Review: The Brain on Goal Setting

A review of the science of goal setting and how to make this most effective.

Shoot for the stars and maybe you’ll only reach the sky is a nice motivational quote. The anti-motivational quote to go with it is, if you miss, you’ll die a slow painful death in the cold vacuum of space!

So, what is the right answer. Should we be setting ourselves, our teams, and organisations stretch goals - goals that require us to grow and will be a challenge, or should we be setting rather more modest goals that we know we can achieve. As usual, in these pages, a closer look into the brain will give us some clues as to what is most effective and under what circumstances.