Monitoring your way to success: The mediating roles of goal monitoring and the experience of obstacles in the association between trait self-control and goal attainment

Self-control is known for promoting goal attainment, although its mechanisms remain inadequately understood. The current study aims to further explore self-control mechanisms by examining whether goal monitoring and the experience of obstacles serially mediate the relationship between trait self-control and goal attainment. A total of 228 participants completed the Brief Self-Control Scale, identified goals they intended to pursue over the next week, and then rated their level of goal monitoring. In a follow-up survey, participants were asked about the obstacles they encountered and how much progress they made on each goal. Results indicated that the relationship between self-control and goal attainment was positively associated with goal monitoring and negatively associated with the experience of obstacles. However, goal monitoring was not related to the experience of obstacles. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find support for the serial mediation effect of goal monitoring and the experience obstacles in the relationship between trait self-control and goal attainment. Furthermore, the mediating effect of goal monitoring became insignificant when self-efficacy was included as a control variable. These findings highlight the complex interplay between self-control, goal monitoring, self-efficacy, and the experience of obstacles in promoting goal attainment. Keywords: self-control, self-efficacy, goal attainment, monitoring, obstacles