It’s that time of year again. Everyone is looking at what they want to achieve in the coming months. Many of you have realized that New Year’s resolutions don’t work and have stopped making them. Good for you. That is the good news. The bad news is that traditional goal setting doesn’t really work either. Think about it. How much of the time do you and or the people around you get what you really want? 40%, 25%, or is it really more like 10-15%? If you are setting goals and only getting some of what you want something is off. Today, instead of telling you how to set goals, because, let’s face it, you all know how to do that, we’ll talk about the top 5 reasons people don’t make their goals. And trust me…it’s not what you think.

#5 Creating goals that are driven by circumstance instead of desire.
Basing goals on what is happening at the current moment (circumstance) taints those goals and is quite often not what you really want to achieve, but what you think you can do given the circumstance. If goals do not come out of a strong desire they will likely be abandoned before they are achieved.

#4 Putting get before give.
Goal setting mistakenly focuses us on getting first and giving second. That is backwards. You have to put give before get always. Easy to say, yet tough to do. Who and what do you want to contribute to, and what do they get from your contribution? Your goals have to put give before get always.

#3 Thinking you have to take the right action.
Many people get stuck thinking that the action has to be the exact right action before they will take any action. This is a classic way people underachieve. They are so afraid of making a mistake they won’t take any action. This puts people in a giant double bind. Think about it, there is no way to possibly know if the action was right or wrong until you take it. Any action is better than no action. Leap and the net will appear.

#2 Going for what you think you want instead of what you really want.
Similar to #5 most people are going for what they think they want, what they think they should do or what others want them to do. These kinds of goals are easily abandoned because people will only get themselves what they don’t want for so long.

And the number one reason people do not make their goals…..

#1 The goals are too low.
Contrary to popular belief, setting attainable goals creates ordinary performance. The goal setting specialists have it wrong.  when they recommend that you make a  goal that is achievable. If you set a goal that you can already see you can achieve, that is not a goal that is a task, and tasks are boring.

Truth is most people don’t make their goals because they are not challenging or exciting enough.

Make a goal bigger than you believe is achievable, handle the four preceding problems and you’ll make it.