Terrific blog. In regards to this specific post, It really depends on what the goal is. In a professional (e.g. business) setting it's usually better to publicly state the goal. It's a funny thing but when you do this around co-workers, especially ones you met with regularly – the goal gets brought up. For personal goals I think the key is to do whatever will help you reach the goal. You can state something publicly and still blow it off, so that isn't terribly effective. Recently I set a goal to create a new blog. It involved a lot of technical work I was not comfortable with. I stated it publicly (a personal goal) but did it because the people I stated it to were able to help me through issues I had. Had I just told my mom, while that would have been “publicly stated” she wouldn't have helped me other than maybe to say “how is that blog coming” and I would come up with some excuse why it wasn't going somewhere. I couldn't do that with people that knew more than I did technically. I also have created some other goals important to me that I have not shared publicly with anyone. I write them down and review them daily and I am succeeding with them. Why? Because I am holding myself accountable for those and no one needs to now that other than me. Great topic and conversation, thanks.