Dark Horses

A dark horse, which had never been thought of, rushed past the grandstand in sweeping triumph.        Benjamin Disraeli.

Conventional wisdom tells us that, should we have a goal we want to achieve, one of the most productive steps we can take in reaching that goal is to tell others about our goal. I've always found this puzzling, as, truthfully, my observations run contrary to this long standing dictum. In fact, the people who are always talking about what they are going to do, in fact, seem to be the least likely to actually do anything.

Turns out, the conventional wisdom is wrong. A host of studies, only one of which I'll reference here, show that people who talk about what they will do are actually less likely to act. Talking about what they are going to do, replaces actually doing anything as some how, people make themselves believe they have already done the work/achieved the goal.

Marc Twight grasped this concept succinctly with his famous quote: "Talk - action = zero." So, less talk, more action.

Climbing the west ridge of Solomons in the Sierra Mountains