What makes a goal specific enough?

Specific enough that you would know if you met it. In Locke and Latham's research, do your best failed as a goal because there is no clear target to reach, so almost any effort counts. A goal you can picture and check, like a plan for one particular day, gives your effort a direction that a vague wish cannot.

Can a therapy goal be too hard?

Yes. Locke and Latham found that harder goals led to better performance, but only while the person still believed the goal was reachable and stayed committed to it. Past that point the effect leveled off. A goal that is a real stretch helps. One that feels impossible does not.

Why does a vague goal like "feel better" not work as well?

Because there is nothing in it to aim at or check. In this research, goals worked by pointing attention, raising effort, and helping people find a plan. A vague goal gives attention nothing to land on, so it cannot do those jobs. Making it specific is what turns a hope into something you can act on.

Intention

Are specific therapy goals better than vague ones?

Short answer

In general, yes. A specific, challenging goal gives your effort a clear direction, and decades of research find that beats a vague hope like do your best. In therapy, that means naming what you want to be different in plain, concrete terms, rather than aiming to simply feel better.

The research

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, volume 57, pages 705 to 717.

Sample A synthesis of goal-setting research spanning 35 years and more than 400 laboratory and field studies

Published 2002

Journal American Psychologist

Edwin Locke and Gary Latham spent 35 years on one plain question. Does the kind of goal you set change how you do? In this paper they pulled together more than 400 of their own and others' studies to answer it. The pattern held across that whole body of work. People given a specific and difficult goal did better than people told to do their best, and better than people given no goal at all. Do your best sounds motivating, but it has no clear target, so almost any effort counts as meeting it. They also found that the link between how hard a goal was and how well people did was close to a straight line. Within reason, harder goals led to better results, and the gains only leveled off when a goal ran past a person's ability, or when they stopped believing in it. Locke and Latham described four ways goals do their work. A goal points attention at what matters, it raises effort, it keeps people going for longer, and it pushes them to find better ways to get there. Goals worked best when the person was committed to them, got feedback on how they were doing, and the task was not too complex to plan for.

Read the paper

What does this mean for you?

This research was not done in therapy rooms. Most of it looked at people working on tasks at a job, in a lab, or in training. So read it as a principle about goals in general, not as proof about how therapy turns out. What carries over is the shape of the finding. A goal you can picture and check gives your effort somewhere to go. A vague one does not.

In the gap between sessions, that is the difference between "I want to feel better" and "I want to get through Sunday without canceling on my friend." The first is real, but there is no way to know if you met it, so it quietly asks nothing of you. The second is specific. You would know by Sunday night whether it happened, and that is what gives it pull.

There is an honest catch. Locke and Latham found harder goals worked better, but only up to the point where a person still believed the goal was possible and stayed committed to it. A goal set too high stops helping and starts to sting. In healing that matters a lot. The aim is a goal that stretches you a little, not one that sets you up to feel like you failed. Your care team can help you find that line.

The takeaway

Trade the vague hope for something you could actually notice. "Feel calmer" becomes "take one slow walk before work."
Pick a goal that stretches you a little, not one that sets you up to fail. Difficult helped, impossible did not.
Write it where you can read it back, and bring it to your care team so you get feedback and stay committed.

Terms in this page

Intention setting Mental readiness

This is the work Asendar™ was built for: helping you turn a vague wish into one clear, specific thing to aim at between sessions, so your effort has somewhere to go. If you want a simple read on where you are starting from today, take your Mental Readiness Score.

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