Hide Your Project in Secret Instead of Shouting About It

Have you ever seen a social media post like the ones below?

• “Today I embark on the quest of writing my first novel.”
• “I started training for my marathon! Only ten months to go!”
• “Just penned a few lyrics for my debut album. Excited to share my record with all of you when it’s done.”

There’s a popular mentality that if you publicly proclaim you’re going to do something, you will inevitably follow through because you’ve already committed to it.

I think that mentality is bogus for two reasons:

1. The virtual universe (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is primed to reward talk — not actions.
2. Social media has a short-term memory. Your flesh-and-blood friends may hold you accountable to your personal goals, but the social media world will not.

You may get 100 likes on your Facebook post about starting your novel. (Yay!) But you’ve also prematurely blown your wad without doing any real work. You’ve received social validation without doing anything worth validating. You’ve scored an undeserved dopamine hit.

A year from now, your Instagram followers won’t remember that you owe them a novel, a marathon, or an album.

The masses are fickle. They’ll be paying attention to the next person who promises them something.

Posting about your new project may feel good in the moment, but it’s ultimately an act of self-delusion and procrastination. It’s a way for you to avoid the real, difficult, un-sexy task of actually doing the work.

Author Ryan Holiday offers this cautionary advice: “Talk depletes us. Talking and doing fight for the same resources.”

There’s a big difference between workshopping an idea with other creative minds and looking for social approval from the masses. The former is part of the creative process. The latter will suck up valuable time and energy that could be spent creating a better product.

I’m not saying that people who throw down an early gauntlet never go on to finish their project. Some people undoubtedly follow through, but that’s not because their social mob is behind them.

It’s because the people who follow-through are the ones who had grit all along. They would have finished their project regardless of whether or not they posted about it.

Hibernation or Showmanship?

“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” -Henry Ford

Today, you must ask yourself: Do you want to become known as the person who said they were going to do something or as the person who actually went out and did it?

In other words, do you want to be a showman or a hibernator?

The showman seeks credit for uncompleted work. Their priority is social validation and all of its trappings: status, money, power, etc. They revel in announcing future projects because it’s the best way of gaining status with low effort.

The hibernator works in humble, quiet isolation, then emerges from hibernation having completed something of substance. Nothing will get in the way of them completing their work. In fact, they sometimes “fall off the map” on social media because they’re more focused on doing the work than they are on taking credit for it. They still enjoy social validation but are driven by intrinsic motivators — not extrinsic ones.

The path of the hibernator is not an easy one. Full transparency: I’ve fallen prey to showmanship numerous times. I even went around for years telling people that I was going to be a writer someday. All talk, no action.

I was acting the part rather than doing the work. The title of “writer” felt better than the actual work of writing. So I put on the title even though it didn’t fit yet. I stole something that wasn’t mine to take.

After a friend finally knocked some sense into me, I began writing.

A year later, I wrote a post reflecting upon what I had learned in my first year of writing. The number one lesson? Writers write. They use their pen — not their mouth.

Be the person who works in humble, quiet isolation, then emerges from hibernation having completed something of substance.

Have you been writing with your mouth instead of your pen?
Have you gotten the dopamine hit without doing the work?
Have you been seeking credit for your work once you finish the first page instead of once you finish the last one?

If you have, you’re not alone. I’ve been there. But every day presents a new choice.

Which option do you choose today — showmanship or hibernation?