I’ve set hundreds of goals in my life. Most of them failed. For years I blamed myself. Lack of discipline. Not enough motivation. Weak willpower.
Turns out I was wrong about all of it.
Research shows 92% of people who set goals fail to achieve them. That’s not a willpower problem. That’s a system problem. When nearly everyone fails at something, the method is broken. Not the people using it.
Anne-Laure Le Cunff spent years at Google before leaving to pursue a PhD in neuroscience at King’s College London. Her book Tiny Experiments argues we’ve been approaching life all wrong. We set linear goals in a nonlinear world. Four-year degrees. Ten-year career plans. Thirty-year mortgages. Then we wonder why we feel lost when life refuses to follow the script.
The science backs her up. A study in Frontiers in Psychology found that failing high-stakes goals doesn’t just hurt your progress. It damages self-esteem and tanks future motivation. The higher the goal, the harder the fall.
Meanwhile 82% of employees are at risk of burnout according to 2024 data from Fortune. We’re working harder than ever and feeling worse. Productivity anxiety has become a global phenomenon. The hustle culture that promised success delivered exhaustion instead.
Le Cunff’s solution is elegantly simple. Stop setting goals. Start running experiments.
A tiny experiment has four characteristics. It’s purposeful. It’s actionable. It’s continuous. And it’s trackable. Something like “I will write for 30 minutes every morning for two weeks” qualifies. “Become a successful writer” doesn’t.
The psychological difference is massive. When a goal fails, you fail. When an experiment doesn’t work, you’ve learned something valuable. Same outcome. Completely different emotional impact.
This isn’t just feel-good thinking. Carol Dweck’s growth mindset research shows that people who view abilities as developable consistently outperform those who see them as fixed. Experiments naturally create a growth mindset. Goals often reinforce a fixed one.
The book also Rephrases procrastination. Neuroscience research from 2024 found strong links between procrastination and emotion regulation. We don’t delay tasks because we’re lazy. We delay them because our brains are trying to avoid negative emotions. Procrastination is protection, not weakness.
Le Cunff suggests treating procrastination as a compass. Instead of fighting the resistance, ask what it’s telling you. Maybe the task needs to be smaller. Maybe it needs to be different. Maybe it reveals what you actually want versus what you think you should want.
I’ve started applying this myself. Instead of “launch a new content series” I ran an experiment: “publish one experimental piece per week for a month and track engagement.” The pressure disappeared. The curiosity returned. Four weeks later I had data instead of disappointment.
Tiny Experiments isn’t anti-ambition. It’s anti-suffering. Le Cunff wants you to achieve more by stressing less. The book draws from ancestral philosophy and modern neuroscience to show how uncertainty can be a playground instead of a prison.
If you’re tired of setting goals and feeling like a failure, this might be the mindset shift you need. Stop asking what you want to achieve. Start asking what you want to explore.
The experiments are waiting.
RESEARCH SOURCES
Primary Sources
1. Le Cunff, A-L. (2025). Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World. Penguin Random House.
2. Höpfner, J. & Keith, N. (2021). Goal Missed, Self Hit: Goal-Setting, Goal-Failure, and Their Affective, Motivational, and Behavioral Consequences. Frontiers in Psychology.
3. Matthews, G. (2015). Goals Research Summary. Dominican University of California.
4. Fortune/Yahoo Finance (2024). 82% of employees at risk of burnout. March 2024 workplace wellness report.
5. Mercer (2024). Global Talent Trends Study – 80% burnout risk finding.
6. Nie, Y. et al. (2025). The association between procrastination and negative emotions in healthy individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychiatry.
7. British Journal of Psychology (2025). Is poor control over thoughts and emotions related to a higher tendency to delay tasks?
8. Tong et al. (2024). Adaptive emotion regulation strategies reduce procrastination. Referenced in ScienceDirect systematic reviews.
9. Steel, P. (2007). The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-Regulatory Failure. Psychological Bulletin.
10. Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Ballantine Books.
Secondary Sources
11. Harvard Business Review – Clarity and creativity impacts of overwork.
12. Journal of Occupational Health – Burnout risk doubles from 40 to 60 hour work weeks.
13. The Interview Guys (2025). The State of Workplace Burnout in 2025. $322B annual productivity loss statistic.
14. Growth Thru Change (2025). How Hustle Culture is Toxic – 60% reduced focus, 32% productivity drop in burned-out employees.
15. Ness Labs (nesslabs.com) – Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s newsletter and research platform.
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