8 Deadly Goal Setting Mistakes Killing Your Success

How have you been in achieving the goals you’ve set?

If you’re still going strong, congratulations! You deserve a pat on the back.

Of the many of those that took the time to do some goal-setting to greet the New Year right, 80% would have given up on them by February, and only 8% would have achieved their goals at the end of this year.

Why such a high mortality rate?

For many years, I was a part of the majority.

I would spend the last few days of the previous year setting goals I want to achieve. I would be all fired up, energized, and ready to crush my goals. However, no matter how I determined, I thought I was, I’d always find myself slipping and struggling to stay focused on achieving my goals.

As it turns out, I kept struggling because I was making many goal-setting mistakes. And I wasn’t alone.

Today, I’ll share with you eight goal-setting mistakes I made and watch others make and tips on what to do so you stay focused and accomplish your goals.

8 goal-setting mistakes

1. Setting way too many goals.

For many of us, a brand new year is a clean slate.

As you begin setting your goals and writing down everything you want to accomplish, you’re very optimistic that this coming year will be better. However, in your excitement and eagerness to start the new year with a bang, you find yourself with a list of more goals than you can handle.

Rather than inspire you, setting too many goals can make you feel overwhelmed. It makes you prone to getting burned out more often.

Before long, even the mere thought of doing something to accomplish your goals can make you feel anxious and depressed.

How to fix this:

Goal setting is meant to bring focus to your life. So if you’re starting to feel your list of set goals is beginning to overwhelm you, it’s time to re-assess and evaluate your goals.

Go through your list and pick only three goals that you want to accomplish first. This can help you stay focused on them more easily.

I suggest writing these three goals down on a separate sheet of paper. That way, you don’t see the rest of the other goals you want to accomplish. Otherwise, you’ll start getting that overwhelming feeling again.

Once you’ve accomplished these three goals, take out your “master list” and then choose another three. Repeat the same process until you’ve gone through all the goals you’ve set for yourself.

2. Your goals are too broad or vague.

Do you have any goals listed that look like these?

“I want to lose weight.”

“Start my online business this year.”

“Earn more money.”

If you do, this could be another reason you’re struggling to accomplish your goals because they’re not clear and specific enough.

How to fix this:

Being very specific on your goals is crucial, for it sets a benchmark for you to know when you’ve achieved it.

For example, if earning more money is one of your goals, how much more money do you want to earn? $500? $1,000? $100,000? Putting a percentage or a specific number will help you know when you’ve achieved this goal.

Second, it also helps you determine your action plan to take to progress towards this goal.

If starting an online business is one of your set goals, some of the things you need to be clear about are:

What kind of product or service will you offer?

Is this going to be a full-time business or part-time?

Who is going to be your customer?

Once you’re clear about this, then you’ll be in a better position to take action. Perhaps you have to take a few courses to learn new skills, or you’ll need to adjust your schedule to devote a certain number of hours each day to it.

An excellent way to make sure that your goals are clear is by following the SMART method.

SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. Here are some questions to look for in the goals you’ve written to make sure that they’re SMART:

• What do you want to achieve? (Specific)
• How much or how many? (Measurable)
• Do I have the time and resources to accomplish this goal? (Attainable)
• Is this something that I can achieve if I focus on this? (Realistic)
• When should I reach this goal (Time-bound)

3. You’re not evaluating your progress.

You’ll encounter lots of challenges and setbacks on your path to reaching your goals. They can often become extremely challenging, and it’s very easy for you to feel like you’re not making any progress.

That’s why it’s crucial to take the time to track and evaluate your progress. When you can see how far you’ve come from where you started, it lifts you, revitalizes you, and encourages you to press forward.

Another reason why it’s crucial to evaluate your goals is that you’ll find yourself coming across some great opportunities along the way. However, not all of these opportunities may be aligned with the goals you’ve initially set. Unless you take the time to review these opportunities for the goals you’ve set, you may find yourself drifting away from your goals as you pursue them.

How to fix this:

Journaling is one of the best ways I found to help me evaluate and review my goals. Every night before I go to bed, I take a few minutes to write about the good and bad things that happen.

Whenever I need some encouragement, I would take out my journal and read through my entries. Reading about all the challenges I overcame invigorates me and shows me just how far I’ve come.

Displaying a vision board of my goals where you can easily see them helps. Each time you come across an opportunity that sounds great, look at your vision board and ask yourself whether this opportunity fits anywhere in your vision board.

4. Not embracing failure.

Perhaps one of the essential goals setting mistakes people make is quickly giving up on the first sign of failure.

The thing is, experiencing failures and setbacks are part of the journey to successfully achieving your goals. This is one thing that all the successful men and women we’ve come to admire share in common.

Take Oprah Winfrey, for example. She was fired as an anchorwoman from a local television network before becoming the most successful and influential female talk show host of all time.

J. K. Rowling was broke, divorced, a single mom, and received 12 rejection letters from publishers for her book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Today, the Harry Potter series is now among the most well-loved books of Muggles of all ages, making her the wealthiest female author.

Or how about Vera Wang? She tried to become a fashion writer but was rejected by Vogue magazine to become their editor-in-chief. Ironically, the very same magazine that refused her now includes many of her bridal gowns and other dresses she designs in their issues.

How to fix this:

Rather than giving up on the first setback you encounter, understand that this is just a part of your journey. It also just means that you’re only human.

Brush yourself, get back up, and learn from your mistakes. After all, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. However, that will just happen if you believe it.

5. Living out other people’s goals.

If you want to know more, check it out here.