If you want to get in shape, don’t buy running shoes. Instead, go out and run. There is genuine work and all the activities that feel, smell and taste like work but accomplish nothing. Worse than accomplishing nothing, these feel-good tasks reduce your motivation to do something useful.
Contrary to a lot of self-help wisdom, a study proclaims that telling people about your goals makes you less likely to accomplish them. The reason? Telling people about your goals feels productive. That feeling of productivity reduces the motivation to do something genuinely productive.
Feel-Good Tasks and the Real Thing
Ramit has a similar idea with personal finance he calls the difference between being sexy and being rich. Being sexy is watching your portfolio every day, looking for the best stocks and flopping between six bank accounts to earn an extra three dollars. Being rich is putting your money in an index fund and then waiting 30 or 50 years.
The difference here is the same as before. Eyeballing your portfolio feels like a mental checkmark in the personal finance column. If you give yourself enough checkmarks, then you feel satisfied with your effort–even if nothing was done.
If you want to be fit/productive/rich/in a happy relationship, the best way to start is by avoiding all feel-good tasks. If a task:
- isn’t necessary to get started, OR
- doesn’t directly contribute to your success
…don’t waste your time on it. You can worry about getting the fancier running shoes after you’ve been running every day for a month.
Instead of Counting Omega-3s, Start By Not Eating So Much
Always do the big things first. Because if you start with the little things, you might never get around to what actually matters.
I hate listening to someone with horrible eating habits making purchasing decisions on whether a food item is low-carb, Omega-3 rich or contains pomegranate juice. The problem isn’t whether the cream cheese you ate with your bagel had Omega-3s, but that you ate four of them.
When you get caught up in minutia, the really important stuff gets left undone. Often simply because in buying the low-carb salad dressing, you give yourself a mental checkmark in the “healthy eating” column and proceed to violate the truly important issues.
Identify Your Feel-Good Tasks
The problem with feel-good tasks is that they often appear productive. It’s only when you really examine them that you realize they aren’t either necessary or directly helpful to your goal.
When I first moved to Winnipeg, I had to completely build a new social circle. After reading a few interesting and helpful articles for improving my social life, I subscribed to a couple blogs and read many articles on the topic. At the time, I felt all the knowledge intake would help me build the kinds of friendships and relationships I wanted.
After a few months I realized that all of the reading was simply a feel-good task. Not only was some of the advice bad, but it held me back from going outside my room and meeting real people. So, at the time, I canceled almost all my subscriptions and stopped reading articles on the topic.
I won’t say universally that articles are always a feel-good task (otherwise why would I bother updating this site?). It really just depends on your personality, and whether you’re using reading as an excuse instead of an enabler.
If you’re serious about any goal, I would create a list of all the activities you do that you associate with that goal. Then go through each item on that list and ask if it is either necessary or directly helpful. If it isn’t, either leave it altogether, or make sure that you only do it after accomplishing the truly necessary and useful work.
Shut Up or Put Up
If you follow the advice of the study I mentioned previously, then telling other people your goals is a bad idea. Instead of telling your friends about your plans to travel the world, start saving quietly for a plane ticket. Instead of telling your friends about how you want to lose weight/get in a relationship/have a better job, start doing some actual work towards it.
I don’t believe talking about your goals is bad, only when it’s done before actually doing the work. Feel-good tasks aren’t harmful if you do them after working hard on all the real work. When I started writing this blog, I read tons of resources on how to make a successful online business. But it didn’t matter because I was actually writing nearly every day.
Leave the running shoes in the store, at least until you’ve put some miles in on your own.
I'm a speed-reading, vegetarian, holistic learning, productivity hacking university student.
Scott,
This may be the best article I’ve read by you.
I second Dave’s comment
“I don’t believe talking about your goals is bad, only when it’s done before actually doing the work.”
Best sentence of the article.
Stop talking, start doing. I like it.
I find that the best way for nerdy types to become fit is to become an expert on the subject. That’s how it was for me: before I did a lot of reading I had very low training motivation, now I have zero problems with going to the gym or for a run since I have very good knowledge of what works, what I want and how to autocorrect any deviations. Training has become a part of me, like guitar or programming, whereas before it was just some alien concept that I “had to do” in order to punish myself for being such a slob. Basically, this is your typical exerciser who has to push to get fit, whereas what you want to get to is becoming an athlete (at least psychologically) who is pulled ahead by his training and thus has no motivation issues. This contradicts your advice a bit, since I basically spent a few months just reading and listening to audiobooks 8-10 hours a day.
However, in the general case I agree with you: first things first, and don’t do any premature optimizations.
Like all things, it’s about balance.
If you tell everybody about your goals you become less motivated to do them, because to some extent you get part of the reward before you even start.
“I want to lose 10 pounds.”
“Good for you, that’s a good goal!”
Of course, if you tell no one about your goals, then you could miss some major opportunities. If you’re trying to get fit and you don’t tell your friend who is a personal trainer about your goal, you’re (probably) losing out.
So it may not be about telling people your goals, but rather, who you’re telling? Are you telling someone just to feel good about yourself, or are you telling someone because maybe they can help you or at least force you to stick to it?
I find if you master the basics everything else comes naturally. Keep it as simple as possible. The greatest difference between people in any area is those who have mastered the basics and those who haven’t. To limit the size of your food portions is a pretty basic skill, but I bet it accounts for the majority of the gap between fit and fat.
(And slightly off topic, but there was something you’ve said a while ago that I’ve taken to quoting in regular day life — “The desire to swim is greatest when you’re a few feet below the surface.” So thanks for that.)
All the best
–Dave
Dave,
Yes, you may miss opportunities by hiding your goals. But as an example, let’s say you have two new entrepreneurs, Bill and Jack.
Bill is starting a new company, he informs everyone he knows about it, but he doesn’t do any real work. He spends most his time printing business cards and “networking”.
Jack starts a new company, informs his friends but works quietly. Six months later he has a prototype and is in a position to look for more funding/beta testing.
Which person would you rather help with opportunities? In a world where people are full of talk, I’d rather help the person who demonstrates that they are a go-getter.
Hey,
I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to fitness/health/business optimizations too, so I can understand the appeal. I don’t think reading is unhealthy, only when it isn’t coupled with action. For example, if I wasn’t going to the gym regularly while I was reading (even just to run or do push-ups) I would commit to stop reading for a month and get my exercise on schedule first.
Nerdiness is a virtue.
-Scott
Well put there, Scott. Just do what needs to be done.
yes…Yes…YES…YES!!!!!!
Great article Scott!
Thought provoking article. I feel telling about goals works for some people. I feel obligated to do what I told to others.
I completely agree with your views on fitness. People unnecessarily spend a lot of money on buying costly diet friendly food items whereas what they need to do is to reduce eating and start a bit of physical activity.
Thanks…
I mostly agree, but there is a catch. If you run in the wrong shoes and injure yourself you will be less likely to run again tomorrow.
Dave,
True. But there’s always a chance you will injure yourself. Both literally and as we’ve been using the metaphor.
When you start blogging, there are a billion “fatal” mistakes you can make. Picking the wrong name. Writing the wrong type of posts. Choosing the wrong hosting provider. And, yes, if you have a bad experience with any of these that may prevent you from continuing.
But my opinion is that, as long as you aren’t trying to do a marathon in sandals, the amount of people who will get injured and stop is less than the people who buy the shoes, feel good and never start.
-Scott
This is a really excellent post. It really talks to me directly. I’m looking forward to exploring your archive postings. Thank you.
Good article, Scott.
Another advantage of “Instead of telling your friends about your plans to travel the world, start saving quietly for a plane ticket.” is that you get to surprise people with the progress you’ve made. It can also build your own anticipation at the reward of telling them (for yourself or themselves). Caveat: watch out that they don’t build a bunch of plans around you being here, only to have you announce your traveling the world at some later point in time. Outside of that sort of thing, building up to big results can have some fun results.
Great article. Thanks. I have referred to it on my blog (hope that’s OK!).
I’m guilty of this too – going to the store to buy fancy new stationery or gaze at expensive laptops instead of staying at home writing.
Barefoot running is the way to go. When I saw the headline for this article, I thought it might be about barefooting. I was pleasantly surprised though.
Thanks.
Marshall Jones Jr.
Excellent advice. I think I’ll come back to this blog after I finish the essay I was procrastinating by reading it…
It was the same for me, with drumming. I thought that the drums that I play sound like shit, and I can’t get any better until I don’t have a premium drum set. Two years had to pass until I realized that my old garbage isn’t actually garbage!
Nice article! Very nice, I found your blog just about five minutes ago through StumbleUpon, and I think I’m going to feature it close to the top of the list in my upcoming “my favorite blogs” article! Keep up the awesome job!
Cheers,
Zoli
Wow. I liked this article a lot. =)!
HI,
Scott. I think this is the best article.It is quiet contrary to common belief and yet useful.
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Another excellent article! I have to “shut up and put up” about my goals from now on.