Mindset - Don't tell just do

 Mindset - Don’t tell just do

This next topic might seem counter-intuitive but hear me out, and it will all make sense when I’m done. If you are like me or at least how I was, you believe that announcing your goals on social media or telling all your friends about your new project will increase the likelihood that you will succeed and motivate you to achieve something. The reality, however, is that the opposite is true. I haven’t made a New Year's resolution public in years, and I’m learning not to tell people about my big ideas or hint that something big is coming. Making these declarations of goals does not increase your chances of success instead it’s been proven that the more you tell people the less likely you are to succeed. 

This holds true to all things in life, but you might be wondering how this can help you with streaming. Everywhere online, and in my experience on Twitter, in particular, you’ll find posts about different stream goals. I see posts where someone hasn’t streamed consistently, and they are making a goal or making a declaration that they will follow a set schedule going forward. Most new schedules they are claiming they will follow are untested and fall through. Another example is people promising grand plans for a stream or that they will release daily/weekly content and a large percentage of these plans fall through and people have to take back what they said or make excuses as to why they couldn’t follow through with what they announced to the public. That’s not to say that there aren’t exceptions, before you come at me, I know life happens and some things are unavoidable. 

One last thing I’ll mention here is the follower goals I see posted. These often lead to empty follows as people are quick to hit a button when asked to do so, but when it comes time to spend time in your stream, life might be busy, they might be supporting another streamer, or they might be streaming themselves, or they simply followed because you asked without no real intention to follow your content. Follower numbers will fluctuate and as it goes up and down, it will play with your mental health. Instead of focusing on numbers and making those numbers public, focus on your stream and allow yourself to improve your content. As you improve, your goals will be reached as you improve. Make plans, set yourself goals, and implement them but do it secretly and allow people to discover the changes as you implement them. 

It can be a bit lonely to build your stream this way, but it is the best way. Please don’t misunderstand, this does not mean to never mention your stream or engage with the community on social media. You very much have to advertise and market your stream and make sure people are aware of your “show”.  The purpose here is specific to goals and your future plans and not sharing them with everyone. 

If you are still asking why or how sharing my goals impact my stream and my ability to put on a great show, you are not alone. I thought the same thing until I realized the impact our mind has on our success.  The problem that arises when we share our goals can be broken down into two things, motivation and accountability which we will review a bit more down below.

Motivation

Studies have shown that telling someone your plan and/or goals, releases the same chemicals in our brains as when you are actually completing a task. Once I realized this, I was able to see why this would make it difficult to stay motivated. Telling someone your plan and/or goal is giving you instant gratification leaving no further need to continue. To go back to the example of telling everyone about your schedule. Ask

yourself, why are you really telling people about this? Are you hoping to find out if it will

fit their schedule? This is a moot point because there is no perfect time that will

accommodate every viewer. Your schedule has to be something that works for you.

Allow me to put it this way if you tell your friends, family, or followers about a goal, that positive praise will give you a sense of accomplishment as you tell yourself “they believe in me or this will be great”. Your mind will trick you by telling you nothing further needs to be accomplished, and you received the pat on the back so to speak that we all desire.  Now think of the opposite, silently putting in countless hours and effort in trying to build your channel.  This seems like a very thankless thing to do with little gratification, however, when you start seeing progress and growth, you will feel that sense of accomplishment of doing it by yourself without influence. 

Accountability

I have often thought that telling others about my goals would help keep me accountable, but that has rarely been the case. I’m a very logical person and I always thought that knowing someone was watching my progress would prevent me from stopping. Here is the thing though I am my own worse critic and if you are too, you are more than likely to call yourself out on your BS better than anyone else can. Friends and even family may do it, but they will often take a softer approach. Do yourself a favor, don’t tell anyone, and allow yourself to only have yourself to keep YOU accountable. In some instances, I’ve discovered that because you perceive that people are holding you accountable, it makes you feel trapped. For example, when I was writing my first blog, I told everyone who would listen that I was doing this, and I promised to release one post a week on Sundays. I faced multiple challenges and pressure doing this, as people were counting on me and constantly asking about it. There were weeks when I had difficulty finding inspiration and rushing to complete a post. I felt like I was letting not only myself down but others because the product wasn’t my best. I eventually gave up. I’ve kept this new blog fairly quiet and haven’t shared my goals with the public, so I’m accountable to no one but myself. Remember, that you need to enjoy yourself and your work, and outside pressure can take that away. Don’t let it come to that and take back your accountability.

Biggest Motivator

I have thought a lot about what the best motivator actually is and have concluded that forward progress motivates society more than anything else. Being consistent with streaming, and noticing my viewer count, and chatters increase makes me want to continue. I make sure my goals are reasonable and avoid getting the instant gratification of telling others about my goals because I’m excited about them and want to share them.

Final thoughts

I am always excited about new ideas or a new schedule and want to tell everyone, but have felt the damage this can cause. I’ve made this mistake more times than I can count during my journey as a streamer and then found myself having to post apologies and feeling guilty when I didn’t meet a goal or missed a stream. It took me a long time to realize that if I’m consistent viewers will notice the trends and check in when they expect me. 

There is nothing more satisfying than setting and achieving goals, so go ahead and set goals and chase them. If you want to improve your chances of achieving them, let it be a surprise to your friends, family, and viewers. I will leave you with this saying that hits hard and as always if you have any comments or questions leave them below.

“Don’t speak and go do something. Make content worth other people talking about”