Never tell your resolution beforehand.

— John Selden

LEADERSHIP

WHAT THIS MEANS

Announcing an intention pays you some of what finishing would have paid, and the payment comes out of the work. Saying it aloud also gives the plan a shape you then have to defend, which makes it harder to change quietly when it needs changing. There is a version of telling people that helps, where someone is genuinely holding you to it. Broadcasting is a different thing, and it mostly costs.

Keep the next thing you decide to do to yourself for a while. Tell people once there is something finished to point at rather than a plan to describe.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Which plan would survive better if you told nobody yet?

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