Reasons we don't achieve our goals

 

Did you know that 92% of people never reach their goals? 

That begs the question, why is that and what can we do to reach ours?

Leon Ho from Lifehack.org wrote in a newsletter:

Often, it's because of one single reason.

People may have a general idea of what they want, but not know exactly what they want.

Mr. Ho wrote, you need to dig deep and answer five questions that unveils exactly what you want.

Ask yourself 5 different questions about your idea or goal. Start with why on the first question and use each answer to build the next question. Answer these questions carefully and you will find out what you really desire to accomplish.

I’ll use language learning as an example. Why do I want to learn this language? What makes it important enough to spend the time and energy? What will my life be like when I learn the language? What is the best way for me to learn? When will I study?

Osric V. Baugham in an article on SelfGrowth.com list 5 reasons.

1.    Deep down they do not believe they can do it.

 T They have no vision of their goal achievement.

3.   They have no plan

4.   Procrastination

5.   Afraid to fail

Let look deeper into each of these areas.

1 1. Deep down they do not believe they can do it.

All goals start out as a dream. To make that dream become a reality, we must believe that we can do it. Often a negative mindset gets in the way and overcoming one is not as easy it sounds.

Guess what. If we expect to fail, we will or we don’t even try.

We want to learn a second language. We listen to others who tried and failed. We go online and read studies showing an adult can’t learn the language we want. We buy into that, and our goal is sidetracked before we start.

With perseverance, motivation, and persistence anyone can accomplish just about anything.

Negative words or thoughts are a killer. Replace them with positive words and inspiring thoughts.

If we don’t believe we will succeed, we’ll never get started, much less succeed.  

2. They have no vision of their goal achievement.

It’s nice to have goals, but if we don’t know what we really want, how will we know when we’ve achieved them?  

Until we know exactly what we want, our vision of the goal achievement does not help us at all.  

Some tell us not to get caught up in visualizing the result. This a huge mistake in goal achievement.

If we don’t know where we are going, how will we know when we get there?

3. They have no plan

A plan is the roadmap we follow to get to our goal. Too often, we don’t have a plan, or our plan is too broad and not focused on what is important.

If our plan is too broad and we’re trying to do too much it can overwhelm us and make it impossible to reach our goal. This leads to frustration and procrastination.

We spend months or even years reading, researching, and restructuring so we have the perfect plan, and we still have not acted on our goal.

Stop wasting time. Determine what the goal really is and set up effective steps to reach that goal and act on them.

Saying I want to learn a second language is not a clear goal. That is very general and there are no focused directions to lead us to success.

We need a clear and focused path to reach our goals. That is where SMART goal setting comes in.

The foundation of all successfully accomplished goals is the SMART goal.

SMART goal setting is a goal setting method that considers certain factors about a goal relative to the person setting it. I will provide examples using the language learning theme. These factors are:

● S — Specific (Be able to hold a basic conversation and understand at least 50% of what I hear.)

● M — Measurable (Study words and phrases that are relevant to me 30 minutes each night.)

● A — Achievable (Learn 5 new words and phrases daily.)

● R — Relevant or Realistic: (Not have to rely on someone to translate when I have doctor appointments or need to buy something.)

● T — Time bound (Learn 150 new words this month.)

The strength of SMART goals is that it sets a clear path to achieving goals and a clear time frame in which to achieve them.

SMART goals should not be looked at as set in stone, but as flexible guidelines that can be adjusted as needed to reach our goal.

4. Procrastination

Procrastination is just failing to act. We put off things we know we should be doing and get in that; I’ll get to it someday mindset.  

There are several reasons we procrastinate. Lack of desire, fear of failure, complacency, or worry about what others will think. These keep us in our comfort zone.

We get caught up making excuses about why it's better to do it later. I'll find a better way of doing it, I'll come up with a better plan, or the biggie, I'll have more time.

Here's the problem: someday may never come if we stay in our comfort zone. There will never be a better method and our plan doesn’t need to be perfect.

Stop making excuses and stop putting things off. Stop procrastinating and get going.

5. Afraid to fail

The last reason we do not achieve our goals is because we are afraid to fail.

Have you tried before to reach your goal and failed? When that happens, we start making excuses and get stuck reliving the past.

Forget what happened yesterday and change your focus to the present. Don’t let fear of failure stop you from getting where you want to go. You can’t rewind time, but you can benefit from the past. Use what worked before and forget the rest.

When it comes to goal setting and goal achievement, failure is a part of the process.

Understand this, failing is not the end of our goal achievement. Quitting is the end of goal achievement.

Everyone who has achieved some type of success failed before they reached their goal. Failure teaches us what needs to be improved. Failure is an essential learning tool.

Challenges and setbacks cause a great deal of fear. Just accept that they are an important part of learning. Succumbing to fears is not the answer.

Once we understand that failure is not the end but a path to our success, it becomes easier to deal with failures.

Conclusion.

These are some of the reasons that prevent us from reaching our goals. Some reasons simply require a change in thinking. That’s not easy, but it will help us achieve our goals. Using SMART goals gives us a streamlined direction to keep us focused. So, what’s preventing you from achieving your goals?

“A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.” Harvey Mackay