Every year, I ring in the new year with a long list of new year’s resolutions and looking back, I rarely ever keep those resolutions. So every December 31st I ask myself, “Why didn’t I keep my resolutions from the previous year?” Basically, I don’t follow the guideline below for one reason or another.
Why set goals? Every one of us spends countless hours thinking about our present life and future. Almost everyone wishes to change their life, whether it is family life, friendship, career or finances – we all want to change something. The first step is to set goals.
Are you tired of setting out goals that you never accomplish? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. In this article, I will highlight 5 of the most common reasons why people never accomplish their goals. Perhaps you’ve made one (or many) of these mistakes.
• You don’t write goals down
Don’t keep your goals stuck in your head. Write them down somewhere and keep them visible. It’s a way of making your goals real and holding yourself accountable for achieving them.
• Procrastination
How many times have you stayed up all night to finish a project or task? Perhaps you cannot count anymore. You may also be doing the same thing with the goals you set. If you are always underestimating completion time, you will easily get discouraged when the goals take longer to accomplish than initially expected. Most often, this is among the causes of why people give up on their goals. To stop procrastinating on your goals, assign a specific time limit and work towards attaining your goal every day. Goals take time to accomplish and sometimes you may feel as if you are not making progress. For this reason, it is important to set sub-goals between your main goals and keep checking your strategies so you can determine what is needed to keep going forward. Tomorrow’s turn into never.
• You compare yourself to others too much
We are all guilty of doing this from time to time. We wake up, hop onto social media – then, scroll, scroll, scroll… waste 20 minutes in the morning looking at photos, reading statuses, and before we know it, we are caught in the vicious cycle of comparing ourselves to strangers we know very little about. There goes our energy for the rest of the day. You can’t compare your situation to anyone else’s.
Instead of wasting your downtime by researching Justin Bieber’s Wikipedia page, fill it with activities that further you toward your goal. This will keep you focused on the goal. The people that we idolize and look up to, got to where they are because they had goals and didn’t let anything stand in their way.
• Unrealistic expectations and no accountability system
This is one of the common reasons why people never reach their goals. Your goals need to be attainable. Most goals that we set for ourselves are long term. Truth is, great things take time. So, either you wait or you settle for less. When deciding on a goal, ensure it is realistic – a goal within your control. Make sure you actually can reach the goal in a time frame you set for yourself.
If you announce your goal publicly, or promise to offer something to people, those people suddenly depend on your accomplishment. They are suddenly concerned for your goals, and help make sure you achieve them. Don’t see this as a burden. Instead, use it to fuel your hard work. Have people depend on you and you’ll be motivated to not let them down.
• Overwhelm
Many people fail to take the necessary action to achieve their goals because of a sense of overwhelm. The goal appears to be too large and too difficult to achieve. They may be lacking in some of the skills required to achieve the goal.
When you’re overwhelmed, it is easy to doubt your abilities. However, you are making a major and, common, mistake here. You are evaluating a future date with your present circumstances. When you do this, you are completely ignoring the fact that with time, you can grow, learn new skills and improve your current knowledge and skill levels.
What do the Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Cubs, Clemson Tigers, and New England Patriots all have in common? They all made it to the big game or big series – and they all dug themselves a deficit to the point where NO ONE believed they could win. They all could have easily been blown out. I don’t think I need to tell you that every single one of these teams went on the win the championship within the past 12 months. In the process of chasing your goals, you will be faced with hurdles and road blocks that seem insurmountable. No one likes to have their back against the wall, but if your back is against the wall turn around and write on it. Embrace the challenge and stick to your plan. If the plan doesn’t work, change the plan but never change the goal.
Frizzell, Brett. Fri, 10 Feb 2017. “5 Reasons Why You Can’t Achieve Your Goals” linkedin.com. Article Retrieved from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-reasons-why-you-cant-achieve-your-goals-brett-frizzell?published=t
