Setting goals is the key to achieving your aims, but what if you’ve set the goals and are still falling short? The problem could be in the goals themselves. Take a look at the checklist below and see if you’ve made any of the common errors that can inhibit your success.
Featured Image VIA
What You Can Control
It’s important to distinguish between the things that are in your control and those that are not. For the latter, you can increase the likelihood of your success, but you can never entirely guarantee it. Failing to understand this can lead to frustration. For example, if you are looking for a job, you might have a goal to send out a certain amount of resumes each week. You may also have a goal about how many interviews you will go to each week and a date by which you expect to have a job.
The problem with this is that the interviews and the job itself are ultimately not something you oversee. You can send out the best resumes that you can write, but you still might not get an interview. If you do get an interview, you may shine at it, but you still may not get the job. A good way of dealing with this is to separate your goals and understand the difference in the ones that are not 100% within your control.
The Right Tools
Do you have what you need for the job? For example, if you’ve decided that you want to go running three times a week, you’re not going to keep it up if you don’t have a decent pair of running shoes. If you want to trade your smoking habit for vaping with dry herbs, you need a vaporizer. You can shop the entire selection of vaporizers to give yourself a more refined and cleaner experience. Give some thought to the tools you’ll need to achieve each of your aims.
Specificity
Another reason people commonly fail to reach their goals is that they are not specific enough in setting them. For example, it’s common for people to say something like “I’ve got to get in shape.” But what does that mean? Maybe it means you want to run a marathon, but perhaps it just means you want to be able to run up three flights of stairs without gasping for breath. Even wellness goals that are separate from physical activity, like making your mornings better, should be specific. Goals need to be specific and measurable and have a deadline. Instead of “get in shape,” try “I want to run a 5K by March.”
Overdoing It
Are you one of those people who gets excited about a project and throws yourself into it only to lose interest after a short time? If so, you may have thrown yourself into goal setting with enthusiasm. The problem is that setting too many of them is also setting yourself up to fail. It’s best to start by focusing on just one goal, adding others as you become comfortable working toward the first but not letting your go over five or six total at any one time.
