8 common pitfalls of goal-setting
When making goals, we have to be careful to not make the same mistakes over and over again. Here are common 8 pitfalls to avoid.
- Not focusing: Remember to put your goals somewhere within your focus so that you always remember your targets. So many people don’t follow through with their career goals simply because they forget about them on a daily basis. This means that we need to find a way to make sure that our targets are constantly within our focus - so stick reminders on your wall, your phone or your desk at work.
- Not meeting needs: Remember that you have to meet your needs through your goals. This could mean that you need to do them with other people or it may mean that you need to grow and develop as you do them.
- Not measuring improvement: We need to measure progress over time because this is going to help us with our focus and also with persistence. Measuring oneself in terms or personal or professional goals is something that many successful people do. They want to know what’s working well and where they can improve.
- Not accepting baby steps. If any goal seems to big to achieve, break it down into smaller steps. Start with what you want to achieve and ask ‘what needs to happen for me to reach that point?’ Then work backwards from then until the present moment.
- Not enjoying the process: That with all of these goals, we constantly want to be asking ourselves, how can we make this as enjoyable as possible? Simply because when something is enjoyable, we want to keep doing it. Can you do it with friends, family members or work colleagues? Can you add music or games?
- Remember that honesty is the only way we can make progress with our goals. If we’re not honest with ourselves, none of this will work. It’s not about being too easy on ourselves - but equally it’s not about being too hard on ourselves. It’s about being real. We’re not expecting for everything to go perfectly all the time or for us to be machines that don’t have bad days. It’s about setting a standard of behaviour that we’re going to stick to.
- Not in an empowering environment. Remember to surround yourself with empowering people and a positive environment. This is the key to having support whenever you need it and also a good way of staying motivated. Doing it alone can be tough, so ask for advice and get some support!
- Not allowing for lag time. Lag time is the time difference between when you set the goal and when you start seeing results. Remember that persistence is crucial because many goals include a period of lag time. So, if you’re not seeing results yet, that’s because you’re in lag time. You need to keep going and updating your strategy as you go.
So when setting your goals, do your best to avoid the 8 common pitfalls of goal-setting!