Whether you’ve already set some goals for 2025, or you’re still thinking about it – give yourself the best chance of success by tapping into what psychology and behavioural science tells us.
- Create an action plan and make it as vivid and concrete as possible
Research suggests that vowing to achieve a goal doesn’t work. What works is making a vivid, concrete plan. For example, rather than saying, “I WILL run”, instead say, “Tonight, I will set out my running clothes by the bed and tomorrow, before I start work, I will go for a 30-minute run.”
As Professor Carol Dweck says in her book, Mindset: Changing the way you think to fulfil your potential,
“Those concrete plans – plans you can visualize – about WHEN, WHERE and HOW you are going to do something lead to really high levels of follow-through, which of course, ups the chances of success” (p.238).
2. Create SMART goals
Psychologists Edwin Locke and Gary Latham developed Goal-Setting Theory which suggests that realistic, hard, specific goals produce better performance than easy or ambiguous goals. By putting careful thought into the wording of a goal, we’re much more likely to be motivated to the goal.
SMART goals are:
Specific – what will you achieve?
Measurable – how will you know you’ve achieved it?
Achievable – do you have what you need (skills, resources etc.) to achieve it?
Relevant – to what extent does the goal align with your values (or your organisation’s values)?
Time-bound – when will you achieve the goal by?
3. Create FAST goals
If you manage a team and are setting goals with each of them, then FAST goals might be helpful. An article from MIT Sloan Management Review suggests that while SMART goals can be helpful, they tend not to include ambitions within the framework, nor are they explicitly set up to encourage regular discussion about the goal. FAST goals, on the other hand, focus on ambition and regular discussion. FAST stands for:
Frequently discussed – keeps people focused on what matters most, regularly evaluates progress and allows for adaptation if needed.
Ambitious – encourages effort and helps boost performance, encourages more creativity and innovation.
Specific – clarifies exactly what needs to be achieved.
Transparent – encourages accountability as people share their goals with each other.
4. Write your goals down
Best-selling author and leadership expert, Mark Murphy, wrote about the power of writing our goals down, in a piece for Forbes. He states that writing a goal down – particularly if it is a vivid description – means we’re 1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to successfully achieve our goal. One of the reasons for this is the neuroscience concept of encoding – a biological process which determines what gets stored in our long-term memory. The suggestion is that writing helps the encoding process.
5.Visualise who you will become if you achieve your goal
In his book, The Science of Change: Discovering sustained, desired change from individuals to organizations and communities, Richard E Boyatzis talks about the importance of focusing on our Ideal Self. He says,
“We can say that our Ideal Self is our personal vision. It is an aspiration or dream. It may be wanting to be our best, possible self. It might be how we feel when we are the person we wish to be and are behaving consistently with our values. Our Ideal Self or shared vision with others invokes hope, and with it the power of possibility” (p.28).
6. Break your goal down into smaller sub-goals
A recent study in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that found that by breaking down a commitment to volunteer 200 hours per year into smaller subgoals made it more likely people would stick with the goal. For example, by breaking down the overall goal (volunteer for 200 hours per year) into smaller sub-goals (volunteering four hours per week, or eight hours every fortnight), volunteers were 7-8% more likely to stick with volunteering over the course of several months.
7. Regularly monitor and assess your progress
In his book, High Performance Habits: How extraordinary people become that way, top performance coach, Brendon Burchard states,
“…people who set goals and regularly self-monitor are almost two and a half times more likely to attain their goals” (p.134).
8. Set clear implementation intentions
In an article for Harvard Business Review, psychologist Heidi Grant states that in a review of more than 200 studies those who set clear if-then implementation intentions (if X happens, then I will do Y) are three times more likely to achieve their goals.
9. Align your goals with your personal values
In a study exploring well-being interventions in the UK Civil Service, researchers found that goal-based interventions work best when goals are aligned with personal values and have been chosen by the individual.
10. Be clear on why your goal matters
Research suggests that it matters less about who sets the goal (you or someone else). The key factor in achieving higher performance is that the person working on the goal needs to understand WHY the goal is being set and that they agree with the goal.
11. Share your goals with the right person
If you want to achieve a goal, make sure you share your objective with the right person. One study suggests that people showed greater goal commitment and performance when they told their goal to someone who they believed had higher status than themselves. It didn’t help people to tell their goals to someone they thought had lower status, or to keep their goals to themselves. Results showed that people were more motivated by sharing a goal with someone they thought had higher status because they cared about how that higher-status person would evaluate them.
12. Work on your goal with a friend
Many of us know that having an accountability partner can help us achieve goals. One study examined the impact of attending the gym with a friend. The researchers found that those who attended the gym were 35% more likely to keep going, felt more accountable, and enjoyed the gym much more.
13. Focus on reality rather than reward
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London examined why people tend to make unrealistic plans which then fail. The study found that when people only focus on the rewards from achieving a goal, they are more likely to give up. This was often because as time went on and the effort became too much, people gave up. If we only focus on rewards, the danger is our goals can be informed by unrealistic expectations. Then, when reality sets in, we realise the effort is too much and give up. Better to focus on the reality of the goal and think about the potential hurdles and how you’ll overcome these.
14. Try self-nudging
Some goals require a degree of self-control. Researchers suggest it’s possible to strengthen our self-control by making simple changes to our environment, using a technique called self-nudging. The researchers outline four types of self-nudging tools:
- Reminders and prompts. For example, setting an alert on your phone to get up and stretch once an hour when you’re working at your desk.
- A different way framing things. For example, we can state that taking a break from work and cutting off the time you check emails as an opportunity to improve your wellbeing by a small amount.
- Reduce the accessibility of things that can harm by making them less convenient or, conversely, making it easier to do the things we want to do. For example, deleting the email app from your phone, making it harder to check your emails non-stop.
- Social pressure and self-commitments to increase accountability. For example, setting goals with a coach who you check in with once a month to go through your progress.
15. Goals that involve giving to others make us happy
One study that took place during the pandemic found that doing things that support others in some way can make us more satisfied, happier, and boost our well-being. When we do things that involve willingly helping others, it satisfies our psychological need for autonomy (doing something because we want to), feeling competent (feeling effective in what we’re doing) and relatedness (feeling connected with others).
16. Setting daily work goals can help you perform better
The goal-setting group were sent a goal-setting nudge at 8am each day and asked to set three SMART goals of their choice and then inform the researchers electronically by stating ‘Today, I will…’
17. Avoid over-indulging in visioning
In her book, Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the new science of motivation, psychologist Gabriele Oettingen cautions against indulging in visions of a positive future. To succeed, she advises that visioning on its own isn’t enough, we need to get clear on how we’ll achieve our vision, including thinking about any obstacles along the way.
18. Try the WOOP framework
The W.O.O.P framework is an evidence-based approach developed by Gabriele Oettingen. Underpinned by the concept of mental contrasting, the W.O.O.P framework helps people to ground their dreams, and mobilises those dreams as a tool for taking direct action. WOOP stands for:
• Wish – what is an important wish you want to achieve?
• Outcome – what will be the best outcome from achieving your wish?
• Obstacle – what is the main obstacle that will prevent you achieving your wish?
• Plan – what is an effective mitigating action to overcome the obstacle? Use If-Then for your mitigation, i.e. If x happens, then I will do y.
19. Conduct a Before Action Review
In his book, The Culture Code: The secrets of highly successful groups, Daniel Coyle suggests that a before action review (as well as an after action review) might help teams achieve their goals. These are the questions to answer as part of the before action review:
- What are our intended results?
- What challenges can we anticipate?
- What have we or others learned from similar situations?
- What will make us successful this time?
You can adapt the wording if you’re doing this for yourself, rather than as part of a team.
20. Celebrate the small wins
In his book, Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to be the best and learn from the worst, Professor Robert Sutton advises,
“Great big goals set direction and energize people, but if goals are all you’ve got you are doomed. The path to success is paved with small wins” (p.22).
21. Be selective in where you focus your energy and attention
In his book, The Organized Mind: The science of preventing overload, increasing productivity, and restoring your focus, psychologist Daniel Levitin cautions,
“Reaching our goals efficiently requires the ability to selectively focus on those features of a task that are most relevant to its completion, while successfully ignoring other features or stimuli in the environment that are competing for attention” (p.177)
Why not try the Yes/No approach, the next time something comes in that could distract or derail you? When a new thing comes in, ask yourself, “If I say yes to this, what am I saying no to?” It may just give you the pause for thought you need.
22. Set a range rather than absolute figure when setting targets
We’re more likely to fail if we set an arbitrary figure. For example, if we set a goal of exercising six days a week, and we only end up exercising three days, we feel like we’ve failed. And when we feel like we’ve failed, we’re more likely to give up. Let’s heed the advice of the authors of The small B!G: Small changes that spark big influence,
“People would be much more likely to re-engage with prior goals if – rather than setting a single, specific number goal – they set a goal with a high-low range that averaged the same” (p.87)
Instead of one fixed number, put in place a range. For example, exercising 3-5 days per week. That way, if you exercise three days, you still feel like you’ve accomplished something and won’t feel like you’ve failed.
23. Understand the motivational states that help you achieve your goals
A 2010 paper in the Journal of Management, suggests there are three motivational states we need to experience in order to achieve our goals. These are:
- Feeling like we ‘can do’ – that we have the abilities needed, along with benefits outweighing the costs
- Having a ‘reason to’ – we have a clear reason why we’re working on a goal that links to our personal values
- Feeling ‘energised to’ – we have the positive feeling, emotion, or mood that galvanises us and means we’re enthusiastic about the goal
24. Progress over perfection
In her book, 9 Things Successful People Do Differently, Heidi Grant Halvorson states that one of the things successful people do is give themselves permission to make mistakes and set get-better goals.
25. Focus on stretch rather than stress
And finally, remember that the aim of a goal is to stretch you, not to stress you. If a goal is stressing us out, we’re more likely to give up and retreat to our comfort zone. Before giving up, instead revisit the goal – do you need to re-set the targets? For example, using a range, as outlined in idea number 22. Or is stressful because you’re trying to do it on your own? Might working on the goal with an accountability buddy help – such as in idea 12?
Did you find this post helpful? I’d love to know, so Tweet me, or drop me a note on LinkedIn. If you have any colleagues that you feel should read this, too, please share it with them. I’d really appreciate it.
I also have a monthly newsletter which is a compilation of blog posts, helpful research, and reviews of books and podcasts – all aimed at helping managers and leaders become more confident in handling a range of workplace issues. You can subscribe here -> SUBSCRIBE
If you liked this post, you might also like these:
3 lessons from psychology that can help you achieve your goals
A simple framework to help you be more intentional
Why consistency is everything if you want to improve and succeed
REFERENCES
Boyatzis, R.E. (2024). The Science of Change: Discovering sustained desired change from individuals to organizations and communities. New York: Oxford University Press.
Burchard, B. (2017). High Performance Habits: How extraordinary people become that way. London: Hay House Publishing.
Coyle, D. (2019). The Culture Code: The secrets of highly successful groups. London: Random House.
Dweck, C. (2017). Mindset: Changing the way you think to fulfil your potential (revised edition). London: Robinson.
Grant, H. (2014, May). Get your team to do what it says its going to do. Harvard Business Review.
Halvorson, H.G. (2017). 9 Things Successful People Do Differently. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Publishing.
Levitin, D. (2015). The Organized Mind: The science of preventing overload, increasing productivity and restoring your focus. London: Penguin.
Oettingen, G. (2015). Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the new science of motivation. London: Penguin Publishing.
Sull, D., & Sull, C. (2018, June 5). With goals, FAST beats SMART. MIT Sloan Management Review.
Sutton, R. (2017). Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to be the best… and learn from the worst. London: Piatkus.
This was such a helpful read! I feel like I learned so much. I’ve just started blogging about similar things, and it would mean a lot if you could take a look at my site!
It gave me the motivation i was looking for
Your breakdown of goal-setting is spot-on. One insight I’d add is the importance of flexibility—sometimes goals evolve, and adjusting without feeling like we’ve “failed” is key.