Moving the Goalposts

Moving the goalposts changes expectations after you meet them, making success feel permanently out of reach. The shifting standard can keep you proving yourself while the other person avoids accountability.

Changing the standard after you meet it so you can never succeed.

What It Means

Moving the goalposts changes the standard for success after the original requirement has been met.

The shifting criteria can keep someone working for approval, resolution, payment, or recognition that never arrives.

Legitimate expectations can change, but healthy revisions are explained, negotiated, and applied prospectively rather than imposed after the fact.

Recognizing the tactic helps you ask for stable criteria and evaluate whether the other person is participating in good faith.

Warning Signs

New conditions appear only after you satisfy the conditions that were originally agreed.
Approval, payment, recognition, or resolution is repeatedly withheld behind one more requirement.
They resist written criteria, clear milestones, or any attempt to define when the task is complete.
They call you needy, difficult, or unreasonable for asking them to honor the original standard.
They never acknowledge what you completed and treat every shortfall as solely your failure.