To reach your dreams of living a healthier lifestyle or owning a successful business, most of us think in terms of goals. We know that goals broken down lay out the necessary steps toward your desires. However, sometimes it feels like the path to success includes a few too many challenging obstacles and lots of unnecessary turns.
Here are some of the reasons why your goals are so difficult to achieve.
You Commit to Too Many
Committing to too many goals can be overwhelming and often makes it harder to stick to completing set tasks. If you spread yourself too thin with numerous ideas, you’ll wear out faster, losing motivation to carry through. I know you are impatient but wouldn’t it be better to achieve one big goal in a year than be frustrated you haven’t quite made a dent in anything? Learning to focus is easier when you decide what goals are most important to you.
You Believe All Goals are the Same
There are many different types of goals, you may have a goal to run a marathon and you may have a goal to clear your Todo list today. How you think about a goal matters. Business goals are different to personal goals and often need to be broken down into milestones and tasks. I use a 90 day plan approach, setting goals for the year ahead but then making a clear plan as to what I will focus on in each quarter. When I know my focus for the quarter it helps me to plan my weekly schedule ensuring I make time for all of the things I wish to achieve.
You Fail to Focus on the Habit
When it comes to achieving personal goals I like to think in terms of daily habits. Most personal goals require you to form a daily habit or at least a regular habit that will help you to achieve it. If you want to write a book you need to create the habit of writing, if you want to be stronger you might form the habit of daily press ups, calmer perhaps meditation. When you focus on the habit rather than the goal, any goal becomes less daunting and more achievable. In my habit coaching I encourage people to focus on one habit at a time. Once you’ve mastered one habit you have the confidence and the methodology to work on the next one without any distractions or guilt from other desired habits.
You Lack Inspiration
Some people just don’t know what they want and find it difficult to commit to any goal. Maybe you just lack inspiration? Go visit inspirational spaces, museums, exhibitions, art galleries. Surround yourself with inspirational people. Create a positive environment at home or in your office, if you’re trying to work or feel creative in a bland room, it’s harder to feel encouraged to work on your goals. Buy some plants which will both purify the environment and make it more aesthetically appealing or paint your walls in beautiful timeless paint colors, Inspiration can be closer than you think.
You Fail To Make a Plan
So you have finally decided on your goal, but working out how you’ll get there requires a little more effort. A successful goal includes a detailed plan with the necessary information to lead you to your desired destination. For business goals it’s important to be clear about the specific result you want to achieve, it can help to understand the meaning and purpose of any goal, and then break down the goal into relevant tasks that’ll help you reach your desired end. Task management and scheduling will help you to stay on track to reach your goals and provide you with a more focused foundation to achieve your goals. When it comes to many personal goals using my Habit Canvas from my book Rise Before your Bull will help to focus on the habit that will get you the goal,
You See Failure as the End
Mindset plays an essential role in achieving goals. Starting with little faith in yourself and doubts creates a mental barrier that hinders your ability to reach your goals. Negative thoughts and belittling emotions spark little motivation, making it difficult to put in effort toward completing set tasks. Tapping into a more positive mindset creates more incentives, makes you feel better, and removes mental blocks that will talk you out of achieving your goal. It also allows you to understand that you wont’ always achieve everything first time, know that there will be times that you pick yourself up, dust yourself down and get at it again. Most of us have experienced failure at some stage of our lives and careers.
You Try To Do It Alone
Spreading yourself too thin across multiple goals or trying to achieve big goals alone won’t always lead to the results you are looking for. Asking for help when you need it saves a lot of time and helps you divvy up the tasks to work on a more manageable route to follow. Take a step back and identify the places you could do with help. It’s a much smarter way to not burn out and consistently achieve your goals.
Shedding light on why your goals are so difficult to achieve moves you closer to reaching your goals because it identifies issues you can change. With a bit of an adjustment to your mindset, plan, and space, you lay the groundwork to a more accessible path toward your goals.
