Standing Audience Trap · also called the announced-plan tax
why did I tell everyone before I even really began
The standing audience trap is what happens after you announce a goal or comeback out loud: the people you told become a permanent gallery of check-ins you now feel obliged to answer, so you end up performing progress for an audience instead of quietly making it. The announcement meant to motivate you becomes a tax on it.
You didn’t recruit a support system. You hired an audience you now have to perform for.
What to do about it
Tell the people checking in that you are going quiet on this for a while, and stop giving progress reports — even the good ones.
Books that work on this
Each is a 90-day programme. Start with the first — later books assume the work in the earlier ones.
Build Before SpendComing soon
Skill Capital Audience$6.99
Audience Builds Wealth$6.99
Earn Before Spend$6.99
Lifetime Compounding Plan$6.99
Default Is Trap$6.99
The Phoenix Tax$6.99
Pay The Tax Two$6.99Part of the Success series.
How people say it
Nobody looks this up by its clinical name. These are the ways it actually gets said.
- everyone keeps asking how it’s going and I dread answering
- I regret telling people about my goal before I started
- checking in with people about my progress is exhausting
- I feel like I have to perform for people I told
- why did I tell everyone before I even really began
- people keep asking for proof I don’t have yet
- I wish I’d never announced what I was trying to do
Written by Brian Spiker, who has run Spiker Carpet and Tile Care since 2013 — the receipts. More terms in the encyclopedia.