Goals Across Time Frames and Temporal Landmarks: Do Time of Year and Goal Age Influence Goal Perceptions?

Research on personal goals is conducted at various times during the year, and researchers ask participants about their goals in different ways, eliciting both new goals and goals that have been pursued for varying amounts of time. But do these differences affect how people perceive and report on their goals? In line with the fresh start effect, which proposes that people think differently about goals around temporal landmarks, we anticipated that people would perceive goals set and reported on around the New Year differently than goals set or reported on at other times of the year. Participants (N = 362) reported on three goals either in January or in March and rated them on 16 different characteristics. The goals were either young (set since January 1^st or in the last month) or older goals that participants were already pursuing. Results showed that participants rated their goals very similarly in January and March. There were, however, many differences in perceptions based on goal age, with greater avoidance, controlled motivation, difficulty, abstractness, and conflict for older goals (compared to newer goals). Other goal characteristics (autonomous motivation, commitment, importance, effort, self-efficacy, approach motivation, and goal facilitation) did not differ by goal age. Participant's self-reported progress on their goals was also tracked monthly over 6 months. Progress generally followed a quadratic (inverse U) trajectory, initially increasing, then plateauing and slightly decreasing across the 6 months. There were, however, differences between goals set in January and those set in the last month, with January goals more closely following the quadratic pattern. Overall, this research contributes to our understanding of how goal perceptions evolve over time, highlighting the underexplored role of goal age and the seemingly limited role of temporal landmarks.