Meanings
- uncountableThe obsessive pursuit of goals to the point of self-destruction.
If you suffer from goalodicy then you will find yourself so obsessed by the future goal that you ignore the practical realities of your situation.
2011, Shaa Wasmund, Stop Talking, Start Doing: A Kick in the Pants in Six Parts, →ISBN1 more example
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld, on the other hand, were passionate about Iraq. Christopher McCandless was bursting with passion as he headed “into the wild.” So was Robert Falcon Scott as he set out to explore the arctic, bitten as he was with “the Pole mania” (as were many climbers of the tragic 1996 Everest climb, momentarily struck with what psychologists now call “goalodicy”).
2016, Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy, page 45
Origin
Blend of goal + theodicy, coined in October 2004 by business professor Chris Kayes, PhD in the fifth chapter of Organizing Reflection.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
goalodicy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/goalodicy
“goalodicy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/goalodicy. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “goalodicy,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/goalodicy.
Source: goalodicy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.