Why Some People Have Trouble Accomplishing Goals and How to Fix the Problem
Setting your goals is usually not too difficult. However, the journey that leads to your destination is where it gets challenging. People fail to meet their goals for various reasons. Has this ever happened to you? If yes, then this is a great opportunity for you to learn from your mistakes and understand what needs to be fixed to achieve your goals in the future.
This article discusses common reasons people struggle to accomplish their goals and recommendations on how to fix them.
Your Action Plan is Weak
Planning is essential to accomplishing your goals. Without an efficient plan in place, it is incredibly difficult to stay on track. This problem occurs mostly with long-term goals that are best accomplished when broken down into smaller goals to reach the full goal.
When you have a goal with a deadline three months from now, a lot can happen between now and then. When you track your progress through goal segments, it helps you to stay on track, measure your progress, and make adjustments as needed. Without a strong plan, you will quickly lose focus and it will be much harder to accomplish your goal.
Give Up Too Soon
Accomplishing any goal requires time, and the larger the goal, the longer it will take to achieve. The problem is that people tend to underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete a task. It’s easy to get frustrated if you initially think you will reach your goal in a few short months, but then realize it will take twice as long. Too often this is where people throw in the towel.
Instead of calling it quits, reevaluate the goal. Reflect upon the progress you have made and identify any roadblocks that may have come up. By doing this, you will be able to figure out what’s helping you move forward and what’s holding you back. Next, evaluate the amount of time you need based on the amount of time it took you to reach the place where you are currently at now. Remember to be realistic with the new timeframe and make adjustments accordingly.
You Take Criticism Too Personally
If you’re struggling to achieve a personal goal you have set, it’s helpful to get an outside perspective. This outside perspective is best delivered in the form of constructive feedback to help you move forward. The mistake most people make with receiving constructive feedback is taking the criticism personally, rather than productively.
When given correctly, people offer criticism as a means of providing help through critiquing the work you have completed, not you personally. Be open-minded and take the critiques to heart while trying to improve on them. If what you are currently doing is not working, it is in your best interest to try a new approach to get you the results you desire.
The Goal Isn’t Being Tracked
If you aren’t keeping track of the goal that you are hoping to achieve, how do you know how close you are getting. If your goal is to lose weight and get healthy, you might be able to see a difference in the mirror, but that’s not enough. You need to quantify your goals and make sure that you are tracking your progression no matter the type of goal you want to achieve. Whether you are writing a book, losing weight, trying to increase your bench press, or anything else, track it. Not only will it be easier to see your progress, but it can serve as motivation for you.
You Don’t Have Patience
Achieving goals, even reaching the steppingstones that you have created, takes time. One of the problems with many people in today’s world is that they want everything tomorrow. It’s a world of fast food and next-day delivery that has started to condition our minds like this. Reaching your goals takes time, and that means that you need to have patience. Not having patient affects many of us, though, which is why it is important to keep track of your progress toward your goals mentioned earlier. When you feel that you aren’t any closer to your goal, look back to when you first started tracking the goal to see how far you have come.
Lacking Consistency
Consistency and sustainability are both required to successfully accomplish any goal. If you casually work on your goals periodically, you will likely not see the results you desire, or worse, you may not see any results at all. To ensure progress, stay focused and dedicate the appropriate amount of time to your goal.
Consistency does not necessarily mean that you need to work on your goal for a certain amount of time each day. The amount of time you allot to a goal depends on the type of goal and the timeframe you have set to accomplish it. For examples, some goals might only require 20-minutes one day per week, while others might require 20 hours per week. Regardless of how little or how much time you need to spend, strive to be consistent.
You Are Surrounded by Negative People
Negative people are toxic and often hold you back from reaching your goals. Consider who you are spending your time with and ask yourself if they energize you or suck the life right out of you.
Try to surround yourself with like-minded people who support and encourage you to accelerate towards your goals. If these types of people are not currently in your life, think about where you could meet these people — online, work, gym, volunteering, etc.
You Struggle with Change
Change is an inherent part of goal-getting. When you set a personal goal, it automatically challenges you and makes you confront some of your limiting beliefs and decisions. In other words, it forces you to become the kind of person who has or does whatever your goal is. However, you can’t expect to achieve your goals or make progress unless you are willing and embrace making necessary changes.
Start slow and ease into change. Don’t try to change your whole life routine all at once. There’s no point, because adjusting to sustainable long-term change should always be a gradual process. Start with making small modifications and go at your own pace to build from there.
You Don’t Celebrate Your Wins
It’s important to celebrate your successes each step of the way. Remember, this is about the journey as much as it is about the end goal. If all you do is fret about the future, you’ll surely hit burnout before you hit success.
Give yourself a pat on the back for all those little wins because they are a big deal. And when you reach a major milestone, take time to acknowledge it. This reinforces that all of your hard work is paying off and you should be proud of yourself. Also, celebrating your accomplishments will help keep you motivated and focused to keep moving forward in accomplishing your goal.
Negative Self-Talk
If the conversations in your head are negative, then the chances are high that you may have developed a habit of negative self-talk—putting yourself down, kicking yourself over mistakes, blaming yourself for not doing better—that only makes you feel hopeless and defeated. If you form a negative opinion of yourself, you won’t think you deserve better than what you have, and you’ll eventually struggle to reach your goals.
To make changes in your life, you often have to start by shifting your perspective. Instead of beating yourself up, focus on things you have accomplished. Surround yourself with positive people who make you feel good about yourself.
Distractions Are Getting in the Way
Distractions can seem impossible to avoid and the more distractions that you have, the less likely that you will be able to focus.
If you want to achieve great things in life, the first thing that you need to do is remove all distractions. The trick is to eliminate the possibility of temptations occurring altogether. Text messages, social media, and emails all have one purpose – they take your attention away from something that needs to get done. Don’t fall victim to becoming addicted to distraction. Rather, carve out specific blocks of time when you turn off your phone or computer. By putting yourself into a focused state, you will surprise yourself how much you can accomplish in a short period of time.
Work with a Coach for the Best Results
As you can see, there are many different factors that could be involved when it comes to reasons why you are struggling to achieve your goals. Once you are able to identify these issues, it will start to become easier to identify potential solutions to ultimately achieve your goal. However, this is often easier said than done when doing this alone.
This is an ideal opportunity for you to partner with a certified Health & Wellness Coach. A coach will be able to help you identify the problems that are preventing you from reaching your goals and offer guidance on how you can get back on track. It can be extremely helpful to work with a supportive coach who genuinely wants the best for you, especially during difficult times. It is truly okay to ask for help and a Health & Wellness Coach is the perfect person who would be beyond delighted to have the opportunity to work with someone like you.