The Top 5 Reasons You’re Not Going to Achieve Your Goals

I’m going to lose 10 pounds. I want to increase my sales by 25%. I’m going to learn how to make videos for my blog.

How many times do you set goals without achieving them? Why do you think that happens?

Keeping the promises you make to yourself is critical to personal and professional success—and to your happiness. It’s alright to change your goals if you make a conscious decision to do so, but many times, the failure to reach your goals isn’t a conscious decision. The top reasons you don’t reach your goals are as follows:

1. Your goals aren’t specific and measurable. When you set vague goals, you can’t ever know if you actually reach them. For instance, setting a goal to increase your sales is too vague. How are you supposed to know when you’ve achieved it? Instead, a goal to increase your sales by 10% in 2 months is a specific and measurable goal.

2. You don’t care enough. If you set goals without having the passion to achieve them, you probably won’t ever check them off your list. I used to see this happen a lot when I worked with at-risk adolescents. During a family session, a parent would say something like, “I want little Johnny to stop going to school high.” But, the problem was that little Johnny loved going to school high, and he didn’t want to change it. So, he’d make it goal in therapy, but never really work towards it. If you make goals for other people or just because you think you should, it’s pointless.

3. You haven’t thought through what it’ll take to achieve your goal. You might think that you really want to go from a size 8 dress size to a size 2 dress size for your wedding. But when you realize you have to wake up at 5:00 a.m. for boot camp, eat half a salad with no dressing for lunch, and drink seltzer water while your girls indulge in martinis at your bridal shower, you might not want it bad enough.

4. You don’t write down your goals or review them. You’ll be much more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down and place them somewhere you’ll see them on a daily basis. It’s even better if you make an effort each morning when you wake up and each evening before you go to bed to review your goals.

5. You have no level of accountability. If you make a goal but you keep it to yourself, it’s not that big of a deal when you don’t reach it. I know that when I tell my husband, parents, and friends about a goal I’ve set, I’m much more likely to follow through and reach it.

So, what are you doing to stand in the way of your goals? What can you do today to make it more likely that you’ll achieve your goals?

Here’s what I’d like you to do next:

1. Leave a quick comment telling me what you’re going to do today to make it more likely that you’ll achieve your goals.

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{Image from Nimble Photography on Flickr}