I’ve always been fascinated by goals, so much so that I started a company focused on helping people achieve them. After running it for a while, I discovered why many of our customers weren’t succeeding—and it challenged everything I thought I knew about effective goal setting.
The Problem: Goals as “Things That Happen to You”
Many people set goals that are essentially nice outcomes they want to experience. For example, “I want to get a promotion” or “I want to lose 10 pounds.” While these are desirable outcomes, they’re not directly within your control. You cannot simply lose 10 pounds through sheer willpower—but you can control what you eat and how much you exercise. You cannot award yourself a promotion—but you can control your work ethic and the quality of your output.
Popular advice often recommends a two-part solution: setting controllable goals with clear actionable steps, plus creating public accountability mechanisms. But is this enough?
The Traditional Approach
1. Set Goals That Are Purely in Your Control
In the words of Ken Liu (my favorite short story author):
We tend to do well when we feel like we’re in charge of our own destiny, when we feel we’re in charge of our own lives.
When you set goals outside your control, you surrender agency. It’s possible to work incredibly hard and still not lose as much weight as you wanted. Conversely, that outcome might happen through external factors without your direct input.
The better approach is to reframe your goals as actions you directly control: “I will write down three ideas to improve our team’s output every week” or “I will go to the gym three times a week for the next 12 weeks.”
2. Public Accountability
The second common piece of advice suggests that making a public proclamation or creating an accountability mechanism (like a financial penalty) will keep you on track. If you tell friends about your goal, you might be embarrassed to fail. These accountability tools often take the form of donations to charities you wouldn’t normally support or annual New Year’s resolutions.
Why These Two Approaches Fall Short
Our company’s product implemented both strategies by giving users clear step-by-step plans for every goal, well-defined sub-goals, and built-in public accountability through peer pressure. Yet most customers still struggled. I believe this was due to two key factors:
External pressures (like friends knowing you missed a goal) often provide insufficient penalties to overcome inertia.
Most of the “feeling of accomplishment” comes from the public declaration alone, rather than from actually achieving the goal.
The second factor is particularly insidious. The process of formulating your goal, imagining how your life might change, and publicly stating it (as if it’s a certainty) can provide enough psychological satisfaction that continuing to work toward the goal feels unnecessary. I’ve caught myself falling into this trap when setting New Year’s resolutions.
A Better Approach: Three Key Elements
Instead of focusing solely on goal-setting and public accountability, I’ve found these three elements make the most difference:
Develop a strong sense of agency and an internal locus of control. Believe in your ability to influence outcomes through your actions.
Reduce the “friction gradient” to make tasks easier to start and ensure they’re entirely within your control. The smaller the barrier to maintaining your habits, the more likely you’ll take action.
Find enjoyment in completing the granular individual tasks involved with your goal. When you find pleasure in the process itself, consistency becomes natural rather than forced.
Many people get stuck searching for the perfect plan, but in reality, any directionally correct plan combined with these three elements will likely produce better outcomes. Adjustments can be made along the way.
My New Approach to Goals
Now when people ask about my resolutions, I don’t share grand year-long commitments. Instead, I tell them about specific tasks I’m actively working on or habits I’m currently building.
For example, today I wrote a blog post after many months of not writing. A small win, but an action nonetheless.
What specific action are you taking today toward your goals?