Top 5 Reasons You Are Failing To Reach Your Goals
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Everyone wants to reach their goals, so how come only a few people are successful?
Most people spend most of their time planning and thinking about their goals instead of working hard to achieve them. As a result, they focus on too many goals, exhaust themselves by overthinking, and wait until the right moment to get started.
With a little commitment and extreme focus, you will reach your goals 10X faster.
Below are five known causes some people do not see their goals completely acknowledged. Beware and try to steer clear of these traps.
1. Don’t overwhelm yourself with distraction
Most people are addicted to distractions.
To achieve your most meaningful goals, you need to stop attempting to do too much at once. For example, don’t live like you surf the internet by having too many open tabs. Distractions make you overwhelmed and prevent you from being productive.
Instead of focusing on 100 goals, choose three goals and work hard to achieve them.
2. Have the grit to overcome difficult times
Grit is your ability to commit to your goals and endure in the face of hardship.
Many studies prove that gritty people have a greater chance of reaching their goals. To achieve your goals, commit to exerting consistent effort and stay focused on fewer goals.
Angela Duckworth identified four psychological assets behind grit that can help you stay focused for a longer time.
- Interest: Love what you do so you can persist in the face of difficulty.
- Practice: Focus on showing up every day and work on your goals.
- Purpose: You have to have a deeper reason to achieve your goals.
- Hope: When you fail, you need to be hopeful and positive to persist in the face of hardships.
Grit is an essential component of achieving your goals. Work hard to develop your grit by discovering your interest, practicing daily, and connecting with your purpose.
3. Measure progress and not perfection
Perfectionism is the enemy that steals your progress and kills your chances of success.
It is driven by striving for excellence, but it can be self-sabotaging. According to Alice Boyes, there are three reasons perfection kills your dreams.
- You often cannot designate any decision as unimportant.
- You feel morally obligated to overdeliver.
- You strictly stick to habits that might no longer be serving you.
The desire to be in control of every task and decision drains your energy and exhausts you emotionally. So, you need to work on fewer decisions and projects and measure your progress.
You don’t have to over-deliver on every project. At one, you will reach the point of diminishing returns. After that, it doesn’t matter how much more effort you will exert. Your improvement gets smaller and smaller.
These are the reasons that prevent perfectionists from adopting new habits that help them overcome their inability to get things done.
To overcome perfectionism, you need to understand that you don’t have to do everything alone, make every decision, or over-deliver on every task. Instead, adopt new habits that help you get things done.
4. Stop waiting for the right moment
Waiting for the right moment is a form of fear.
Fear that keeps you average but not fulfilled. It teaches you to avoid doing what you need to do. For example, a friend of mine had dreamed of working for CarMax, but they told him he was not qualified.
So he started his own company. Now his income exceeds 1 million dollars per year. It is time for you to declare that you are ready. Do not wait for other people to decide your future. You are ready now, but you do not feel like it.
If you want to make a difference, stop waiting for the right moment, and go after your dreams.
5. Stop waiting to be chosen
We live in a society that brainwashed us to believe that the easiest way to succeed is to get chosen.
It is ingrained in us to wait to get picked, to seek approval, and to wait for someone with authority to choose us. However, there is no need to wait for anyone to choose you. Choose yourself.
If you are hoping for someone to come and save you, no one is coming. So you have to save yourself.
Final thoughts
If you want to reach your goals faster.
- Don’t overwhelm yourself with distractions.
- Have the grit to overcome difficult times.
- Measure progress and not perfection.
- Stop waiting for the right moment.
- Stop waiting to be chosen.
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