Goal setting is always a hot topic. Being able to properly set goals, follow through on them, and eventually achieve them is one of life’s greatest pleasures. On top of that, regular goal setting also propels you towards the life you want. The problem is, the goals we set often fail. If you struggle achieving your goals, it may be because of one of these issues:
- You Don’t Know The Why
If you are the type of person to set goals, but not think of why you are setting them, you may not reach them as quickly as others. Goals should directly or indirectly match your overall vision of life, and who you are as a person. A more natural way to explain this – your goals should match your purpose. Figure out what you are meant to do in life, then create goals that move you towards that.
- You Didn’t Write Them Down
I forget who said it, but I once heard, “your mental notes aren’t worth the paper they are written on.” The same thing goes for goals. You can’t set a goal without writing it down. You can have a head full of ideas that you’d like to get around to doing, but they don’t become goals until you put pen to paper.
- You Don’t Make a Plan
So, you have set a bunch of goals, you even wrote them down! Now what? You can’t set goals and then hope or wish to achieve them. You need to create an action plan. The best way to do this is to take your goals and break them down into smaller, more actionable goals.
- You Set Them But Don’t Take Action
Just having goals and a plan to reach them is pretty much useless unless you take action! You need to make sure you work towards your goals as often as possible – daily, even. If you struggle to take action, try reaching out to a close friend and asking them to be your accountability partner. You will find it harder to let them down than letting yourself down.
- You Don’t Know How to Deal With Failure
Collectively, failure is one of our worst fears. I get it, no one sets out to fail, and it doesn’t feel great when we do. When setting life goals, though, failure is part of the process. You don’t just give up when you face failure, do you? No! You get back up, brush yourself off, and then figure out what lesson your failure taught you.
- You Listen to Other People
It’s great to have a supportive social circle. There is a time in everyone’s life they need to call on them. That said, you have to balance that with firm boundaries. Not everyone is going to understand or support your goals. If you genuinely believe in what you are trying to achieve, you need to ignore the naysayers and focus on your goals.
- You Aren’t Focused
Since we live in a fast-paced society, multitasking has become some badge of honor. The reality is, the more things you focus on at once, the less energy you have to focus on any one thing. Instead of setting and trying to achieve ten different goals at once, maybe focus on the 1-2 that are most important.
- You Aren’t Motivated/Excited
There is a lot of talk about setting reasonable goals that are easy to achieve. I support this 100%. However, these aren’t the goals that are going to wake you up, ready to take on the world. Don’t be afraid to set one or two audacious goals that genuinely excite you.
- You Don’t Feel Worthy
A lot of us fear failure, but do you know that almost as many people fear success? If they don’t fear it, they feel like they aren’t worthy of it. This self-limiting mindset needs to be squashed. No matter how you do it, you must stamp out the feeling that you don’t deserve everything you want.