Beth Goody
Find Connections Between Your Goals
You’ll have a better chance of reaching them.
- By
- October 14, 2025
- CBR - Motivation
Most people abandon their New Year’s resolutions by the end of January. That’s typical of many goals—made but never reached.
But research by Jiabi Wang, a PhD student at Chicago Booth, and Booth’s Ayelet Fishbach suggests a strategy that could help: Make your goals complement each other. Finding harmony in goals can boost motivation and well-being, as well as the chance of achieving your aims, the researchers write.
The prevailing assumption in motivation research is that having more goals results in greater experienced conflict and a lower likelihood of achieving any of them, explain Wang and Fishbach. This belief goes back to the Chinese philosopher Confucius, who wrote that “the man who chases two rabbits catches neither.” Consider, for example, someone who wants to earn a promotion at work. Putting in extra hours to impress a boss could be at odds with a different goal, such as spending more time with family.
Yet whether or not goals are aligned is actually subjective, the researchers argue. A college student may think she needs to stay up late to finish an assignment and meet her academic goals when, in fact, a good night of sleep could help her more.
The researchers demonstrate this subjectivity by recruiting nearly 200 people online to evaluate different pairs of goals, including those for work and family. About 17 percent saw the goals as conflicting, 34 percent saw them as in harmony, and 39 percent considered them independent of each other.
To some extent, a person’s frame of reference is shaped by culture, the researchers argue. Wang and Fishbach collected and analyzed survey data from residents of 10 countries, some with collectivist cultures, which prioritize flexibility and adaptability within various social groups, and others with more individualistic cultures. In general, people in collectivist societies such as China reported greater harmony in their goals. Residents of more individualistic societies such as the United States reported less harmony.
This could be because people in individualistic societies tend to cling to one consistent identity, Wang says. The typical American wants to be the same person at work, at home, and out with friends, but being able to more fluidly switch between identities can help people find connections between their goals, she explains. For example, compared with her American counterpart, a woman in China might feel more comfortable acting one way at a workplace and another at home. Wang argues that this might allow her to focus more on how her work and family goals complement one another, such as seeing her dedication to work as setting a good example for her children.
A cultural take
Compared with people in more individualistic societies such as the United States, people in collectivist societies such as China more often reported having goals that were complementary.
Another study the researchers conducted demonstrates the influence of gender on how people see some goals. Surveying about 500 American parents, the researchers find that fathers were more likely than mothers to see work and family goals as aligned. This may be due to decades of cultural expectations that have reinforced the idea that men provide financially for their families, the researchers write. A man who secures a promotion at work meets both goals at once.
Views on goal harmony can affect people’s ultimate success, according to the researchers. They asked study participants in the US and China to write three New Year’s goals and rate their motivation for each. “Participants who perceived greater harmony between their New Year’s resolutions were more likely to follow through on their resolutions,” the researchers write.
But regardless of your past learning and habitual thinking about goals, it may be possible to see greater connections between them. The researchers asked 200 participants recruited online to state a work goal, along with one activity that they’d need to complete to make progress on it. They also had the participants state a leisure goal, and then explain how the activity they described might contribute toward that goal as well. “The reflection exercise successfully increased harmony,” the researchers write.
Updating Confucius, Wang and Fishbach propose, “Chasing two rabbits simultaneously is not only a reality for most, but if done right, it confers psychological benefits.”
Jiabi Wang and Ayelet Fishbach, “Goal Harmony,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, June 2025.
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