Five Unconscious Ways to Fail - or Succeed - at Your Goal Setting

Posted on January 02, 2020 by Jed Lazar, One of Thousands of Entrepreneurship Coaches on Noomii.

According to the Business Insider, around 80 percent of people fail to stick to their New Year’s resolutions by February. In the world of ugly statistics, this stands out as one we’d rather ignore. After hearing this we could say “why bother?” and throw in the towel, or we could do something completely different and ask “What are the other 20% of people doing that we could learn from?”

Over the last year I’ve led Abundance and Achievement Workshops in London, and along the way I’ve learned a lot about goals and follow-through. One thing I’ve seen in particular is that it’s important to look at both the gold and the shadow: what we could do to ensure our failure, and also how we can set ourselves up for success.

In this blog we’ll focus on five sure-fire ways to fail at goal-setting. You can use this as a “what-not-to-do” list. In our next post we’ll focus on the five ways to win the game of goals, and then we’ll end by sharing three questions to help you craft goals that resonate deeply. Let’s get going…

5 SURE-FIRE WAYS TO FAIL AT GOAL SETTING
The (Don’t Do) List…

Sure-fire way to fail #1: Create your goals like a rabbit, not a turtle

Most people come up with their goals FAR too quickly. I respect their speed, but not when it impedes success. I’m also guilty of this mistake: I’ll have the thought sometime in December “Wouldn’t it be great to do _____ next year?” and then I’ll decide that thing should be my New Year’s resolution. The entire length of my process took less than 20 seconds.

If what I just described is anything similar to your process for deciding on a goal: that’s a big red flag. The first sure-fire way to fail is to make your goals without giving yourself the time to assess what it will take to implement them and if you’re truly willing to make that effort.

Sure-fire way to fail #2: Choose ‘grin and bear it’ goals

A lot of people still believe that in order to reach our goals we simply need to suck it up and push through any resistance. Science is showing that’s simply not true – we actually have a better chance of success when we enjoy the process of working towards our goals. So, our second sure-fire way to fail is to ignore science, choose ’grin-and-bear-it’ goals and tell yourself you’ll push through any pain for the next 12 months to achieve your goal. Ouch.

Sure-fire way to fail #3: Assume you know the map

Look: if you’re considering embarking on a new goal in 2020, chances are you don’t know exactly what’s involved yet. I’ll give you an example using one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions: getting in shape…
There are a lot of great paths to getting fit. One mistake that’s easy to make is to resolve in December that you’re going to go to the gym three times every week next year, when you’ve never actually been to the gym before. You’re assuming that the gym is the best path to reach your fitness goal, when in reality you might find out mid-January that they gym just isn’t for you. Check out part two of this blog post and I’ll make sure it’s super clear how to avoid this pitfall.

Sure-fire way to fail #4: Go-it alone

It’s seductive to think we can achieve our goals on our own, without anyone’s help or accountability. If you want to fail, this is a great way to do it: simply create your goals and then don’t tell anyone about them.

Sure-fire way to fail #5: Lock your goals in a vacuum

Every fire starts with a spark. You need to create that spark in order to activate your goals and bring them to life. If you want to ensure failure – think of your goal and then DON’T DO ANYTHING SPECIFIC. Just assume that when 2020 comes along you’ll take some kind of action…sometime.

You now have an insider’s look at why some people don’t reach their goals, and while others do. In the next post we’ll shift gears and ask the question:

How can I join the ranks of people who not only succeed, but knock their goals out of the park?