The Folly of Overcommunicating Goals
"You talk about doing this thing so much that it feels like you've already done it, therefore, the motivation to actually do it, is gone."
As I continue exploring the old web, it's important to recognize certain things, certain flaws, and work towards breaking certain cycles. A lot of old web forums are filled with people talking about how they hate social media and they're happy to find that a lot of forums are active. Which is fantastic.
In those conversations, resources are thrown around to encourage others to leave social media, to leave the "modern web" and to embrace the old web and embrace these changes that they'd like to see in the world.
Post after post after post of "I really want to make a website" and "I really want to delete my Twitter" eventually shows a pattern.
It is incredibly easy to talk about changes that you want to make or changes you want to see in the world and do nothing about it. It takes no effort at all, and in fact, it's really rewarding.
A few studies have been done and it's discussed in this Psychology Today post: Constantly talking about your goals, your plans, and the steps towards those plans tricks your brain into thinking you're actually doing something productive. The motivation to actually do that original goal is decreases.
However, this shouldn't discourage anyone from talking about ANY of their goals and plans, especially if they need help, but be aware of the pattern that can happen, the cycle that can start.
A great way to combat this is with a to-do list somewhere that you can see regularly so you're reminded to actually do the things you said you'd do. Or maybe that system doesn't work for you, maybe something else does. Thankfully, there's an entire industry based around productivity and getting people to do the goals they set out, so I don't have recommend solutions endlessly.
My "Now" section on my website will be updated today to include more projects I'd like to work on, while also crossing off some of the things I've actually done this past week.