Your Brain Loves Goals—Here's Why

I love goal setting. It brings me clarity and encourages intentional thinking. But just like anyone else, there are times when life gets busy—goal setting fades into the background, replaced by endless tasks and reactive decisions. Eventually, though, I always find myself coming back to goal setting; without it, things start feeling directionless.

Even at 24, during one of my first jobs at a community health center in Boston, I insisted my small department set two-year goals. I struggled to understand why we were doing certain tasks—I wanted direction and purpose, not just busywork. I wanted to know I was contributing  to something clear and important.

Now, years later, with a family and my own business, setting goals has become even more critical. Life feels fuller with endless decisions, from managing sports schedules, childcare, and school admin, to navigating countless business ideas and operational tasks. It's easy to get overwhelmed. Having clearly written goals helps me determine what's worth my time and energy, ensuring that I'm always (er... most of the time) moving toward a values-aligned life built with intention.

The Neuroscience Behind Goals

Turns out, I'm not alone in this. Neuroscience research from the past decade shows that pursuing meaningful goals triggers dopamine release—our brain's reward chemical—which boosts motivation. Essentially, the emotional part of your brain (the amygdala) and the logical part (the frontal lobes) team up to create a motivational loop, keeping you energized and focused.

Yet, like many things, goal setting is nuanced. Rigid goals can cause tunnel vision, making us miss important opportunities or creating unnecessary stress. Goals that consistently feel too ambitious can damage morale, and in larger organizations, may even drive unethical behaviors as people chase targets at any cost.

As one of my favorite bosses used to say, set goals that are "ambitious but achievable." Clear targets balanced with flexibility are crucial. Goals should guide us, but we also need openness to adjust them as we go.

Goals vs. Results

A useful way to approach this is to set both qualitative goals (your overall goal or objective) and quantitative success metrics (specific, measurable targets or results). Your qualitative goal describes the vision or outcome you're aiming for, while the success metric clearly defines how you'll measure your progress.

Your Goal Setting Exercise 

As we approach Q2, here's your task: Let's set clear, thoughtful goals for your business.

Grab something to write with. Close your eyes. Imagine yourself at the end of June. If you live in the Netherlands like me, it's warm, school is nearly out, and you're looking forward to your summer holidays.

Now, use this prompt and write:

• What does your business look like?

• What's happened by then?

• What are you working towards? 

When you've captured that vision, break it down further. For each of the categories below, you'll set a goal (a qualitative objective) and a measurement of success (a measurable indicator to clearly show you've accomplished it).

Here's an example:

• Product:

  • Qualitative goal: Have a seamless customer onboarding experience.

  • Quantitative metric(s): 

    • Customers can self-onboard. 

    • Less than 5% of customers complain about the onboarding experience.

Now it's your turn:

• Product: What does success look like for your product, and how will you measure it?

• Marketing: What key marketing milestones will you have achieved, and what's the quantitative metric you'll use to track them?

• Sales: What's your specific sales goal, and what measurable number will indicate you've succeeded?

• Impact: What impact will you have made, and how will you know (specific, measurable indicators)?

Happy goal setting! Remember, goals guide you forward and clearly defined metrics help you know you've arrived. 

As ever, let me know what you think. Does this work for you? Where are you stuck? 

PS - Quarterly goal setting is 100x easier if you've set 3-year and 1-year goals...