Who among us doesn’t remember their New Year’s resolutions? It’s been almost four months since you likely defined resolutions for this year. It could be learning to develop specific qualities or technical skills, or simply saving more money or finishing paying off debts. But if I were to ask you how many of these goals you’ve already achieved, would you feel comfortable answering? Do you still remember the resolutions you set at the beginning of the year? In this article, I will list some reasons that lead people away from achieving their goals. For each aspect, we will provide concrete examples and show what needs to be done to overcome the obstacles listed. The obstacles we will address in this article are ten in number:
- Lack of Clarity
- Lack of Motivation
- Unrealistic Expectations
- Burnout
- Lack of Immediate Rewards
- Lack of Accountability
- Poor Time Management
- Lack of Support
- Lack of Flexibility
- Fear of Failure
Lack of Clarity
Sometimes people set vague or unrealistic goals without having a clear execution plan detailing how to achieve them. How can one maintain motivation and focus if the path forward is unclear? It’s important to define achievable goals and associate them with a plan that can be followed.
Let’s say, for example, that you want to save a certain amount of money by the end of the year ($10,000). In this context, a good plan involves ensuring that there’s at least a stable source of income, controlled expenses, and a minimum amount to be saved each month. A solid plan may also involve seeking out parallel activities to serve as a buffer for unforeseen or urgent expenses.
A good goal is defined according to SMART principles. It’s specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. Setting unclear goals can strongly contribute to project abandonment or stagnation.
Key takeaways on goal setting to define SMART goals:
- Specific: Clearly and specifically defines what needs to be accomplished.
- Measurable: Can be quantified or measured to track progress.
- Achievable: Realistic and attainable within given resources and constraints.
- Relevant: Aligns with broader objectives and goals and is meaningful to the individual or organization.
- Time-bound: Has a defined deadline or timeframe for completion.
Lack of Motivation
The lack of motivation can steer us away from achieving our goals. Depending on the underlying reasons for pursuing a goal, motivation can be relatively weak. Undertaking a project because we want to follow a trend or impress someone is not a sturdy enough reason. At the slightest difficulty, you might risk forgetting about our goal.
Conversely, having a goal based on solid reasons can sustain enduring motivation. For instance, pursuing a project aimed at improving health to live a longer and more fulfilling life can provide powerful intrinsic motivation. When the goal is rooted in deep personal values, such as physical and mental well-being, obstacles encountered along the way are more likely to be overcome because the commitment to the goal is inherently strong.
So before setting some goals make sure that they align with your values and what you really want for yourself. In this case, you will maximize the motivation and increase the probability of achieving them.
Unrealistic Expectations
Excessive ambition in goal setting can be a significant barrier to progress and can lead to frustration and disappointment. This is because results or progress may occur more slowly than anticipated. Unrealistic expectations contradict the “achievable” aspect of SMART goals. This might lead someone to lose track of his goal.
Let’s consider the example of someone who has just graduated from university with a psychology degree and wants to make a career change by becoming a pilot. Now, the individual only gives themselves a year to achieve this goal and five months to land their first job as a commercial pilot.
In the chosen scenario, admittedly somewhat exaggerated, it’s clear that the tendency to abandon the goal is stronger than anything else. What I try to show you with this technical example, is that you can set yourself for failure if you have unrealistic expectations about a project or a specific goal. Please make sure that your goals are reasonable before putting them in your to-do list.
Burnout
It’s undoubtedly a term you’ve heard before. Nowadays, it’s increasingly discussed in the professional world. However, our bodies and brains don’t differentiate between the energy expended at work and that consumed at home. Attempting to accomplish too many goals simultaneously can lead to burnout. This corresponds to a state where one feels mentally and physically exhausted.
When experiencing burnout, it becomes challenging to maintain consistency in pursuing our goals, as our motivation and energy are at their lowest.
Recovering from a burnout can take lot of time. Some people even quit their job after a burnout and start a new one, that gives them a better work life balance according to their personal situation.
Therefore, consider finding balance and allowing yourself time in a world that tends to move too quickly at times. Set SMART goals, allocating yourself a reasonable workload that you can accomplish within reasonable deadlines.
Lack of Immediate Rewards
In our current society, immediate rewards are everywhere, whether in the form of social media notifications or constant distractions. This overstimulation can have a direct impact on our reward circuit, making it difficult to engage in tasks that don’t provide instant gratification.
It’s often challenging to dedicate oneself to a task that doesn’t offer immediate rewards. However, it’s essential to learn to overcome this mindset and find ways to motivate oneself even in the absence of instant gratification.
One strategy is to find ways to reward oneself after completing an important task. This can be as simple as taking a break and congratulating oneself on the work accomplished. Moreover, learning to disconnect from the internet from time to time can help reduce the temptation of immediate rewards and focus on long-term goals.
There are also many applications designed to help focus and manage time more effectively. By using these tools, you can learn to refocus on what truly matters and avoid distractions that steer us away from our long-term goals. Also try to train yourself in becoming more disciplined. For example, I reduce consumption of whatever that can influence my dopamine levels (soda, sugar, shorts …).
Lack of Accountability
When it comes to personal goals, we set for ourselves, not being held accountable to anyone else can also prove to be a pitfall. We may tend to procrastinate because we don’t share our progress towards achieving our goals.
To increase your chances of success, confide in a friend, tell them what you want to achieve, and keep them informed about the progress made towards the set goal. This is especially beneficial when the goal is difficult to achieve due to its complexity or the regular effort associated with it. In this manner you’ll also develop the discipline of doing hard things when you don’t feel like doing them.
For certain tasks motivation might vanish with time, but if you’re disciplined enough and accountable to someone, you’ll achieve your goals.
Poor Time Management
Poor time management can divert someone from achieving their goals. Balancing multiple responsibilities and commitments can make it difficult to allocate time and energy to the accomplishment of our goals. Solid time management skills are necessary to resist the temptation to neglect our primary goals in favour of more immediate and simple tasks, sometimes without real added value.
Personally, I prefer to use the first hour of my day to write articles like this or work on programming projects before getting involved in multiple tasks throughout the day. Both time and energy are limited resources throughout a day, so let’s manage them well to transform our lives into what we aspire them to be.
Read up on time management if you want to achieve your dreams. But most importantly, don’t forget to apply the time management tips you learn.
Lack of Support
Not having a supportive circle or network can diminish motivation and commitment towards one’s goals. If you find yourself in such a situation, you need to surround yourself with friends who encourage you in achieving your goals. Finding networks of people with similar interests can also help in this regard.
However, once again, I want to emphasize that if we have intrinsic motivation driving us to reach our goals, even if we are in an unsupportive environment, we will still be committed and determined to accomplish our objectives.
Lack of Flexibility
Sometimes, we find ourselves trapped in the pursuit of a goal because we fall in love with the plan, we defined beforehand. At times, when we set a plan aimed at achieving a goal, we may lack certain details that later makes it difficult to implement the plan. This can also be due to factors beyond our control. When we become attached to our plan, we become rigid and fail to consider a Plan B to achieve our goal.
However, leaving room for other options to achieve our goal is crucial, especially when facing unexpected situations. For example, imagine we want to travel from city A to city B and we insist on doing so by plane. Suppose due to weather conditions, all flights are grounded. If we insist on flying, the trip will have to be postponed. Thinking of alternatives like taking the train or bus represents alternative plans that help us achieve our initial goal.
In defining your action plans, make room for flexibility because nobody is immune to unforeseen events. Do not cling rigidly to the plan, but rather keep your eyes fixed on the goal and seek alternatives to achieve it.
Fear of Failure
It’s certain that the fear of failure is a familiar feeling for many. This apprehension can be paralyzing for some individuals. It may originate from the fear of judgment from others, the fear of not meeting expectations, or the reluctance to confront one’s own limitations.
Just like burnout, the fear of failure can exert intense pressure on our minds and bodies. It can push us to avoid challenges, to stay within our comfort zone for fear of failing. However, as with any difficulty, it’s crucial to find balance and take a step back.
Set realistic and achievable goals for yourself, while allowing yourself the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them. Learn to see failure as a natural step towards success, rather than as an end. Many entrepreneurs or businesspeople say that they learn the most from their mistakes.
By taking the time to understand your fears and adopting a progressive approach, you can overcome the fear of failure and move towards your goals with confidence and determination. So, embrace your fears and give a chance to your ideas to come to a realisation.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many ways to not stick to your goals. But it is possible to avoid them and make sure we reach our goals. If you like this kind of content, please subscribe to my profile to read more similar articles. You can clap or giving me subjections about the next articles. This is a very exciting journey for me to share my articles with you via this platform.