Stop Announcing - Start Building

What if talking about your goals is actually making them harder to accomplish?

We live in a culture that encourages us to announce everything we’re going to do—lose the weight, start the business, get out of debt, write the book, change our lives. But sometimes talking about the goal gives us a taste of the reward before we’ve done any of the work.

In this episode of Pursue the Old Paths, JD explores the difference between goals that benefit from accountability and goals that may need to be protected and pursued quietly. Some things need encouragement and accountability. Other things need time underground—like a seed taking root before anyone sees what’s growing.

Write it down. Make it measurable. Build the plan. Do the work.

Then be quiet and let the result announce the work.

Always Forward.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Welcome back to Pursue the Old Paths. Space where we talk about the kind of wisdom that built strong families, strong men, and strong communities. Wisdom that predates trends, politics, and modern convenience culture. I'm your host, JD. Let's get started. A short episode today, folks, but I hope it's meaningful and I hope it helps you out in some small way. You know, there's an old saying, we've probably heard in one form or another, but I'll say it like this work in silence and let your success make the noise. Now I like that. Because we live in a world where everybody seems to announce what they're gonna do. Posting it on Facebook or Instagram or whatever. I'm starting a business, or I'm gonna lose 50 pounds. I'm writing a book. I'm going back to school. I'm getting out of debt. I'm gonna start working out. I am gonna completely change my life. And then magically nothing happens. Six months later, they're still talking about it. Now I'm not throwing rocks at anybody here because I've done that too. I think most of us probably have. We get excited about something, we see a possibility, and maybe for the first time in a long time, we can actually picture ourselves somewhere different. And what do we immediately want to do? We want to tell somebody. And it often does happen. You say, you know, I'm gonna lose 50 pounds, and somebody will say to you, Man, that is awesome. Good for you. Man, you are gonna look great. And just for the moment, you feel really good about it, and you haven't even lost one ounce yet. Where you tell everybody, I'm gonna start my own business, and suddenly you're talking about what the business is gonna look like and what you're gonna sell, how much money you could make, and what you're gonna do when you finally leave your job. Man, it feels productive, but you haven't sold anything, you haven't even served one customer, and you haven't made a dollar, but you received a little bit of emotional reward without producing any result, and that's where the danger lies. Because talking about becoming something can sometimes feel remarkably similar to actually becoming it, but they are not the same thing. Talking is not doing now. Planning is important, thinking is important, and writing things down is important, but eventually you have to shut the notebook and close your mouth and execute. Now, I need to make an important distinction here. I am a big believer in accountability. In the Watchmen, which is the men's group that I lead, we establish goals and we develop marching orders and we hold each other accountable for doing what we said we were gonna do. And I absolutely believe in that. There are goals that actually do become stronger when somebody else knows about them. If I tell another man, you know, hey, I'm getting up at 5 a.m. every morning and walking, that can be pretty powerful knowing that in next week's meeting he's gonna look at me and say, Hey, did you do it? That's accountability. And scripture will tell us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. That's Proverbs 27, 17, I think. We need people who will sharpen us. We need people who will challenge us, and sometimes we need people who won't accept our excuses. But I've come to believe something else too. Not every goal needs an audience. Some goals need accountability, other goals need protection. Think about a seed. You don't plant a seed and then dig it up every morning to show everybody how well it's doing. Nah, you put it in the ground, you cover it, you water it, you tend to it, and for a while from the outside, it looks like nothing is happening, absolutely nothing. But underneath the soil, something is happening. Roots are forming, growth begins, and eventually something breaks through the surface. Well, I think some goals are like that. They need some time underground, they don't need everybody's opinion, they don't need everybody's encouragement, and they certainly don't need everybody's criticism. They just need to work. And there are things in your life that perhaps don't need to be announced. Maybe you don't need to tell everybody that you're getting your finances under control. Maybe you just need to start paying off your debt. Maybe you don't need to announce that you're rebuilding your health. Just start going for walks every day. Start changing what you eat, get some sleep, and then do it again tomorrow. Maybe you don't need to tell everybody about the business you're thinking about building, just build it. Maybe you don't need to tell everybody about the book you're gonna write. Write page one and then write page two. Maybe you don't need to announce that you're gonna become a different kind of husband or a wife or father, mother, friend, or leader. Let the people around you discover it because they experience the difference. Now, keeping a goal private doesn't mean keeping it vague. In fact, I think the opposite is true. If there's nobody else to hold you accountable for it, you had better have a system that does. I recommend you write down that goal. And don't just write, I want to get healthier. Write something like, by this date I will weigh this much. Don't write, I want to get better with money. Write down something like, by this date, this debt will be paid off. Or don't write, I'm gonna start a business someday. Man, write down exactly what you intend to build and what measurable result will tell you that you've done it, and then start working backward. What has to happen this year? What has to happen during the next 12 months? What has to happen this week? And then the question that matters the most is what do I need to do today? That's where the goals become real. Because ultimately, your life isn't changed by the goal you wrote down, it's changed by what you repeatedly do on an ordinary Tuesday morning when nobody is watching. There's a little verse in 1 Thessalonians, I think fits beautifully here. The Apostle Paul or Schliach Shool writes, make your ambition to lead a quiet life. You should mind your own business and work with your hands. That's 1 Thessalonians 4 11. Man, I love that. There's something deeply honorable about quiet work, in my opinion. Because you don't get the fanfare and you don't get the applause. There are no announcements, nothing like that. It's just faithfulness. You know what you're supposed to be doing, so you do it. You know, Yeshua the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, gives us another example of that in Matthew chapter 6, when he talks about giving and prayer and fasting. He repeatedly warns us against doing these things to be seen by others. Now, now that passage isn't specifically about goal setting, and I don't want to pretend like it is, but there's a principle there I think is worth considering. Not everything valuable in your life needs to be performed publicly. Some things can happen just between you and the Almighty. Some things can happen in the quiet hours of the morning. Good things can happen in a notebook that nobody else reads. And good things can happen while everybody around you has absolutely no idea what you're doing. Imagine this instead, if you can. Don't tell everybody you're gonna lose 50 pounds. Several months from now, let somebody say, dang, dude, you lost weight. Yep. Don't tell everybody you're getting out of debt. One day, just make the final payment. Don't tell everybody you're gonna become physically strong. Just get out and start training. And someday somebody's gonna ask, hey man, what have you been doing? You don't have to announce your business. Just build it until customers are buying from it. Don't announce that you're becoming more disciplined. Be so consistent that people begin describing you as disciplined without you ever even using the word for yourself. If you ask me, there's something very powerful about that. Because now your identity isn't based on something you intend to become, it's based on evidence because you did the work. So here's my challenge for you. Think about something you genuinely want to accomplish. Something important. Maybe it's something you've already talked way too much about. But now just go write it down. Define exactly what success looks like and give it a deadline. Then determine what needs to happen in the next 12 weeks. Break that down into what needs to happen this week, and then figure out what you have to do today. And then after that, just be quiet. You don't need another conversation about it. You don't need a Facebook post, you don't need an announcement, and you don't need everybody to know what you're about to do. Just get after it. You do the work when you're motivated, you do the work when you're not motivated, you do the work when somebody notices, and you do the work when nobody notices, day after day, week after week. And then eventually, you won't have to tell anybody what you were working toward because the result will tell them. Yeah, maybe that's one of the old paths we need to rediscover. Less announcing, less performing, less talking, and a whole lot more quietly becoming the person you intend to become. Let the result announce the work. What's all I have for this week? Thank you for sharing the short time with me, and I do hope it blesses you. And if it did, perhaps you'd be willing to subscribe to the podcast and share it with someone who would also be blessed by it. And also maybe consider subscribing to our YouTube channel, the same name, Pursue the Old Path. If you're a man who wants to become the best version of yourself, send me an email at jd at pursue the oldpaths.com. All one word. I'll send you some information about the Watchman group. I never, ever, ever share your email address with anyone for any reason. Until next time, be safe, be faithful, and be blessed. Always forward.