Despite putting your hundred per cent, despite not leaving a single stone unturned, you may often fail to reach your goals. Some see it as a temporary phase and handle it well to start with renewed vigour to achieve success, while others choose to quit. But, believe it or not, quitting is the biggest reason why you fail to achieve your goals.
Instead of giving up, you must focus on the reasons why you fail to achieve your goals. Getting some perspective on failure may pave your way to success in future.
Five Reasons Why You Fail to Achieve Your Goals
1. Lack of Vision
Short-sightedness is one of the primary reasons why you fail to attain your goals. Therefore, having a clear view of what exactly your goals are is of utmost importance. To have a goal starts with asking yourself what you want to pursue and prioritising yourself accordingly.
Many people have a mistaken notion of goal setting. They believe that setting up a destination, a certain timeline to reach there and a checklist of do’s and don’ts is what goal setting is all about. Sadly, goal setting is not rigid one-time paperwork. You have to keep your vision steady but the roadmap flexible enough to adapt and change as and when needed.
2. Lack of Planning
Once your goals are set, you have to come up with a step-by-step plan. Career goals, like corporate success, getting a PhD or cracking a competitive exam require extensive planning. For proper planning, you need to concentrate on your strengths and weaknesses and manage them accordingly. Ask yourself how your key strengths can contribute to or align with your goals. Also, try to detect how your weaknesses may hinder you from achieving success.
Never lose sight of the fact that additional help is always welcome. Keep a record of the additional sources which can contribute to making your journey to success easier.
3. Lack of Focus
Even if you have made your goals clear and you have a proper strategy to push towards them, you might fail due to a lack of focus. This is not a flaw or a shortcoming but something common. Even the most success-driven, goal-oriented individuals fall prey to a lack of focus for several reasons.
First, life is unpredictable, and you do not know when it will throw a curveball at you. Second, it is impossible to retain an equal amount of focus towards your goals throughout the journey because several mishaps can come your way. For example, you might lose a job or a loved one, have an emotional setback, have health issues, family issues and so on.
Do not lose heart as you are not the only one bogged down by circumstances. There’s nothing wrong with losing focus under any extreme circumstances; you need to acknowledge it and put yourself back on track. Instead, if you whine and blame your situation or yourself and withhold from pursuing your goals any further, you are doomed to fail. Lack of focus is a matter of time, but this temporary crisis can be a potential reason why you fail to achieve your goals if not handled in the right way.
4. Losing Motivation
The most significant reason why you fail to achieve your goals is quitting midway. The reason for this is simple — a drop in motivation. Losing motivation can strike you at any time in the course of your journey. You may have made a stellar start but the momentum decreases midway.
Several reasons behind losing motivation include
- Discouragement from naysayers
- Losing sight of the ‘why’ behind your efforts
- Personal tragedies and circumstances
- Overthinking about the rewards/ results
Motivation doesn’t come from outside; it is something we have to find from within. So, why should external factors like people’s opinions or uncontrollable circumstances affect it?
5. Fear of Failure
Last and not least, it is the fear of failure that often cripples your journey. Instead of overthinking about the results, focus on the efforts. The fear of failure stems from an obsessive desire to excel in your pursuit. Do not burden your efforts with an overwhelming vision of success because that will hold you back from taking calculated risks to achieve your goals.
Conclusion
Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final, and failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts”. Make this your mantra for pursuing your goals. People offer several formulas for success, but no one talks about how to treat failure. Look at failure as a temporary inability to achieve your goals. Take it as feedback, a lesson in what you shouldn’t do to fail to achieve your goals. Always remember it’s a win-win situation, where either you succeed or learn how to succeed.
References:
https://www.reliableplant.com/Read/8259/fail-achieve-goals
https://www.lifehack.org/880259/why-we-fail-to-achieve-our-goals
https://www.wanderlustworker.com/5-reasons-why-we-fail-to-achieve-our-goals/
https://www.coachingpositiveperformance.com/5-critical-reasons-fail-reach-your-goals/