Monitoring Goal Progress

Hi,

This week’s email is about a pitfall that often gets in the way of achieving our goals.

Here are the key practical points you should know (mainly from this research article):

• A key part of successfully pursuing goals is monitoring our status and progress.

• People often bury their heads in the sand by intentionally avoiding or rejecting information that could help them monitor their goal progress, a phenomenon called the ostrich problem.

• For example, an entrepreneur building a business might avoid key metrics that tell them how well they’re currently doing.

• This is mainly due to the desire to avoid unpleasant emotions, for instance if relevant information would reflect poorly on us, conflict with our self-image, or remind us of a stressful commitment. Accordingly, this problem occurs when short-term (proximal) concerns, like the desire to avoid feeling bad right now, override long-term (distal) goals, like success and self-improvement.

• Being mindful of this problem can help you address it in yourself and in others. To help further, you can also identify the exact information you’re avoiding, ask yourself why, and consider the benefits of engaging with it.

I’m also excited to share that Cambridge published a press release about my upcoming book, Solving Procrastination, which was covered in places like BBC News and Inc. Magazine.

As always, I’m happy to hear your thoughts.

Have a great week,
Itamar