Don’t set goals: Make pacts. Step into 2026 with a new approach to making progress.

Swap rigid goals for curiosity-driven pacts: experiment, show up consistently, and unlock real growth through small, intentional trials that adapt to the unpredictable.

If you follow my content, you likely know I love goal-setting. Yet, this year, something about my goal-setting felt off. While I’ve had one of my most productive years yet,  much of it evolved in ways I hadn’t imagined. So what good were my goals if I could make progress without them? If I could feel great about the year, yet look back on my predefined goals, and feel like I’ve somehow fallen short? Then, I stumbled upon Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff, who left a dream job at Google to study neuroscience and create content. Suddenly, ‘why goal-setting Is broken’ started to make more sense.

From fixed ladders to creating growth loops

Systems are complex. If you think you can entirely predict the behaviour of an entire system, you’re likely underestimating the system. Nature has evolved by adapting to changing environments. Goals set specific targets, while trial and error replaces a linear approach to evolving with cycles of experimentation.  

Our goals are often not even our own. We borrow from our peers, celebrities and societal expectations. French philosopher René Girard called this phenomenon mimetic desire - meaning we desire something because others desire it. Our goals mimic the goals of others. Further to this, your goals are likely also ill-informed. 

You don’t know what success looks like 

When you switch from a linear mindset to an experimental one, you focus on showing up instead of perfecting everything. Le Cunff says: 

“No more SMART goal setting, no more five-year career plans, no more life road maps. As long as you complete each trial, success is guaranteed even if you don’t know what it looks like." 

Because, that’s the thing - you don’t know what success, years from now, will look like. Rigid goals don’t account for your need to respond to an unpredictable environment. Perhaps you choose a career path that is on its way to becoming obsolete for reasons beyond your control, or are invested in a rapidly redundant technology. Perhaps a much more exciting and profitable venture you never predicted will present itself to you. 

Experiments give you the grace to change your mind and respond to evolving environments. 

This made me realise that setting goals can be much like investing. You never know as much as you think you do. You’re never as smart as you might like to think you are. You likely can’t outsmart the market entirely. Some goals pay off, others don’t. What is more important is your commitment to consistency. Because by constantly showing up, like in a well-diversified strategy, you’re more likely to win. 

Make pacts

A pact is a commitment you make to yourself. It can be quick, like trying a new project for 10 minutes a day for 10 days. Or it can be more in-depth, like writing 100 blogs in 100 days, like Le Cunff did. 

Note, a pact is not a habit with an unbounded time commitment, such as exercise every day - driving the desire to achieve a particular result. A pact has a specific number of trials and is driven by curiosity. You are learning with a lack of preconceived notions. More repetition in your pact gives you more data, but shorter pacts can often be even more effective, giving you immediate and non-intimidating insights. You just need enough trials to obtain a result you trust. 

For the last few years, I read 2 books a week, following a theme I set at the start of the year. Even before discovering Tiny Experiments, I adopted a new approach for 2025. I would read 3 books a week for 1 year, but read broadly across disciplines. It has meant I can explore ideas as they arise, which has drastically improved my ability to research areas of interest as they evolve in real time. 

What makes pacts so effective is that they focus on outputs, for example, publish 25 newsletters in 25 weeks, rather than your outcomes. Yet inevitably, your simple and repeated activity will bring you closer to achieving your authentic ambitions. Like a scientist, you might make observations. When you notice you feel energised by a particular activity, you might incorporate more of it into your life. 

Replacing goal-setting with making pacts shifts the focus from outcomes to process. By prioritising process, progress is achieved through incremental experimentation: 

“Experiments are built for the in-betweens; they propel you forward even without a fixed destination.”

“Children collect and connect information by constantly scouting their environment. They try activities beyond their capabilities.”

It’s in our nature to experiment and explore the unknown. 

Replace rigid goals with intentional pacts

Embrace curiosity over certainty. It isn’t the lazy approach, but the smarter way to set goals. Show up consistently, experiment boldly and learn in real time. Pacts give you permission to adapt, pivot and discover without being chained to someone else’s definition of success - including the you who didn’t know back then what you know now. Who didn’t value back then what you value now. By focusing on the process instead of the outcome, you create a growth loop where progress compounds naturally. Like a scientist exploring the unknown, you move forward through observation, iteration and experimentation. Goals might guide you, but pacts can completely liberate you.