UrbanUpdate

It’s hard to stick to goals. In fact, it’s so easy to give up on them that researchers have coined a term to describe humans’ tendency to not follow through. It’s called the “what the hell effect,” and it describes that moment when a minor slip-up—say, eating just a few M&Ms after deciding to give up candy—leads to a bigger, more catastrophic compromise—what the hell, I might as well just have the whole bag. Soon, you’re given up entirely.

Our tendency to be easily discouraged is a problem when it comes to achieving our most ambitious goals. But failures are inevitable. So what can we do in order that, when setbacks do occur, we aren’t waylaid entirely?

Enter the goal-setting strategy of Tom Bosworth, a British racewalker. Ahead of his second straight Olympics, Bosworth spoke to me for our GQ Sports podcast, Smarter Better Faster Stronger. He says that every time he’s stepped on a race course since about 2013, he’s had an A, B, and C goal. The A goal is reserved for his dream result. The B goal he describes as something he’d be “happy with” achieving. And the C goal is “the outcome that I could just about be okay with.”

Bosworth’s strategy came in handy in a recent 10-kilometer race. Tom says that, on that day, he failed to hit either his A or B goal—but managing to hit his C goal allowed him to move on from what might otherwise have been nagging disappointment.

“I'm already focused on what's in front of me, and not lingering on why didn't I go fast over that 10K, or that I might not be fit enough, all these worries that then go through your head,” says Bosworth. “You can move on. That’s a really healthy thing to do. I think many athletes can't put races or injuries or failures or successes behind [them].”

Of course, this strategy isn’t much use if you’ll only end up ever hitting your C goal. But in 2017, when Tom lined up for a mile race, he had his eyes set on the British record, right around five minutes, 50 seconds. He shattered it, walking a mile in a world record time any runner would be proud of: five and a half minutes.

The beauty of this goal-setting strategy is that it protects against the “what the hell” effect. That’s because what makes the slope from slip-up to surrender so slippery is the all-or-nothing approach we take to goals. Whether you’re training to run (or race walk) a 10k or attempting to not drink for a month, there are many small milestones on the way to your biggest goal. Some of those days will be great, some good, and some terrible. But if the only boxes you have are “perfect” and “fail,” even the most resilient among us might be expected to get discouraged.

Bosworth’s strategy gives you more tiers with which to evaluate the merits of all the small steps along the way. (His sports psychologist, Dr. Andrew Manley, calls this wider area around the bullseye, the “zones of achievement.”)

“I walk away from a race having taken something from it, even if it was a little bit of a bad day,” he says.

You can apply this to your own goals. If you want to cut out meat, your A goal for the week might be “don’t eat meat”; B, “have only one meal with meat;” C, “go five of seven days without eating meat.” Same goes for starting an exercise plan. You might shoot for “run 20 miles this week,” be okay with “run four times this week,” and find a way to live with “move for 30 minutes, 3 times this week.” Would you have liked to have done more? Maybe. But giving yourself some slack gives you the motivation to try again next week. Better yet, the psychological comfort of knowing you have that slack just might take some of the pressure off, making it easier to hit your A goal.

GQ’s wellness columnist Joe Holder offered a similar three-tier review process in his guide on how to start, and stick with, a running plan. “I always say your day can be given one of three grades: a big win, a small win, or a small loss. But you can never have a big loss. A big loss if when you have multiple consecutive days of not eating right, not sleeping, and not running.”

In other words, saying “what the hell” and giving up on your goals? That’s a big loss.

Listen to Smarter Better Faster Stronger……on Apple …on Spotify…on Stitcher…or wherever you listen to podcasts.Clay Skipper is a Staff Writer at GQ.XInstagramRelated Stories for GQOlympicsSmarter Better Faster StrongerRunningPodcasts