How To Set A Goal That Works

(Adapted from Burton et Al, published in Handbook of Sport Psychology. 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley, 2001.)

A peasant must stand a long time on a hillside with his mouth open before a roast duck flies in. (Chinese proverb)

January. The month of setting goals – and usually the month of also discarding them! With studies showing that as many as 80 percent of goals have been abandoned by the end of the month. A statistic that does not even include the world-weary cynics who have given up setting any new year resolutions based on past experience and a conviction that they just don’t work.

Yet, in many ways the new year is an excellent time to set goals, as Professor Katie Milkman points out in her excellent book, How to Change. New Year is a fresh start, providing the sense of a clean slate and the opportunity to attempt something new.

For individuals, for teams and for organisations, goal setting often fails for the lack of a plan on how to translate objectives into action. We rely too much on motivation, fail to account for obstacles and try to achieve too much too soon. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, ‘A goal without a plan, is just a wish’.

What could this plan look like? As a framework, the process set out in the diagram above is a good handrail with a solid evidence base in research for its validity[1].

You can follow the guidance notes below for each stage:

1. Set Goals

You probably have an overall outcome goal in mind – running a marathon, losing 5kg, saving £10k, increasing the team’s sales figures by 20%. In sport these would be described as outcome goals. They establish a destination and should connect powerfully to your overall motivation for the change. Athletes would also typically work with performance and process goals.

Performance goals can be daily and weekly and involve numbers. For example, to swim 50 lengths, or run for 60-mins 5 times a week.

Process goals are about behaviours and connect what you do on a day-to-day basis with your performance goals. Process goals should be as easy as possible, because you don’t want to have to rely on strong motivation to get them done.

You might have strong motivation on some days, but for certain you will also have plenty of days where motivation is non-existent if you’re a normal human. A process goal is something you have complete control over and should be as ‘easy’ as possible. Process goals are designed to support the formation of habits and the consistent application of key behaviours. These goals should be specific and clearly measurable since the overall process requires data to inform feedback, goal adjustment and ongoing evaluation.

You might have a weekly performance goal to run 30km, so your process goals might be, set my running kit out the night before, warm up with a jog to the end of the street, have a recovery drink and the end to hydrate and re-fuel. Then the performance goal of run 5-km.  In this system, you have created a hierarchy of goals with an overall outcome goal supported by weekly and daily performance and process goals. Sounds complicated but once put into your overall action plan (step 4) the effect is to narrow your focus down to the here and now, to focus on and get done, what needs to be done today. Win the day.

2. Identify Obstacles

Any goal setting process that takes place over a realistic period will be beset by obstacles. Obstacles can relate to our individual psychology; for example, the degree to which we feel anxiety or react to pressure, the underpinning beliefs we may have about ourselves in this challenge and the degree to which we feel confident of success. Being human, we are also forgetful, impulsive, prone to procrastination, impulsivity and laziness. We are likely to get stuck under the duvet when the alarm goes off, give in to the chocolate biscuits in the cupboard and put off leg day as we recall how much it hurt last time.

As many of these blockers need to be identified and planned for with a view that for each obstacle it is likely that some measure of support can be found to ameliorate the perceived or actual negative impact of the obstacle. In general overcoming or dealing with obstacles could involve, avoiding, resisting, adapting, challenging or converting.[2]

3. Secure Commitment

This stage might not be so crucial for an individual, assuming you have understood your own motivations for pursing your goal but for teams and organizations this stage is essential. Where the goal relies on teamwork or collaboration there has to be buy-in from the team. That is best achieved with the collaboration and contribution of the whole team to the goal setting process so that the goal is motivating to everyone in the team, not just the leader or the business. No buy in = no commitment = goal(s) not achieved.

4. Develop Action plan

Pen, paper, diary. This step pulls all of your thinking together and gives you a tangible – visible – set of actions. In addition the mere act of writing out your plan has a tangible impact on the likelihood you will stick to and achieve your goals .With process goals you are seeking to achieve consistency of action. The examples below for an athlete help to show what this might look like. The accumulation of ticks or green boxes against completed actions quickly gives a visible sense of progress and helps to fuel motivation, don’t break the chain or have a red box!  

5. Evaluation, Feedback & Reinforcement

This stage is a progress update and, based on the data generated from the action plan, a retrospective analysis takes place. The feedback informs decisions, which allow the process to be continually adjusted. Feedback goes into continuing to understand and mitigate obstacles, adjusting the action plan and feeding back into Stage 1 and maintaining a view on the goals that are in the system.

Conclusion.

Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, stated that, ‘the man on top of the mountain did not fall there’. Goals have the potential to powerfully channel motivation and drive. But on its own the goal is insufficient. A plan that recognises and adapts to how we get derailed, diverted or defeated and helps us focus on the daily steps that will take us to an overall goal is the critical difference. 

Happy new year and best wishes for all your endeavours and goals in 2026!

[1] Bird, M. D., Swann, C., & Jackman, P. C. (2023). The what, why, and how of goal setting: A review of the goal-setting process in applied sport psychology practice. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 36(1), 75–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2023.2185699

[2] McGonigal, J, SuperBetter. A revolutionary approach to getting stronger, happier, braver and more resilient. Penguin, 2015