Will proclaiming my goals in public help me achieve them?
I’m betting on yes.
To that end I’ll be running an experiment this year, sticking the goals in public and hustling like a mofo to see them through.
I’ve done plenty of these experiments before but never while inviting everyone to watch.
It’s scary, the doubts are constant, I’m keen to find out what happens!
This page will grow over time, with more and more updates being added at the bottom as we go.
2023 #Nof1 Social Media Output Experiment
I’ll publish efforts and lessons over a year long campaign of publishing content (video and writing mostly).
Background
Scary goals.
I have a big goal to have 50,000+ combined audience members before the 18th of April 2026.
This will help me achieve my bigger, scarier goal of helping 1,000,000 people become highly skilled in listening and holding space – making the world a more inviting place for people like my mum (who live with mental illness).
An audience of 50,000 people will allow me a platform to spread messages I believe in, particularly about vulnerability, courage and communication. That gives about three years to build up the skills required to hit the goal of 50,000+ audience members. Skills of content production, interviewing the public, filming, editing, republishing, engagement, copywriting, design and networking.
The skills of discipline and writing were the main ones last year. I published 55,000 words this past 12 months! Check out my 2022 End of Year Review if you want to read about it.
This was mostly achieved through a simple daily habit focused mindset. It’s been a game changer for me to develop discipline, as I lacked it my entire life. Now that I’ve had a taste I can see more of what’s truly possible.
Skillset building.
Last years focus was productivity and cadence, not concerned with viewership and reader numbers.
This year I will focus on stepping up the cadence and productivity to a much higher level of consistency.
I’m not worried about outcomes, I have faith that by focusing on the right thing, the goals will be met. All I will focus on is creating good content on a regular basis and making heartfelt connections with people I otherwise would never have met (if it weren’t for building this brand).
Obliger personality.
I have found it incredibly motivating to make myself publicly accountable.
To that end I’ve done quite a few of these experiments though the back end was only ever private (or shared over on Quantified Self forums). This is the first time I’m building the back end of my experiment in public.
It is a deeper layer of accountability and I’m hoping that helps me stick to my goals, follow through and harness social media as a force for good.
It may not seem like it, given the amount of work I have been outputting to build this brand recently, but my life is a long list of unfinished projects. I’ve got novels only barely started, countless artbooks full of half baked sketches, unreleased concept albums are floating around that I wrote and half produced, I’ve started and quit enough university degrees to rack up $90,000 worth of debt (a lot of money if you’re reading this in the not-too-distant hyper-inflationary future lmao).
All in all, I’ve quit lots.
I’m taking control of that narrative. I’m pushing back against the memory of being a kid who didn’t do his homework. I’m slowing down, learning from the pain and discomfort and allowing it to plant seeds of wisdom so that others can even receive its fruit.
Social media as public accountability.
A couple years ago I made a social media experiment where each day I followed through on important habits, I placed a marble in a jar.
I photographed the marble, or filmed it, and posted it on my socials.
If I didn’t do the important thing, I took the marble out of the jar.
Over time this had an immense impact on my self worth and self esteem. It helped me process the meaning of goal setting, of adjusting expectations, of having flexibility rather than being driven by perfectionism.
It probably deserves a write up of it’s own, honestly, join my mailing list to find out if I ever get round to it lol!
I am going to bake this mindset of public accountability into 2023.
I hope this helps inspire you!
Hypothesis
I think this experiment will massively boost my productivity for two reasons: public accountability and clarity of focus. You could say it’s an experiment in being accountable about clarity of focus!
Materials
Mindset.
Unattached to outcomes.
Forgiving with flaws.
Observation with grace.
Learn and have fun.
Stuff.
Mostly laptop and smart phone.
WordPress, Typeshare, Zoom, Calendly, Notion.
Method
Habit.
Each week I will take a selfie holding a scorecard showing how many pieces of content I released that week.
I’ll share these photos via social media (on the ‘story’ of my personal Facebook and Instagram accounts, and in a twitter thread) as well as here in a gallery down below.
Targets.
I aim to produce a minimum of 1 email per week and 7 short videos per week.
Anything else is a bonus, and will include: long form writing, atomic essays, posts, long videos, a slew of resources and support tools, stories and whatever else seems fun.
Output
Doing the thing!
Q1
Lessons
Thursday 23rd of February, 2023.
A little spoken benefit of building a content library: you meet AMAZING people! I’ve got so many awesome conversations happening in my twitter DMs and even a video catch up coming soon!❤️🔥
Sunday 5th of February, 2023.
I have figured out twitter! 102k tweet impressions in the last 7 days.
Sunday 29th of January, 2023.
I hardly EVER hit goals and targets I set for myself. Yet somehow I find this super inspiring. Due to excitement / discipline / achievement / potential complex?
Monday 9th of January, 2023.
I missed the first date, being yesterday. All good though because there’s no need to beat myself up over one step on the entire journey!
Saturday 31st of December, 2022.
The wave of self doubt is constant. I’ve found it helpful to move quickly.
Overaction overcomes overthinking.
Conclusion
Yet to be resolved!
Sign up to my email list for periodic updates about how it goes.