Set Your Goals High and Keep 'em to Yourself
By Dave Tate

When setting goals, keep your goal specific to yourself and a select few, and general to all others.

In other words, if your goal is to bench 400 pounds, keep that as a marker in your mind, but if others ask just tell them, "I'm training for a bigger bench," or "I'm working toward a new PR."

Your goal may be to get your body fat down to 6%, but all the masses need to know is, "I'm dieting right now."

The reason for this is simple: 90% of everyone you meet are negative pricks who will go out of their way to tell you why you can'tdo something. Once they know your goal, they'll try and tear you down. Just keep it vague, and all they can do is wish you success.

Of course, they may still try and tear you down once you've actually accomplished your goal, but who cares. You've done the work and have the results to show for it. THEY couldn't have done it. So fuck 'em.

I do feel it's important to still put the goal out there to make you accountable, but I'd only tell those who know you can do it and will hold you accountable.

Take a good look at the people around you, and consider yourself lucky if you know even a small handful of people like this. But all you really need is one: you. – Dave Tate