Setting goals is not a problem for most of us, achieving them is. Let’s increase your success by breaking down the 4 biggest goal-setting mistakes you must avoid.
If all it took is writing down goals and then going out to achieve them, most of us would be winning at life, but as it turns out the journey to succeed at a goal is more complex.
There will be challenges along the way; these challenges make most people give up on their goals.
On my journey, I have realized that the chances of success when working towards any personal goal increase if you can avoid the following mistakes.
Setting Goals based on Emotions
Feelings and emotions are unreliable and therefore, not valid as a standard for choosing goals. Think carefully about your values, why is a goal worth pursuing? “because I feel like it” is not a valid reason, you must dig deeper.
Today you will feel sad, tomorrow joyful, lazy the next day and energetic the day after, does your goal transcend all these emotions?
Is this goal worth pursuing even when you don’t feel like it?
If you said yes, then write it down, commit and go ahead, take massive action even when you don’t feel like it.
In choosing goals, well thought out values should be your guide, not your feelings or desires.
Most people make the mistake of setting their goals based on emotion. Often, they end up pursuing the goal only when they “feel like it,” which will be ten percent of the time.
Leaving room for Contradiction (plan B)
When you decide to pursue a goal, you should not; leave room for Contradiction. Most people set goals with a plan B in mind, just in case the goal does not work out.
Having a plan B means you have already set up your goal to fail.
The decision to pursue a goal also means cutting off all other contradictory options, if you want to lose weight, for example, are you committed to cutting out junk food?
To exercising after a long day at work instead of watching Tv? You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
So, evaluate every goal you set, are you willing to cut out all contradictions to your goal?
Failure to make a detailed plan on how to achieve your goal
Do not hold a goal without a comprehensive plan with considerable means to achieve it.
Since the universe does not provide an automatic satisfaction of your wishes and desires, any goals you set must be achieved by your effort.
We all know and agree that one plus one equals two when it comes to setting goals we want one plus one to equal to five.
For a long time, I wanted to lose weight but continued to eat junk food and refused to exercise.
How did I expect to lose weight? By hoping one plus one can equal five.
A person who dreams of becoming wealthy but doesn’t plan in detail how she plans to achieve wealth.
She also does not make time to acquire the necessary skills and habits essential to acquire wealth.
She also expects one plus one to equal five.
If you want to succeed at the goals you set, have a plan and a willingness to do the work.
Do not hold the desire to achieve any more or less than your effort can earn. Avoid the mistake of expecting one plus one to equal five.
Avoiding Struggle
The decision to pursue a goal means accepting the struggle and pain related to achieving that goal. For each goal you set, you commit to struggle and the possibility of defeat.
Working hard towards a goal does not also give an automatic guarantee of success.
Most people make the mistake of pursuing goals expecting a journey of roses towards the goal. They get shocked by the amount of pain and struggle it takes to achieve a goal. To avoid struggle, many give up.
The ones that succeed know that there will be challenges, so they choose goals that are worthwhile to justify the struggle.
When pursuing a goal you set, do not judge the outcome of the goal based on any defeat of the moment. Instead, you must persist through the struggle until you succeed.
Avoiding these goal-setting mistakes will increase your chances of achieving them. Have you made any of these mistakes? Let me know in the comment section.
Cheers!
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