Most of the goal-setting doesn’t work. A lot of people make new year resolutions to go to the gym, but how many actually continue after a few days?

Why doesn’t goal-setting work?

You get a dopamine hit when you set the goal, so it’s rewarding to set goals; however, when it comes to that time when you have to go to the gym, our mind starts an internal negotiation and tells you why you shouldn’t go today, and that negotiation happens every day.

The right way to stick to your goal is to create a system and remove any negotiations from the situation.

Don’t set a goal; instead, create a rule. You can make a rule that not going to the gym isn’t an option. Now, when it’s time to go to the gym, you already have a rule in place, and you can end the internal negotiations as soon as they start.

Another psychological aspect that plays into this is that we want to choose the path of least resistance. Remember that time when you had to choose between a shoe with lace and a slip on shoes and you chose a slip-on because there was less friction between going out and wearing a slip-on. In life too, we want to choose the least resistance, if we don’t have a system for going to the gym, we need to make one extra decision to go to the gym. However, if we have a system in place, all you need to do is follow that system.

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