Frozen Goals: Identifying and Defining a New Type of Goal

Abstract

Goals pursuit involves multiple stages from setting the goal to actively pursuing the goal to finally achieving or abandoning the goal. Sometimes, however, individuals may set a goal and take some steps towards achieving it, but after some time they are neither actively working to achieve the goal nor abandon the goal. We describe such goals as ‘frozen goals’: personally important goals that individuals remain committed to (and so are not abandoned), yet no steps are actively taken towards attaining the goal. Across three studies we demonstrate the prevalence of frozen goals (Study 1) and examine differences between frozen goals and current goals that are actively pursued (Study 2) and between current frozen goals and past frozen goals (Study 3). In Study 1 we find that 92% of the sample reported having at least one frozen goal in their life, thereby demonstrating that frozen goals are not attributable to individual differences. In Study 2, we found that participants randomly assigned to describe a frozen goal reported making less progress, were less committed to, and considered the frozen goals less important than current goals. However, frozen goal commitment and importance was significantly greater than the scale midpoint, suggesting that frozen goals are nonetheless important. Across the studies, we found that frozen goals are common and are maintained for many years with very little progress, but that shifts from frozen to active or abandoned goals are possible. This research opens many avenues for new questions and new perspectives on goal pursuit and goal setting.

Keywords

• goal pursuit
• motivation
• autonomy
• self regulation
• goal progress