The goal tracking journals are firstly to motivate you and help you keep track of your progress and, secondly, to keep you accountable by publicly setting goals and updating your progress. It's been proven that when you publicly set a goal for your self you are more likely to achieve it; you'll be more personally committed and feel held accountable.
The progress journal forum also has a number of unique privacy settings.
You can now:
- Lock your journal so only you can reply
- Make your journal viewable only to members
- Make your journal completely private - viewable only to yourself and forum staff
"Open" is whether or not people can reply. "Members Only" hides your journal from guests. "Private" hides it from all members, staff excluded.
To change this after you create your thread, you should see thread tools options:
If you click edit thread you can see all options:
And that's how you can restrict your progress journal from the public, lock it from replies, or making it completely private.