I have a couple of tests I suggest to people to verify the truth or falsehood of their goals; one is to ask if you'd still want it to happen even if it had to be a complete secret from anybody but you, and you couldn't get any personal credit or recognition for it. Another is whether imagining the end result makes you feel physically good in your torso and inclines you to make an "mmm" or "ahhh" sound with a relaxed breath (true goal), or whether it makes you feel tense or at most, relieved (both an indication of negative motivation, usually -- but not always -- a false goal.

There are some goals that I'd feel a lot less motivated to accomplish if they had to be secrets forever. Finishing a novel, for example–20% of the fun is in writing and inhabiting that world, but 80% of the fun is in sharing it with other people. It would make less of a motivation difference for, say, healthy eating or exercise.

I think pretty much all my goals make me feel physically good. I also feel a bit anxious for goals that have no obvious next action and aren't entirely dependent on my hard work–for example, having a novel become a bestseller. That would feel freaking amazing, having lots of people reading and talking about a story I wrote, but it's also hard and scary and improbable. I think the "improbable" and the "no next action", as well as the "no external deadline", make it so that I don't do as much as I could to try to get my work published.