build up to the event, and he may even see this pressure favourably on race day, with more fans in the stadium and more media attention potentially bringing greater energy, unlocking an extra level of performance within him!);
greater public commitment (more fans in the stadium, more media attention…);
additional support from sponsors and his team (bespoke spikes, bespoke race suit…);
increased resources (better camp, more support to remove life stressors, better gym access…).
However, the announcement was only one piece of a much larger system.
Kerr is already a world-class athlete with years of training, expert coaching, psychological preparation and an environment designed to support elite performance.
Furthermore, he has likely developed the skills and beliefs that help him to use the energy of an expectant crowd on race day to his advantage, taking the energy from a bigger, louder crowd and using this to drive a higher level of performance.
The same announcement could have a completely different impact on someone who is at the beginning of their journey, still developing their performance habits, learning about what helps them perform and potentially looking for the recognition that comes from being an “athlete” before they have the environment in place to support that lifestyle and level of performance.
The lesson is not:
"Tell everyone your goals."
Nor is it:
"Keep your goals secret.”
The lesson is:
"Understand why you are sharing your goal.”
Are you sharing it because you want recognition?
Or because it creates an environment that makes the behaviours required for success more likely?
That is the question that matters.
As ever, the conclusion of this performance psychology blog is the ever frustrating, but often applied...
It depends.
I hope this blog could be of some help and play a role in supporting you towards achieving your biggest, scariest, most fulfilling goals.
Remember to ask yourself:
"Will sharing this goal with this person help me engage in the behaviours necessary to achieve it?"
If yes… Do it!
If no… Consider saving it up.
So, armed with this information… what goal will you go after next?
Thank you very much for reading.
Have a great week!
Frazer
References
Blascovich, J., & Mendes, W. B. (2000). Challenge and threat appraisals: The role of affective cues. In J. P. Forgas (Ed.), Feeling and thinking: The role of affect in social cognition (pp. 59–82). Cambridge University Press.
Berridge, K. C., & Robinson, T. E. (1998). What is the role of dopamine in reward: Hedonic impact, reward learning, or incentive salience? Brain Research Reviews, 28(3), 309–369.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behaviour. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268.
Fishbach, A., & Dhar, R. (2005). Goals as excuses or guides: The liberating effect of perceived goal progress on choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 32(3), 370–377.
Gollwitzer, P. M., Sheeran, P., Michalski, V., & Seifert, A. E. (2009). When intentions go public: Does social reality widen the intention–behaviour gap? Psychological Science, 20(5), 612–618.
Howe, L. C., et al. (2025). Goals out loud: Telling others about a goal increases support received and facilitates goal pursuit. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672251382271
Izuma, K., Saito, D. N., & Sadato, N. (2008). Processing of social and monetary rewards in the human striatum. Neuron, 58(2), 284–294.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860
