New year’s resolutions. Weight loss. Start a community program. Business growth. Buy a house. We’ve all set a goal at some point.
Goals seem so simple, and yet, we have such a hard time achieving them. Why is that? Even when we really want something and even when we try really hard, we often fall short of our expectation.
We have difficulty achieving our goals for three main reasons:
1. We aren’t really committed to and focused on them.
“We’re going to increase our enrollment by 50 students.”
“Reading achievement will increase by two performance levels.”
“We’re going to improve parent engagement.”
Then, we continue to do the same things in the same way we’ve always done them. And we’re surprised that we don’t achieve the goal we set. Many people set new year’s resolutions, say “this is going to be the year!” and then by February they’ve gone back to all their old habits. Sound familiar?
SOLUTION: Set a goal that you can commit to and make a conscious decision to follow through. Set smaller objectives that lead you towards a larger goal and motivate you to move forward. Break down the goal into individual tasks so it doesn’t seem so overwhelming. Change your practices to align with the goal. Decide to achieve.
2. We don’t have a plan.
If you are driving to an unfamiliar part of town for dinner, you get directions, right? You don’t just get in the car and start driving, hoping that you make it to the restaurant in time for your 7 P.M. reservation. No, you look it up on a map, set your GPS, or ask someone who’s been there what roads to take. Then, you follow those directions and arrive at your destination. We need to follow directions to get to our goal. You’ve probably heard the adage, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail?” It is true.
SOLUTION: Write a plan, step-by-step. What will it take you to get from where you are to where you want to go? It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it does need to be written. On paper, on your computer, just write it out. Personally, I really like writing things out with paper and pen; there’s something therapeutic and not so easily delete-able about it. You can always transfer it to your computer and make it pretty later.
3. We aren’t being held accountable for achieving them.
It is really easy to say we’re going to do something and then not follow through. We get busy. We get sidetracked. Other things influence our plan. It gets hard. “If it was easy everyone would be doing it,” comes to mind. Unless someone holds you accountable for the result, what will happen if we don’t reach the goal? Probably nothing. We fail and don’t want anyone else to know. We forgive ourselves because we’re the only ones that know. We move on. We forget it was even a goal (see #1 above).
SOLUTION: Commit to your goal. Get an accountability partner. Ask someone you respect to help you work towards your goal. Perhaps you can do the same for them. Don’t ask someone who will sympathize and let you off the hook when you start with the reasons (uh, excuses) it’s not working out. Ask someone who will push you and motivate you to get out of your comfort zone and can help you course-correct if you need to overcome a temporary, unanticipated challenge.
So, I just shared with you the three main reasons that people fail to achieve goals and some solutions to make sure you are prepared to overcome these common challenges.
What challenges have you experienced accomplishing your goals? Share your thoughts or questions below so I can help. Prefer to connect privately — email me!
Related posts: How to Write Goals that Work (Reflection + SMART)
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