5 MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE WHEN GOAL SETTING & HOW TO OVERCOME THEM

We’ve all been there, you have a goal you’d like to accomplish and you start out highly motivated and want to achieve it and then two days in you’re back to your old ways and that goal is back to being a dream. I’m as guilty as the next gnome when it comes to doing it, but there’s a few tricks I’ve picked up over the years that are helping me to break that habit. 

I’m going to share with you how I think about setting goals and working towards achieving those goals. Now I’m going to get this out upfront; I’m goal orientated and highly motivated but even I still get sidetracked, disheartened and lost on the road to achieving. This isn’t me telling you that I never do these things, in fact I do them all the time – the difference is I don’t let them stop me working towards achieving my dreams.

The good news is that there’s ways to overcome the road blocks we make for ourselves when it comes to achieving our goals.

5 Mistakes People Make When Goal Setting & How to Overcome Them

 

1. Focus on the destination not the journey.

When you’ve got a goal that you want to achieve and it seems to be out of your grasp it’s really easy to lose momentum because you’re focusing on the end goal, not on the steps you have to take to get there. It’s so easy to do and it’s one of the biggest hurdles to overcome when you want to achieve something.

I’m really fond of the saying “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” and it rings so true for reaching any goal.

Let me give you an example that most of us are really familiar with: you want to lose weight.

Unfortunately most of us could do with losing a few pounds and I’m pretty sure that at any given point in your life you’ve probably tried without success. (I know I have, and still do!) If you focus on the fact that you have to lose 10kg (or even more – I remember what it was like staring down the barrel of having to lose 65+kg) it seems really hard. But, if you break it down and make it more manageable and realistic you’ll find it so much easier to stay motivated and focused.

What am I talking about? Here’s how I’d do it.

I want to lose 10kg and I know that there’s no way I’ll lose 10kg in a week (unless I give birth to something or lose a limb!) so I look at the end goal and break it down. If I lose 0.5kg a week then in 20 weeks I will have lost 10kg.

Now, I know what you’re thinking… 20 weeks is a long time (well not really it’s only 4 months) when you think about it like that. But you know what, you’re going to spend those 20 weeks regardless of whether you’re spending them working towards losing 0.5kg a week or not. We’re all getting older, so in 20 weeks time would you like to be 20 weeks older and still 10kg too heavy or would you like to be 20 weeks older and 10kg lighter?

Focus on the small steps and before you know it you’ll have conquered the bigger steps. Every little thing you do to inch closer to that goal counts.

It’s like the classic saying goes, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” If you had to think about the fact you were walking a thousand miles you’d never start, but if you just focus on putting one foot in front of the other you’ll have walked a thousand miles before you know it.

2. Setting an unrealistic timeframe.

I’m all for being ambitious, but I also think you need to have a small dose of honesty when it comes to setting timeframes for goals. I know what it’s like to want to have something done by a certain time and when that time comes and goes and you haven’t achieved it you use that as an excuse to give up on your goal.

I love having a deadline and I love the pressure that comes with having a deadline, what I don’t like is busting my butt to reach a deadline that’s just never going to happen (and not because of how hard I’m working).

Life happens (thank goodness), so try to be smart about factoring this into any goal setting you’re doing.

I often work with a calendar when it comes to goal setting. I sit down with a pencil, eraser and calendar and I look at the date that I want to achieve something by and then I work backwards to today.

I look at the public holidays that fall in that time period, because I know these are the days most likely to involve some sort of social engagement or extra special quality family time. I look at the birthday’s that fall in that time period, because I know that these are going to involve some sort of social commitment. I look at what other regular commitments we have during that time period. Basically I look at all the things that are known to me and that may impact on my ability to reach my goal.

Now I might decide that these commitments are less important to my end goal and therefore I need to work out how to minimise their impact on my goal. This might be something as simple as rescheduling outside of my time frame or seeing if someone else can cover me.The opposite is equally true, those known commitments may be more important than reaching my goal in the time frame, so it’s time to re-evaluate the goal time frame. (That’s why  you have a pencil and an eraser – it’s all moveable!)

It’s about being brutally honest about what’s more important to you and whether you absolutely have to achieve this goal in the time period you’ve set or do you have some wiggle room.

At the end of the day for any goal to be effective it needs to have a timeframe attached to it, so with all your analysis done you still just have to make a date and work as hard as you can to hit it. If you don’t hit that date that’s not a big deal, just reevaluate and set another one – the key here is to not let the negative self talk talk you out of working for your goal. Keep moving forward.

3. Not taking into account any factors that are out of your control.

When goal setting it helps to do a bit of an assessment of the environment you’re working in. What things impact on your ability to achieve your goal.

Do you have to wait on someone else to deliver a key component of your goal? (Like waiting on supplies, a contractor or business.) Is there some weather event that’s going to happen that will make it harder for you to work to your timeframe? (In some places severe weather can impact on postal services, etc.) These are just some examples of things that are out of your control, the point here is to try and list the ones that you can think of and come up with a contingency plan for them.

I’m a control freak at the best of times so I’ve become really good at identifying areas of outside reliance when I set goals. The thing is, it doesn’t stop me from setting the goal. I try to come up with a contingency plan and when that fails I just try to roll with the punches. A lot of achieving your goals has to do with how flexible you are and how quickly you can shake something off and get back on to the horse.

Just because you’ve set a goal doesn’t mean it’s written in stone. It’s your goal, you can re-write it at any point in time. The main thing is that you don’t give up.

4. Your goal is not measurable and therefore you can’t focus on your achievements.

You have to make your goal quantifiable. That just means that you have to be able to measure what you’re trying to do.

For example just saying I’m going to get healthy is too lofty and you’re going to find it way too easy to get lost on the way to your goal.

Instead think of it in terms of what can I do to “get healthy”. Most people would say you would eat a healthier diet, lose weight and exercise more.

So when you set your goals think of it in the following terms:

– Eat 2 meals a day that contain 2 – 3 vegetables

– Lose a half a kilogram a week

– walk 10,000 steps in a day

All of the above tasks are measurable. You’ll be able to see whether you’ve achieved them or not. If you’ve achieved them, rock on, time to move on to the next step in your goal plan. If you didn’t you can look at why you didn’t, assess if you need to change your approach (how’s your timeframe or are there any factors out of your control) and then set yourself the goal again.

You may want to break it down even further if you’re having troubles. For example instead of just waking up one day and thinking “I’m going to walk 10,000 steps today” how about easing into it. Set a smaller goal – walk 5,000 steps each day for a week. Then next week set a goal of walking 8,000 steps each day for a week and then the next week set it to 10,000 steps a day.

Sure it’s taken you 2 weeks to reach your goal, but you’ve reached your goal. If you just gave up because you didn’t hit the goal first go you’d be 2 weeks older and no closer to your goal. Which one sounds more appealing to you?

 

5. Lack of accountability.

This one is a bit of a contentious one… Now I don’t think of I’m much of a new age spiritual type, but there’s a weird little thing that I’ve come to realise works but sounds like claptrap to me.

Accountability for your goals.

I used to fight against this one big time. I figured if I never wrote my goal down and if I never told a soul what I was trying to do no one would know when I failed to reach my goal and therefore I’d be saving myself a world of embarrassment.

But you know what, no one really cares whether you succeed or fail. Harsh or what, but it’s true. Your friends and family will support and love you, but they’re not going to dwell on you not hitting your goal like you will.

What will happen though if you write down your goal and/or tell someone about your goal is that you’re going to have a greater chance of making it happen. I don’t know the science behind it (and I’m pretty sure someone out there has done a study or two on it) but for some reason when you write your goal down it changes the way you think about it and approach it. It makes it real. You’ve articulated your goal. You’ve been brave and said “I want more from life”. It has power.

Something really amazing happens when you put the goal somewhere were you can see it every day, you become aware of doing things that will take you closer to achieving that goal.

Same as if you tell someone about it. There’s power in words. So why not harness that power and make it work for you.

With all this said and done there’s something you need to remember: you’re only human, you’re going to make mistakes and that’s ok. It’s about getting back up, dusting yourself off and having another crack at it.

The difference between someone who reaches their goals and someone who doesn’t – the person who reaches their goal does so because when they fall off the wagon they get back up again and keep trying. That’s the key to success, you have to keep going. Don’t listen to the voices in your head that are telling you you’re not worthy of your goal (in whatever guise they come) you have to work hard for it and chase it down.

Do you have any tips for goal setting and reaching your goals?