Like clockwork, the new year begins and most of us find ourselves scribbling down a list of goals for the year ahead. Lose weight. Read more books. Learn a language. Run a marathon. And sure enough, by February we’re feeling like we’ve already failed….. This ritual is so ingrained that it almost feels compulsory, a kind of annual audit of everything we think we should be doing better. How many times have we heard – if you fail to plan, you plan to fail!

So when we fall off the wagon, we chalk it up to a lack of willpower, probably because we gave in to some short-term temptation when we should have been keeping our eyes on the prize.

But here’s the thing. The latest research suggests that this whole approach might actually be working against us. Far from being the enemy of self-control, pleasure could be the very thing that powers perseverance. And if that sounds counterintuitive, you’re not alone in thinking so.

What self-determination theory tells us about motivation

To understand why pleasure matters so much, it helps to look at self-determination theory, a well-established psychological framework that sets out a kind of spectrum for what drives us. On one side, you have intrinsic drives. These are the things you’re drawn to do for their own sake, because they’re fun, engaging or simply feel good.

Think of the person who goes running because they love the feeling of the wind in their hair and the rhythm of their feet against the pavement. They’re not doing it because someone told them to. They’re doing it because they genuinely enjoy it.

On the other side, you have extrinsic drives. These are the things you know you should do, often because of a longer-term benefit. That same run might be motivated by a doctor’s warning that 20 minutes of exercise a day will lower your risk of a heart attack. Running just happens to seem like the most efficient way of meeting the target.

The 2025 study that proved most of us have it backwards

If you’re sceptical, you’re in good company. Most people assume that the importance of a goal is what keeps them going. A 2025 study put this assumption to the test in a pretty decisive way.

Researchers tracked 2,000 people and their New Year’s resolutions over a full 12 months, measuring both intrinsic motivation (how much they enjoyed the process) and extrinsic motivation (how worthy or important they believed the goal to be).

The results were striking. Intrinsic motivation turned out to be the single best predictor of whether someone stuck with their resolution over the course of the year. Extrinsic motivation, how meaningful or valuable the person considered the goal, had no measurable effect on perseverance at all. Zero.

Choose enjoyable methods over efficient ones

This brings us to a genuinely useful piece of practical advice. When setting goals, pick methods you actually enjoy rather than those that seem most “optimal.” It sounds simple, but most of us don’t do it. We default to the approach that looks most efficient on paper, regardless of how miserable it makes us. We sign up for the gym because it’s the “best” way to get fit, even though we’d rather be swimming. We force down bland salads because they’re low in calories, even though a well-made stir-fry with plenty of vegetables would be just as healthy and infinitely more satisfying.

Temptation bundling and the art of pairing pleasure with effort

Of course, there are some tasks that are never going to be inherently enjoyable, no matter how creatively you approach them. This is where a concept called “temptation bundling” comes in, coined by behavioural scientist Katy Milkman. The idea is straightforward. You take a task you find difficult or tedious and pair it with something you find pleasurable, so that the two become linked in your mind.

Putting it into practice: If you’ve had a goal sitting near the top of your list for a year or two, one you’ve attacked with discipline and grit only to watch it fall apart by week six or eight, it might be time to try something different.

  • Download the audiobooks you’ve been meaning to get to and make a rule: you can only listen to them while you’re doing the hard thing (I prefer my favourite songs!)
  • Set up small milestone rewards for yourself. Hit five or 10k without stopping? A nice dinner out. Complete a half-marathon distance? Then go for that purchase you’ve had your eye on.

You might find that something shifts. Not because you’ve suddenly fallen in love with the process, but because you’ve attached things you genuinely enjoy to it. The goal doesn’t change, but the way it feels does.