US research into staff motivation could be the key to us achieving goals at home, too. They found that so-called ‘stretch goals’, that is setting deliberately tough-to-achieve targets to boost drive, innovation, and performance, often does the reverse. When they compared stretch goals with moderate ones about 80 per cent of people failed to reach stretch goals. Although they improved performance for a few, many abandoned the targets entirely. They also generated more variation in success, created big shortfalls in performance, encouraged more risk-taking, and undermined people’s commitment.
The same could be said for your 2018 goals: aim to run a marathon in four hours as a new jogger, and you may find yourself quitting before you’ve even got going. Plan to add 10 per cent to your training every week and you’re way more likely to smash it. Vow to become fluent in Spanish by your spring holiday, and the verb conjugations alone could see you throwing in the towel; decide to dedicate 10 minutes a day to practising, and you’ll keep it up.