Goal setting
7 reasons you never reach your goals
6 min read · Updated
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Vague goals, too many goals and goals out of sight are the most common reasons they fail.
- Specific goals with a date beat "do your best" (Locke and Latham).
- If-then plans for a bad week make reaching a goal clearly more likely (Gollwitzer and Sheeran).
- Tracking progress helps, most of all when you write it down (Harkin and colleagues).
You set the goal. You meant it. Three weeks later it's gone, and you're not even sure when it slipped.
That's not a character flaw. Most goals fail for boring, fixable reasons. Here are the seven we see most, with a fix for each that takes minutes, not willpower.
Goals rarely fail because of you. They fail because of how they were set up.
1. Is your goal too vague to act on?
"Get healthier" can't be ticked off. Your brain has nothing to aim at.
Goal researchers Edwin Locke and Gary Latham looked back on decades of studies. Their conclusion: specific, challenging goals lead to better results than a vague "do your best".
Fix: make it specific and give it a date.
- Vague: Get fit.
- Clear: Run 5 km without stopping by 1 June.
2. Do you have too many goals at once?
Ten goals means ten things fighting for the same evenings. And the one that wins is usually the easiest, not the most important.
Fix: pick three for this season. Park the rest on a "Later" card. They're not gone. They're waiting their turn.
Everything in sight. On one board.
Tasks, notes, photos and plans as cards on one calm board. No charge today. Cancel anytime.
Start 7 days freeOr see all templates →3. Can you still see your goal?
Written once in a January notebook. Never opened again.
Out of sight really is out of mind. We explain why in why seeing beats remembering.
Fix: keep your goal where you look every day. On your phone, as one card, with the date on it.
4. Do you know why you want it?
On a tired Tuesday, "because I should" loses to the sofa.
Fix: write one sentence of why on the goal itself. Not a speech. One line you can read in two seconds.
5. Is the first step too big?
"Write a book" is not a step. Neither is "get fit".
Fix: break it into milestones. Then pick one action for this week, small enough that you could start today.
- Goal: run 5 km by 1 June
- Milestone: run 2 km without stopping by March
- This week: three walk-runs of 20 minutes
6. What's your plan for a bad week?
Most plans only work on good days. Then life happens.
Psychologists Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran combined 94 studies on "if-then" plans. People who decided in advance when, where and how they would act reached their goals clearly more often than people with good intentions alone.
Fix: write one if-then sentence on your goal.
Want to go one step further? WOOP adds your biggest obstacle to the plan.
7. Do you ever look back?
Without looking back, you don't see progress. And without progress, motivation fades.
A review by Benjamin Harkin and colleagues combined 138 experiments with almost 20,000 people. Keeping track of progress helped people reach their goals. It worked best when progress was written down, or shared with someone else.
Fix: a 10-minute look back every Sunday. Tick off the milestones. Move the next step forward.
Progress you can see is progress you keep making.
Is January the best time to start?
Not necessarily. Researchers Hengchen Dai, Katherine Milkman and Jason Riis found that people are more likely to start on goals at "fresh starts". A new year, yes. But also a new month, a new week or a birthday.
Missed January? Next Monday counts too. More on that in New Year's resolutions fail by February.
What does this look like on one board?
One card per goal. The date, the why, the milestones, this week's step and the if-then line, all on that one card.
Put three of those side by side, and you see in one look where you stand.
Your 7-point goal check
Screenshot this. Run every goal through it.
- Specific, with a date?
- Three goals or fewer?
- Visible every day?
- One line of why?
- A step for this week?
- An if-then for a bad week?
- A 10-minute look back on Sunday?
Seven yeses, and your goal has a real chance.
Pick one goal tonight. Give it a date, a why and one step for this week.
Questions
Why do I never reach my goals?
Usually because the goal is vague, there are too many at once, it is out of sight, the first step is too big, or there is no plan for a bad week.
How many goals should I have at once?
Three is a good number for a season. It leaves room in your week to actually work on each one. Park the rest for later.
What is an if-then plan?
A sentence that decides in advance what you will do in a situation, like: if I miss a week, then I restart on Monday with half the distance. Research by Gollwitzer and Sheeran found these plans help people reach goals.
Does tracking progress really help?
Yes. A review of 138 experiments found that monitoring progress helps people reach goals, especially when the progress is written down or shared.
Is January the best time to set goals?
Not only January. People are more likely to start at any fresh start, like a new month, a new week or a birthday.
Sources
- Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705–717.
- Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119.
- Harkin, B., Webb, T. L., Chang, B. P. I., et al. (2016). Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 142(2), 198–229.
- Dai, H., Milkman, K. L., & Riis, J. (2014). The fresh start effect: Temporal landmarks motivate aspirational behavior. Management Science, 60(10), 2563–2582.
Try it on your own board.
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