In this episode of Psychologically Speaking, Leila Ainge checks back in with coaches Emma Thomas and Lucy Green a few months after they set ambitious business goals. The conversation reveals how real progress unfolds.

Emma shares how a community project had to pause due to unforeseen circumstances and teases us with a new book project!. Lucy reflects on launching her programme Good Company, which sparked strong interest but fewer sales than expected, leading her to adapt the offer and rethink how clients take their first steps into corporate work.

Across the conversation, a common theme emerges: the process of pursuing goals generates insight, momentum, and new opportunities. Both coaches discover that experimentation, reflection, and small pivots are valuable.

The episode explores the psychology behind this, including anticipated failure, experimentation, and the role of community and accountability in sustaining progress. Ultimately, the takeaway is simple when you pursue a goal, the real reward is often what you learn along the way.

In this episode of Psychologically Speaking, Leila is joined by three Goal Sprint participants, Hannah Isted, Jen Vaughan and Darren Scotland, for an honest progress check-in just weeks into the year.

Together they explore:

• Why momentum matters more than motivation

• How perfectionismblocks progress (and how to move anyway)

• The psychology of getting out of your comfort zone from running faster to showing up online

• Why community support accelerates confidence and behaviour change

• How small actions create belief, not the other way around

• Letting go of “gatekeepers” and reframing rejection

• Using goals as direction, not pressure

You’ll hear:

Hannah share how pushing past “safe effort” transformed her running

Jen open up about visibility fears, tech discomfort, and building connection in business from the ground up.

Darren reflect on perfectionism, creative momentum, community collaboration and turning setbacks into progress.

Leila weaves in psychological insights around effort, behaviour change, self-criticism, resource conservation, social comparison and why progress rarely looks linear.

If you’ve ever:

• Set a goal and felt stuck straight after

• Waited to feel confident before acting

• Struggled with perfectionism or fear of visibility

• Wondered why progress feels slower than expected

This episode will help you understand what’s really happening in your brain and how to work with it rather than against it.

What actually happens to your confidence once you start pursuing a goal?

In this episode of Psychologically Speaking, psychologist Leila Ainge checks back in with three creatives who set goals on the podcast weeks earlier, Graphic Designer Bhavini, Animator Duncan and Documentary Maker Dany. Instead of tidy success stories, you’ll hear what goal pursuit looks like in real life, confidence rising and dipping, perfectionism showing up, comparison creeping in, and plans changing shape.

Through honest reflection and psychological insight, this episode explores why confidence doesn’t grow in a straight line, how visibility reduces fear over time, and why setbacks and pivots are often signs of progress rather than failure.

If you’re navigating imposter feelings, struggling with comparison, or wondering why motivation feels inconsistent, this episode offers reassurance and a more realistic picture of change.

Why do resolutions wobble just when we think they should be working?

This episode explores avoidance crafting, impatience, burnout, and how goals, habits, and mental distance shape real progress especially in January.

In this episode of Psychologically Speaking, Leila explores the intricacies of human behavior, particularly focusing on the themes of resolutions, goals, and habits. She discusses the common pitfalls of New Year's resolutions, the importance of understanding the difference between resolutions and goals, and how habits play a crucial role in achieving these goals. Leila also delves into the impact of social comparison on our progress and introduces the concept of mental distance as a strategy to combat burnout and maintain motivation. The episode emphasizes the importance of community support and self-compassion in the journey towards personal development.

takeaways

• January often feels like the longest month of the year.
• Resolutions are declarations linked to identity and values.
• Goals provide structure and direction for achieving resolutions.
• Habits require time to show their impact and rewards.
• Impatience can lead to negative feelings about progress.
• Social comparison can intensify feelings of uncertainty.
• Mental distance can protect against burnout.
• Avoidance crafting can be a strategic approach to stress.
• Community support can enhance motivation and accountability.
• Self-compassion is crucial in the goal-setting process.

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Why do goals that feel exciting at first suddenly become exhausting even when we care deeply about them?

In this episode of Psychologically Speaking, I explore why goals often become unsustainable not because of a lack of motivation or discipline, but because they’re designed for ideal conditions rather than real life.

Drawing on psychology, environmental thinking, and embodied cognition, we look at how our physical and emotional environments quietly shape what we’re able to sustain long before willpower ever comes into play.

You’ll be introduced to the concept of solastalgia, a term that describes the distress we feel when the places we call home change in ways that feel out of our control. Originally coined by environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht, solastalgia helps us put language to a sense of discomfort many of us feel right now — at home, at work, and in the wider world.

We also explore:

1. Why goal-setting advice often assumes a resource-neutral world
2. How embodied cognition explains the link between clutter, noise, uncertainty and mental fatigue
3. Why living in a brittle, anxious, non-linear environment (often described as BANI or VUCA) quietly drains our capacity
4. How Conservation of Resources theory reframes burnout, confidence loss, and stalled momentum
5. Why sustainability isn’t the opposite of ambition — it’s the condition that allows momentum to exist

Rather than asking “How much more can I push?”, this episode invites a different question:

What can my current environment realistically support without depletion?

You’ll leave with two practical reflections to help you:

1. Name your real working environment (without minimising it)
2. Redesign your goals so they create more resources than they consume

This episode is especially relevant if you’re:

1. Feeling stuck or depleted despite caring about your goals
2. Parenting, creating, caregiving, coaching, or leading in uncertain conditions
3. Questioning whether the problem is you — or the system you’re operating within

Find out more about booking me as a researcher for hire at www.leilaainge.co.uk

Bonus Episode

In this deeply honest and energising episode of Psychologically Speaking, Dany Johnston — data & AI consultant, documentary filmmaker, and PhD researcher — shares her most ambitious and vulnerable goal yet: to create and release a new documentary filmed during a once-in-a-lifetime expedition to the Arctic Circle.

Dany’s story is one of dual passions: 25 years in business transformation and data, and a lifelong pull toward storytelling, creativity, and human rights. Her PhD bridges those worlds, exploring how data harvesting and AI shape the human rights landscape — and how documentary can help everyday people join conversations that usually happen behind closed doors.

But 2026 isn’t about theory. It’s about exposure.

The kind she’s avoided for years.

Dany openly shares her “abject fear of judgment,” the reason projects from New York still sit on a hard drive, and why this year must be different. Her measure of success? Not just making a film — but submitting it to the festival circuit.

In this episode of Psychologically Speaking, Emma returns to share her 2026 goal — and it’s one that will resonate with anyone whose business has grown faster than their systems.

Emma describes the year ahead as a “cupboard under the stairs” moment — the kind of messy-but-essential reorganisation that requires everything to come out before the clarity goes back in. We talk about the three strands of her work (Managing the Menopause, The Triple Shift coaching practice, and Holding Up the Sky) and the emotional labour of running a multi-offer business while supporting women in some of life’s most demanding seasons.

• Why her goal isn’t just tidying — it’s coherence, identity, and focus
• Her habit of “shiny object syndrome” and the insecurity that sometimes sits beneath it
• How under the surface, the real 2026 goal is growing her corporate coaching practice
• The tension between doing what feels easy (reorganising) vs what moves the business forwards (sales & outreach)
• Why a focus group may be the missing piece in her coherence puzzle

Emma shares the three actions she’ll take by the end of January

This is a thoughtful, honest conversation about visibility, intentionality, and the very human temptation to do the parts of business that feel soothing instead of the ones that feel stretching.

If you’re navigating growth, clarity, or identity shifts in your business, this one will feel like a cup of tea, a deep exhale, and a nudge forward.