Why Am I Not Achieving My Goals?
People often ask ‘Why Am I Not Achieving My Goals?’.
The main reason why we don’t achieve our goals is because we don’t know how to set them effectively and once set, we don’t know how to bring them to fruition. If you don’t have a solid basis for setting your goals then all the willpower and determination in the world won’t get you there. But follow a few simple steps and you’ll be easily achieving everything that you desire.
Make your goals SMART
It’s an oldie but a goodie! The first step to successfully achieving your goals is to make them SMART. There are lots of good articles out there that talk about SMART goals and I’m not going to go into the specifics of them here. But in a nutshell, your goals should be Specific, Measurable, Relevant, Achievable and Time-bound.
Set the foundations
You should also consider if you have the right foundations for achieving your goals. Do you have the right mindset, do you have the appropriate skills and do you have all the tools you need at your disposal. Without these 3 things your chances of success are reduced. When you are defining your goals, take time to do a mindset, skillset and toolset audit to ensure you have everything you need at your disposal. If you don’t, then consider what you need to do to either develop them yourself, or source them from elsewhere.
Creating the right environment
Environment is also important. Your environment is made up of your physical location and the people you have around you. Is your workspace conducive to achieving or are you constantly distracted by the phone, email, noise etc. Who is on your team and who is cheering you on? Share your goals with the people around you and most importantly, ask for help if you need it.
Write them down
I don’t know how many times I say this to people – if you don’t write your goals down, then how will you remember exactly what it is that you wanted to achieve. We hold so much information in our heads all the time and we are constantly being bombarded with more and more information that our brains can sometime feel overloaded. If you don’t have your goals written down, it’s highly likely you’ll forget exactly what it was that you wanted to achieve and will settle for a watered down version of what you wanted, if you achieve anything towards it at all.
Create a plan of how you’re going to achieve them
Once you’ve set your goals and written them down, you look at them and take a deep breath and wonder how on earth you are going to make them happen. But you’ve actually done the hardest part. The next part is to break each goal down into manageable chunks.
If you have a goal to increase revenue by £x (where x seems like a really scary number) in the next 3 years, you can go one of 2 ways – you can either think that it isn’t urgent because you’ve got 3 years to do it, or you can become overwhelmed with the size of the task and then retreat into the safety of your comfort zone where no growth ever happens. Breaking your goals down into smaller goals, reduces the fear factor and increases the motivation. A smaller goal that has a deadline much closer means that you can celebrate your success much earlier knowing you are on target for your main goal.
Structuring your plan
For a 3 year goal, a great structure for your plan is to break it down into yearly goals, still following the SMART goal setting structure. Then break the first year down into quarterly chunks. The final step is to create a detailed plan for your first quarter and break it down into monthly tasks. You can go a bit deeper and break it down into weekly and daily tasks if you absolutely love to get into detail.
Prioritise
How much of a priority is your goal? And how do you prioritise achieving your goal on a daily basis? If you haven’t read the book Eat That Frog!: Get More Of The Important Things Done Today by Brian Tracy, then you definitely should. Each day, you should prioritise the most important tasks that will move you towards your goals and only once you have completed those, should you move on to your less important tasks. Taking daily action towards your goals will steadily get you there.
Celebrate your successes
The road to your goals won’t be straight, it is likely to have peaks and troughs and a number of bends in the road. Keep your momentum going and have your goals front and centre in your mind and you will come out stronger for it. Taking time to celebrate your achievement will help keep you motivated and moving forwards. Don’t be humble about your achievements. Shout them from the rooftops and be proud that you have achieved yet another milestone.
Recognise your saboteurs?
Do you have a habit of disappearing down a Google rabbit hole? Or is the latest Netflix boxset your guilty pleasure? Or do you have people around you who “steal” your time?
Whether it’s your own procrastination or you’re allowing others to dominate your time, it’s down to you to take control. Set a specific amount of time that you will work undisturbed and then schedule a break. Start small and gradually build up. A 30 minute, fully focused, undisturbed session of work is far better than 3 hours where you are on social media or google every 5 minutes. Turn off notifications, tell those around you that you aren’t to be disturbed and crack on. Gradually build up your time to around 90 minutes and you’ll be amazed at how much you can achieve.
The beauty of undisturbed focused work is that you soon enter a state of flow where you become totally engaged in what you’re doing.
If you need any help in setting or achieving your goals, then I’m here to help.
Picture a future where you know your precise destination, you have a detailed plan of how to get there and you have the resources you need at your fingertips.
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