[summerlunch]

OP, along with people like Tim Ferris claim that publicly announcing your goals will help you achieve them due to the pressure of being known as a failure. At the same time, people like Derek Sivers http://sivers.org/zipit claim that telling others about your goals leads to failure because your brain reaps the award of getting that social identity of that goal, thus not feeling the need to achieve that goal.

At first this looks like conflicting ideas, but it really isn't. It really depends on the goal, how your announce your goals, and the people you announce it to.

You have to tell other people your goals in a way that there will be negative consequences if you do not follow up on it.

If your peers are the forgiving type that will not give you trouble for not following up on your goals, then you will just reap the rewards of that initial attention you get when you announce your goals, but will not feel the pressure of being a failure.

So in the end, it's all about managing the amount of pressure and the urgency you will feel, and reducing the amount of "fake-but-feels-real" rewards that will rob your motivation.

Tips like these really have to be taken in context.