5 Mistakes To Avoid When Setting Goals

Setting goals is the only way to make positive changes in your life, long-term.

One of the biggest reasons why a lot of people fail to accomplish their goals is because they don't know how to set them in the first place.

Research shows that 92 percent of people that set New Year's goals never actually achieve them.

I want you to be a part of the 8% that do. When you are armed with the knowledge of what NOT to do, it will ensure that you don't make the same goal-setting mistakes, twice.

Ready to learn 5 mistakes that you must avoid when setting goals?

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Do you need help setting and achieving your goals? CLICK HERE to join the 100 Day Challenge!

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Setting goals is a lot easier than achieving goals.

In order to see your goals through, it will require a huge amount of commitment, effort, discipline, and hard work on your part. Unfortunately, a lot of people give up on their goals too early. When they don't see results fast enough, they think, “What's the point?” In short, they fail before they even get a chance to start.

Nobody is saying that you can't live out your days sticking with easy and normal routines. However, eventually, this way of living will make you feel bored, uninspired, and unhappy. This is why goals are so important. They present you with challenges to grow and become more. I like to think about goals as if they were stepping stones on the road to success.

Let's be honest… all of us want to achieve great things in life. We want our lives to matter. Why else would we be here? The challenge is knowing how you can make the transition from simply desiring something to actually taking action and achieving your goals. Setting goals is easy to do. However, if you don't set them in the right way, the process can turn into one of the biggest time-wasting activities of your life.

This is why I want to share 5 mistakes that you must avoid when setting goals. By avoiding these pitfalls, you will set yourself up for success.

1. Not Having A Vision 

Oftentimes, people set goals without thinking about the big picture. They don't have a solid understanding of the who they want to become. In short, they haven't taken the time to figure out what their life vision is. If you are setting goals without a clear destination in mind, how do you expect to know where you are going? Everyone needs a map. As Fitzhugh Dodson says, “Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” 

When it comes to setting goals, it's not enough to just think about the next month or the year ahead. If you want to do big things in this world, then you need to think big! That means looking 10, 20, or 30 years down the road. Always start with the end in mind.

Let me give you an example. Let's say that the vision that you have for your life is to create financial abundance, travel the world, and retire young. If you set a goal to go to university and get a business degree, that decision does not align with your bigger vision. Keep in mind that with school comes a lot of debt. You may get a great job out of it, but now you are working for someone else. 

Trust me when I say that you don't need a college degree if you want to become an entrepreneur. School is necessary for some professions, but entrepreneurship is definitely an exception to the rule. Entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college and went on to be wildly successful, and so can you. It comes down to getting crystal clear on what your vision is and then taking steps to make that vision a reality.

2. Setting Unrealistic Goals

If you set unrealistic goals, you are setting yourself up to fail. This is why I always make sure that I can hit my goals. Don't get me wrong… my goals still push me, but they are always within a certain sweet spot. Whatever goal you set, always ask yourself, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how much desire do I have to follow through with this goal?”

Your sweet spot should be between a 7, 8, 9 or 10. If it's less than a 7, you won't have the motivation to follow through. For example, you may have a desire to make one million dollars this year, but you also have to believe that you can achieve this goal. If you don't, you won't put in the work to make it happen. If your belief is a 1 or 2, I promise that conflict will ensue. I challenge you to take one of your goals this year and apply this goal setting formula.

Think of setting and achieving goals as if you were hitting a target.

A lot of people place a target so far away from themselves that they can't even see it. If you don't have the confidence and experience to hit the target, you will continue to miss it. This will only frustrate and discourage you. Ultimately, you will give up. The reason why this happens to people is that their goals are too far-reaching.

As I said earlier, long-term goals are important, but you've also got to make sure that you have immediate goals (1 year) that you know you can achieve. I encourage you to take your target and bring it one step closer to you. By setting and achieving small goals, your brain's dopamine levels will skyrocket, which will increase your motivation. 

Research shows that each time your brain gets a whiff of a rewarding neurotransmitter, it will want you to repeat the associated behavior. Once you have the confidence and ability to hit your target, close up, over time you can move it back. At the end of the year, I want to see you hit at least 90% of your goals.

Always finish what you start. If you set a goal, make sure that it is attainable, and that you can actually achieve it. If you do this, you will build trust and confidence in yourself.

3. Missing A Strong “Why” 

You need to know why you want to achieve your goals. Your reasons are your fuel for the fire. A lot of people set goals that they don't want bad enough. If you aren't excited about your goals, everything will feel like a struggle. You will end up pushing yourself to achieve something, instead of being pulled towards it.

Every time I set a goal, I always ask myself the following questions, “Why must I achieve this goal?” “What are the benefits of achieving this goal? What are the consequences of not following through with this goal?” If you want something bad enough you will do whatever it takes to achieve it.

Whenever you get tired or demotivated, I encourage you to take out your list and connect with your reasons. I promise that it will inspire you to take action. If you still don't have strong enough reasons for your goals, keep searching for them, or change the goals altogether.

In his book, Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want, Michael Hyatt talks about how to “quit-proof” your goals so that you can close the gap between reality and your dreams. In his words, “Your life matters. You are here for a reason. Your job is to determine why.” 

4. Not Having A Plan

A goal is just the target. In order to hit the target, you need to develop certain habits and strategies. This will require that you backward engineer your goals and break them down into smaller chunks. When I set goals, I don't just create a to-do list. Rather, I create a could-do list. This change in my perspective opens up my mind to new possibilities.

For each of my goals, I ask myself all of the things that I could do to achieve them. For example, let's say you want to lose weight. You could do intermittent fasting, start a ketogenic diet, eat plant-based foods, read weight loss articles, go to the gym 5 days per week, do HIIT cardio 3 days per week, or hire a personal trainer.

Once you have your list, identify what the most important habits are that will lead to the achievement of your goal. When you go through this process, make sure that you apply the 80/20 rule. This principle says that 20% of your list will yield 80% of your results. Keep in mind that all actions are not created equal.

Let's face it… you won't get the body that you want by just reading books. Rather, you've got to take action, like changing your diet and going to the gym. I recommend that you leverage the strategies and plans of those that have already achieved a goal that you aspire to.

Don't make up your own plan. Rather, find a proven strategy that works. This is why I'm always trying to model people that are more successful than myself. That is how I have been able to fast track my results in life.

5. Failing To Take Action 

Taking action is the only thing that leads to results. Setting goals are the easy part. Anybody can do that. However, actually doing what you say you will do takes commitment, discipline, and hard work. Whereas a dabbler gives up when the going gets tough, a master always follows through and achieves their goals. Be honest with yourself… are you a dabbler or a master?

I encourage you to create a ritual in your life that will allow you to follow-up and track your goals. You can do this weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly. The purpose of this process is to go over each of your goals and assess the progress that you are making with each of them.

Evaluate yourself in relation to each goal, but don't forget to celebrate the progress that you make along the way. Monthly and quarterly check-ins work best for me because it ensures that I am able to make adjustments towards the achievement of my goals.

I never get to the end of the year and think, “Wow, I completely forgot about my goals.” Don't let another year pass you by where you come up short on your goals. This is your year, so make it count.

Are you ready to crush your goals?

If so, I encourage you to join the 100 day challenge. Gary Ryan Blair is known as “The Goals Guy” and is the Founder of the 100 Day Challenge. He is considered to be one of the world's experts on the topic of goals. His training program changed my life. It taught me how to set and achieve goals the right way.

I continue to revisit Gary's program because of the positive impact that it has had on every area of my life. Before I took the 100 Day Challenge, I had built up a habit of being a failure. I knew that if I could stick to something for 100 days, then there would be nothing that I couldn't do. That belief proved to be true.

The program requires that you set a certain amount of goals that you commit to for 100 days. They create a process that allows you to check-in, review, and make adjustments to your goals over the course of the 100 days. If you decide to take part in the challenge with me, you can use the coupon code MASTERY to save $50 on checkout!

By avoiding the above 5 mistakes and creating daily success habits, I believe that you will have all the elements that you need to achieve your goals. You will be blown away by the progress that you can make if you commit to sticking with your goals. 

In the words of Tony Robbins, “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” What goals do you want to achieve this year? 

Do you need help setting and achieving your goals? CLICK HERE to join the 100 Day Challenge!