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Some people constantly fail to achieve their goals. If you feel like you are always setting goals but fail to reach them, this article is written for you. You need to learn that planning and setting goals are part of the process rather than the whole process. Although dreaming, planning, setting objectives are essential and act as a motivators, they never actually come true without any action. As Napoleon Hill said „A goal is a dream with a deadline“. It doesn’t mean you need to set a deadline when the goal should be reached, it means you should put effort into your actions so that you would eventually reach that goal.
Here are some of the most common reasons why people fail to accomplish their goals:
- Lack of clear purpose
Have you ever heard about SMART goal criteria which provides you a guide of setting objectives?
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Relevant
T – Time-bound
One of the main reasons you fail to accomplish your aims is because you are not following the SMART rule. The first thing you must check is to make sure your goals are set to appropriate criteria.
- Not enough commitment
Achieving your goals isn’t an easy job, and you need to face lots of challenges. Taking the first step and keeping progress toward your goal is truly a steady work. The only person that can make your goals come true is yourself, so put yourself in a state where the commitment is high and you cannot give up.
- Overwhelmed by too many goals
According to the SMART criteria, your goals should be achievable which means they should not be too hard or impossible to carry out. When you are overwhelmed, you start having doubts about your aims and will lose faith about your abilities. It is also too complicated to put effort into too many goals that you have set for yourself. There is a very popular quote in English – “A jack of all trades is a master of none” which illustrates how some people set many goals and fail to succeed.
- Losing motivation
Losing motivation, especially in the middle of the process, can happen because of several reasons. Some people feel unmotivated when thinking about the end result because they are afraid that they will fail half way through the process. If you feel the same, you need to change the way you look at failure. Instead of constantly thinking about what happens if you fail, try to think of the positive things that will happen if you succeed. Believing in yourself is the key to move towards your goals. Another reason is that you might idealize your goals too much. According to a phenomenon called hedonistic adaptation, all incredible and impressive things become ordinary after a short time, so even the most fascinating goals lose their attractiveness after a while, and might make you want to give up very easily.
- Surrounding yourself with wrong people
You’ve certainly heard many times that you’ll become like those whom you spend most of your time with, it’s not a statement, it’s a fact. If you are always spending time with people who have no dreams or goals, you’ll end up abandoning your own dreams and goals. On the contrary, if you surround yourself with successful people who are always talking about their dreams and goals, you’ll become inspired by them. This is your life, and you live only once, so it is vital that you surround yourself with people who are ambitious and driven.
In different sources, these are also things that might cause failure:
- Concentrating on tasks that don’t bring you closer to your goals
- Focusing on the result instead of the process
- Coming up with too many excuses
- Not following a plan
- Inactivity
Editor: Tea Teesalu
More information:
- https://www.reliableplant.com/Read/8259/fail-achieve-goals
- https://www.coachingpositiveperformance.com/5-critical-reasons-fail-reach-your-goals/
- https://www.goalcast.com/2016/09/12/top-10-reasons-people-fail-reach-goals/
- https://stunningmotivation.com/why-fail-to-achieve-goals/
- https://www.awakenthegreatnesswithin.com/people-to-surround-yourself-with-for-success/
