Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on Boldin.
There are many things we say we want to do: exercise more, eat better, finally read “War and Peace,” or create a plan for a secure financial future. And yet, good intentions don’t always turn into action.
The difference is rarely discipline or intelligence; it’s often a few small mindset shifts that determine whether we move forward or stay stuck.
Retirement planning is a perfect example. Most people want to feel confident about their future, but many never get past the starting line. The reason usually isn’t math or intelligence. It’s mindset.
Research in cognitive psychology suggests that simply setting a goal isn’t enough. How we think about effort, failure, and discomfort plays a major role in whether we follow through.
Psychologist Amanda Crowell, who studied motivation for several years, identifies common mental roadblocks that prevent people from achieving long-term goals. (You can hear her full TED Talk here.) These same roadblocks show up again and again in retirement planning.
The good news: Once you recognize them, they’re surprisingly workable.
1. You See Failure as Feedback, Not a Verdict
One of the biggest barriers to retirement progress is the belief that if your first attempt doesn’t look good, you’ve already failed. A common thought sounds like this: “I haven’t saved enough, so what’s the point of planning?”
While it’s true that many people haven’t saved as much as they wish, what gets overlooked is that most people still retire. The path may involve tradeoffs, adjustments, or more time, but it’s rarely fixed or final.
Seeing a shortfall isn’t failure. It’s information.
Progress doesn’t come from getting everything right on the first try. It comes from trying, learning what doesn’t work, adjusting, and trying again. That feedback loop is how every complex skill is learned.
What This Looks Like in Practice
When people first start planning, reactions tend to fall into two groups:
- The “maybe I should stop” group: Some feel overwhelmed and consider quitting. What they don’t realize is that they’ve already succeeded at the hardest part: getting started. Simply documenting a plan puts them ahead of most people, many of whom never take this step at all.
- The “let’s experiment” group: Others don’t love what they see — but they start adjusting assumptions. They test different retirement ages, savings rates, spending levels, or work scenarios. They quickly learn that the first result isn’t the answer; it’s the baseline.
Retirement planning isn’t a pass-or-fail test. It’s an ongoing process. Failure isn’t the problem. Stopping is.
2. You Believe You’re ‘Just Not Good at This’
If you’re in your 50s or 60s without a written retirement plan, it’s easy to think: “It’s too late” or “I’m just not good with money.”
Most people have decades of financial habits behind them, some helpful, some not. And, that history can make change feel impossible. But it isn’t.
Research consistently shows that financial knowledge is low across all income and education levels. Feeling uncertain or behind doesn’t make you unusual; it actually makes you normal.
The mistake is assuming that uncertainty means incapability.
How to Get Past This Block
Crowell suggests a simple but powerful step: don’t isolate yourself. Find others who are also trying to do better. That might be through education, community, or simply staying engaged with the process instead of avoiding it.
Even small actions matter. Read about retirement. Start a plan. Revisit assumptions. These steps already put you ahead of most people.
You’re not “bad at money.” You’re learning a skill.
3. You Don’t Have a Reason You Actually Care About
Many people want to retire. Far fewer want to plan for retirement.
Planning can feel uncomfortable. It can surface uncertainty. And it competes with many other things you’d rather be doing.
Psychology explains why. External motivators — “I should,” “I’m supposed to,” “Everyone else is doing it” — are weak drivers of action. They rarely sustain effort over time.
What works better are intrinsic motivations: reasons that come from inside you. These are the questions that tend to matter more:
- What do I want my time to look like later in life?
- How do I want to support myself and my family?
- What kind of flexibility or peace of mind do I want?
When planning connects to something meaningful, it becomes easier to stay engaged, even when the work feels hard.
Retirement planning works best when it’s not just about numbers, but about purpose.
4. You Think You Need to Understand Everything at Once
Many people don’t avoid planning because they don’t care. They avoid it because it feels like too much. There are a lot of inputs. A lot of choices. A lot of “what ifs.” And when everything feels important, it’s easy to freeze.
The mistake is thinking that progress requires completeness.
It doesn’t.
Retirement planning isn’t something you finish in one sitting. It’s something you build in layers. The goal isn’t to understand every assumption — it’s to get oriented enough to move forward.
Clarity Comes After You Start
When you first start planning, it can feel overwhelming because you don’t yet know what matters most. That’s normal.
Clarity doesn’t come before action. It comes from action.
As you explore, patterns start to emerge:
- Some assumptions matter a lot
- Others barely move the needle
- Certain decisions are worth revisiting
- Many details can wait
You don’t need perfect data to learn what’s important. You just need good enough data to get started.
Overwhelm doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. It means you’re encountering something complex and learning how to navigate it.
The Takeaway
Most retirement struggles don’t start with spreadsheets. They start with mindset. When you:
- Treat early results as feedback …
- Let go of the idea that you’re “bad at this” …
- Anchor planning to what matters most to you …
Progress becomes possible.
You don’t need a perfect plan. You need a starting point, and the willingness to keep going. That’s how confidence with the Boldin Retirement Planner is built.