Announcements about career goals

According to Wray Herbert of Newsweek, a new study suggests that making public announcements/declarations about your career goals (or any goals, for that matter) can actually create a hinderance to accomplishing them. Making a statement that you are a good lawyer, for example, gives you the inflated opinion that you are better than you are, and don't need to work as hard... "a legend in your own mind." 

I think this is very true. I myself made that mistake in high school/college about going into animation and working for Disney. Although I worked very hard, I think having that vision in my head distracted me from being in the hear-and-now and taking full advantage of opportunities to learn new things about other disciplines. Also, when I fell short of my career goals, a lot of people were disappointed in me; a few even called me a failure, even though I have since gone on to be quite successful in the graphics field. 

You can read the article on Newsweek's site here.