“The deeper problem is that we’ve started treating things that are inherently ongoing as though they have a final destination. And when we fail to reach that destination, we interpret it as a personal failure.”

The strange thing about reaching a finish line

Years ago, I was pursuing one of the largest deals in my region. It was worth over $100 million.

We spent nine months working on it. I still remember the submission day. Our response was nearly 1,000 pages long, and we needed three printed copies. I personally drove them to the client’s office.

By the time I’d delivered those documents, I was completely drained.

Nine months of work had come down to that moment.

Then we waited.

About a month later, the decision arrived. We’d won.

I was pleased, obviously. It was a significant achievement. But what surprised me was how quickly I moved on. Something that had occupied so much of my time and attention for nine months barely registered for more than a moment.

I’ve often thought about that experience.

We spend months, sometimes years, working towards something. We imagine what it will feel like when we finally get there. Yet when we do, the satisfaction can be surprisingly short-lived.

I wonder whether the problem is how we’ve come to think about goals and what it means to finish something.

The finish lines we’re promised

Open Instagram, and someone is telling you what to eat to lose weight. Someone else has a thirty-day programme that promises to transform your body.

Scroll through LinkedIn, and you’ll find five habits of successful leaders, seven steps to becoming more productive, or another framework that will apparently change your career.

Everyone seems to have figured it out. And everyone is happy to tell us how. We’ve become so accustomed to these promises that we rarely question them. Do this, and you’ll get that.

I understand our attraction to these messages. It is the path of shortest resistance, from a desire to finish line. All it takes is a second of mental effort. Follow the right (simple) process and the outcome will follow.

And sometimes it does.

But I’ve spent close to thirty years building businesses, leading teams and coaching people. I’ve seen people do everything reasonably expected of them and still fall short. Including myself.

There’s a difference between doing something well and getting the result we want. Yet when we don’t achieve what we set out to achieve, we often start questioning ourselves.

Perhaps I didn’t try hard enough. Perhaps I wasn’t disciplined enough. Perhaps I need to change something about myself.

So we look for another framework, another programme, another expert. And start again.

What interests me is how rarely we question the finish line itself.

When exactly are we finished becoming healthy? When have we become successful enough?

Some of the things we spend our lives pursuing don’t have a definitive end. They require ongoing attention, and even when we make progress, there is usually something more we could do.

And then there’s AI

I’ve spent the last few years building products with artificial intelligence, and I find the technology fascinating.

Tasks that previously took hours can now take minutes. Research, analysis, presentations, programming. The productivity gains can be extraordinary.

But I keep coming back to a question.

If we can finish things faster, why don’t we seem to have more time?

Imagine your manager asks you to prepare a report by Friday. You use AI and finish it on Tuesday.

What happens to the remaining three days?

I suspect that in many organisations, those days will simply be filled with more work.

In 2025, Microsoft published research describing what it called the infinite workday. Its analysis of Microsoft 365 activity found that workers were being interrupted by meetings, emails or notifications approximately every two minutes during core working hours.

AI didn’t create that problem. We’ve spent years building workplaces where being constantly available is often confused with being productive.

But AI could make the expectations problem more interesting.

If technology increases what we’re capable of producing, does that also increase what we’re expected to produce?

And if expectations keep increasing, when do we get to feel that we’ve accomplished enough?

What science tells us

There’s an interesting phenomenon in behavioural science called the goal-gradient effect.

Research suggests that as people perceive themselves getting closer to a goal, their motivation can increase.

In a 2006 study, researchers examined people’s behaviour in reward programmes. They found that customers accelerated their purchasing as they approached a reward. Even the perception of having already made progress could influence behaviour.

I can see why clearly defined goals and structured programmes are appealing. They give us a destination and a sense that we’re getting closer to it. There’s nothing wrong with that. Goals are useful, and we need them. But what happens when the destination keeps moving?

There’s another area of research that I found particularly interesting.

In 2011, researchers Masicampo and Baumeister examined how unfinished goals can interfere with our attention.

Think about the presentation you haven’t completed, the email you need to respond to, or the conversation you’ve been putting off. You might have stopped working, but your mind hasn’t necessarily moved on.

The researchers found that making specific plans for unfinished goals could reduce their interference with other activities.

The participants hadn’t actually completed the work. They had simply made a plan for what they would do next. I find that distinction fascinating.

It suggests that, under some circumstances, we don’t necessarily have to finish something to stop thinking about it. Perhaps knowing when and how we’ll return to something can provide a degree of closure.

A 24-hour finish line

I’ve started thinking about progress in 24-hour cycles. There isn’t anything scientifically special about 24 hours. A day gives us a practical boundary.

Yesterday isn’t today. And today isn’t tomorrow.

You might have been extraordinarily productive yesterday. Today, perhaps you’ve slept badly, you’re distracted, or something unexpected has happened. The same work that seemed effortless yesterday suddenly takes considerably more effort.

We however expect ourselves to perform as though nothing has changed. We also tend to measure progress against an outcome that’s still somewhere in the future.

I can finish a workout. That doesn’t mean I’ve finished becoming healthy.

I can deliver a successful project. That doesn’t mean I’ve finished becoming better at my job.

And I can win a $100 million deal without feeling that I’ve somehow arrived at a final destination.

These are different kinds of finish lines.

I’m not suggesting we abandon long-term goals. I still believe in ambition, hard work and honouring our commitments. Businesses need targets. People need deadlines. And there’s value in trying to become better at what we do.

But I’m increasingly interested in separating the outcome we’re working towards from the effort we’ve committed to making today. Because the outcome isn’t always entirely within our control.

And even when we achieve it, as I discovered with that deal, the satisfaction may not last very long.

Perhaps we need to become better at recognising the work we’ve done without waiting for some future achievement to validate it.

One Thing Worth Trying

At the end of your day, take five minutes to answer three questions.

1. What did I finish today? - Something you completed. It doesn’t have to be a major achievement.

2. What did I make progress on? - Something you worked towards, even if the larger goal remains unfinished.

3. What’s unfinished, and when will I return to it? - Be specific about the third question. Instead of telling yourself that you need to finish a presentation, decide when you’ll work on it next and what you’ll do.

There’s research suggesting that making specific plans can help reduce the mental interference of unfinished goals. Whether it works for you is something worth finding out.

Try it for a week.

I’m interested in whether recognising what we’ve done, rather than constantly thinking about what remains, might change how we experience our days.

And perhaps there’s one more question worth asking.

Have I done what I reasonably could today?

Not whether you’ve achieved everything you wanted, but whether you’ve done what you reasonably could, given your circumstances.

If the answer is yes, perhaps that’s enough.

At least until tomorrow.

This article accompanies Episode 1 of my podcast, Built, Not Born, where I explore everyday challenges through neuroscience, behavioural science and lived experience.

15 minutes. One problem. What science tells us. One thing worth trying.

The science behind this episode

Kivetz, Urminsky & Zheng (2006)
The Goal-Gradient Hypothesis Resurrected
Journal of Marketing Research
Read the research

Masicampo & Baumeister (2011)
Consider It Done! Plan Making Can Eliminate the Cognitive Effects of Unfulfilled Goals
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Read the research

Microsoft (2025)
Breaking Down the Infinite Workday
Microsoft Work Trend Index
Read the report

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