Goals 106: Plan to Fail

by Carl Raghavan, SSC | January 12, 2026

I see this time and time again – setting ambitious yearly goals in January. I get it, having goals is important, I have several articles on the subject. The new year feels like the perfect warm and fuzzy time to start fresh. But more often than not, people make grand plans, take no real accountability, and end the year disappointed when nothing comes to fruition.

Every lifter overestimates what they can achieve in a year and underestimates what they can achieve in a decade.

I’m not immune to this mistake either. In Prague, in August 2024, I pressed 150kg. When 2025 rolled around, I wrote down a new goal: press 160kg: a massive 10 kilo improvement. In the year that’s past I’ve been able to press 150kg an additional 2 more times since I set this new heavier goal. These lifts happened in August 2025 in Montpellier, and November 2025 in Oklahoma.

In fact, my only meaningful PR this whole year of 2025 was a 130kg power clean in Putney at Physical Culture – a 10 kilo improvement, which happened in the lead-up to Christmas in December.

Does that mean 2025 was a failure for my press? No. Did I not get stronger the entire year? No. When you’re close to the upper end of your strength potential, even a full year isn’t always enough time for visible progress. At this level, adaptation slows, progress becomes irregular, and simply repeating near-maximal performances can be success in itself.

So back to a typical circumstance I see. If last year your squat was 140kg, this year you set a goal: “I’ll squat 180kg this year.”

Then life happens.

• You get sick
• You break your leg
• You take a long vacation
• You have a baby
• You lose your job

Life happens and wishful thinking on paper falls short, hoping that visualising another plate will magically make it real. If I can see it, then I can do it. Right? Wrong.

The new year arrives and your numbers look the same. It can feel like progress has stalled, like you’re sitting in that fuzzy grey zone between improvement and failure. But strength doesn’t always show up on the bar. Static numbers don’t always mean no progress.

Does that mean you failed?

No. That training for that year has been an investment to one day climbing higher up the ladder to achieving your goal. It means you’re technically stronger – you have just not been in the right situation to demonstrate that progress. Strength isn’t just PRs – it’s the ability to hold onto your baseline even when life throws you a curveball.

Progress favors the stubbornly determined, and in the end strength belongs to those who refuse to quit.

Notice I didn’t say:

• Most talented lifters.
• Perfect genetics.
• Or have “the best program.”

It belongs to the ones who grind through setbacks, failures, and frustration without giving up.

The lifters who succeed aren’t the most talented or the strongest early on. They’re the ones who stick to the plan longer than everyone else. They get back under the bar no matter what life scenarios they face. They keep lifting even when the numbers don’t move, or when the weight on the bar scares them.

The real challenge is making logical decisions instead of emotional ones when progress stalls. Ask yourself:

• Does this lift need more intensity? More volume? More recovery?
• Or, especially for novices, do you simply need to eat and sleep more or have better technical mastery?

That’s it. Success in training is rarely more complicated than that. Strength isn’t given – it’s earned. And most of you will never earn it because you didn’t have the patience to see it through. Remember: patience is a virtue.

Success isn’t linear. Embrace the setbacks. Learn from them. Get back under the bar. Your day is coming.