Two Mental Models for 2024 Goal Setting (or ANY Goal Setting)

In an attempt to cut through the profusion of goal-setting best practices (most of which do have merit), I want to share the two most valuable goal-setting mental models that I’ve seen and adopted.  These models can be applied to our fitness, professional lives, or our relationships. 

Model 1: The Gap and the Gain

Dan Sullivan, the founder of Strategic Coach, is famous for impacting the thinking of thousands of entrepreneurial leaders (more specifically, he’s known for teaching others how to think about their own thinking). One of the profound thinking tools that Sullivan teaches is “The Gap and the Gain.”

For decades, Sullivan observed that entrepreneurs (and human beings in general) make so much progress in various areas of their lives, yet, they continue to be unsatisfied or even unhappy with their progress. He refers to this as the “Gap.” The Gap can be defined as measuring from where you currently are at this moment to where you could be in the distant future (the horizon). You will always feel like you’ve never made progress because the horizon (in this case, a person’s ideals) will never be met. Gap thinking involves measuring from a specific (where you are now) to the general (an ideal in the future). This concept has broad application and could apply to having a great marriage, cultivating a successful career, becoming wealthy, and of course, improving our fitness. These ideals are very hard to achieve, and thus, most people remain unsatisfied. Sullivan states that when you measure with Gap thinking, you simply can’t be happy or feel fulfilled. You feel like you have accomplished nothing because the ideal remains in the distance. We’ve all been in the Gap. 

The alternative to Gap thinking is Gain thinking. Instead of measuring from where you currently are to an ideal (the horizon), he counsels you to measure from where you have been to where you currently are. Gain thinking involves measuring from a specific (where you were) to a specific (where you are now). 

Gain thinking is a great way to drive our motivation for our exercise (and all of our health habits). Always measure from where you are now, backward to where you started. Acknowledge how far you’ve come and let this fuel your motivation and confidence to move forward (always inspired by your ideals, but not measuring against your ideals). We can apply this to our exercise outcomes (blood pressure, body composition, muscle strength, 5k time) or our habits (eight hours of sleep on average from a previous seven hours; two workouts per week over the last year versus a previous average of one per week).

Take Action: As you set 2024 goals, make them measurable; be very clear about where you are right now.  Then, as each quarter passes and as we draw near the end of 2024, you’ll be able to see significant progress.  This progress is evidence of your growing competence, and competence fuels confidence. 

Hypothetical Examples:

• Instead of “Prioritize my strength training” as the goal, consider: I strength trained 48 times in 2023.  In 2024, I will strength train 100 times.  The goal could be written as: From X to Y by the end of 2024.  From 48 workouts to 100 workouts by the end of 2024.

• Instead of “Prioritize my cardiorespiratory health and fitness” as the goal, consider: I currently perform a cardio interval workout once per month (on average).  In 2024, I will average one per week.  Goal written as: From 0.25 interval sessions per week to 1.0 interval sessions per week.

• Instead of “Get lean!” as the goal, consider: My current Bod Pod is 32%.  In 2024, I will achieve and maintain 27%.  Goal written as: From 32% to 27%. 

• An example of a goal that will inevitably lead to “gap” thinking is: “Improve my relationship with my spouse.”  At the end of the year, you will measure from where you currently are to an ideal in the future, and your relationship will never measure up to that ideal.  Instead, pick a few things that you can measure.  For example: Schedule 12 dedicated date nights in 2024.  At the end of the year, you can look back and see progress toward making the depth and quality of your relationship a priority.  

Model 2: Process goals (versus outcome goals) and who you want to become. 

Prioritize process goals over outcome goals. An example of an outcome goal is, “Complete my first half marathon.”  An example of a process goal is, “Run 3 times per week from January through April.”

In order to set process goals more effectively, spend time thinking about who you want to become.  Next, pick the behaviors or actions that that person would take and then connect your process goals to these behaviors or actions.  Important reminder: Each of us gets to decide who we want to become as well as the behaviors and process goals that bring us closer to that.  

A few examples of who or what I want to become include:

Hypothetical Examples:

• Instead of “I’d like to PR in a marathon” or “run a 3-hour marathon” (a great outcome goal), you could write a process goal of: Increase my weekly mileage from 32 miles per week to 45 miles per week for 2024.  

• Instead of “Write a book,” you could write a process goal of: Commit to 1 hour of writing at my computer, five days per week. 

Take home message:

• Quantify your goals so that you can live in “gain” thinking for 2024.

• Set at least 50% of your goals as “process” goals and connect these goals to who you want to become.