Do you know that goal failure rates can range as high as 70%?
In 2024 terms, it means that about 70% of people who set goals this year won’t achieve them.
I mean researchers from psychology, business, and polls all report these very high rates of failure.
70% failure rate is scary! Don’t be in the number.
So, if you are keen to hit your goals this year, watch out for these personal factors that may limit your goal success rate.
I have been in the business of coaching and mentoring for over 10 years and this has been my experience working with individuals and teams in varying contexts.
# 1 – Not Having a Personal Philosophy
If you spend your life intensely pursuing goals without considering their deeper purposes, you may end up living a stressful and unfulfilling life.
Before setting goals, it's important to connect them to your core values and sense of meaning. This provides the "why" that grounds your ambitions and sustains passion over time. Keep your eyes on the thread of why your goals are important to you. That's from Nicolai Nielsen and Nicolai Tillisch in their #1 Amazon Bestseller, Return of Ambition.
Once you have defined your driving philosophy and purpose, you can use goals to give expression and direction to what you want to achieve (the "what").
The specific, measurable targets you set represent the "how" - concrete steps for realizing your goals and connecting them to your deeper motivations.
Keeping sight of the why and what ensures the how does not become a meaningless series of targets – aka, hustles - but a pathway to purpose.
Sadly, many cannot struggle to establish a balance between their personal goals and work or business goals. Life becomes a mere existential pursuit emptied of meaning but full of tension.
What's the goal of your goal? What do you want to see happen when you achieve your goals?
That's your adrenaline, your motivation, the reason to pull yourself out of bed every morning or say "back to work" 3x, when you are tempted to scroll TikTok the umpth time in 0 minutes!
# 2 - Poor Goal Clarity and Direction
Even if you find your purpose, the quality of your goals will determine whether you are going to crush them – or they crush you – aka, overwhelm!
Goal setting is a skill.
But like all good things, not everybody knows how to set quality goals. Yet, everybody sets goals.
Vague goals are as powerless as no goals. They weaken the motivation to act. Without a clear goal, it's difficult to define targets, prioritize tasks, or focus your energy effectively. This can result in procrastination, wasted effort, and unfulfilled potentials.
The commonest reason for poor goal clarity is lack of specificity.
For example, here are four goals for 2024 shared on a Quora page:
Certainly, these ‘goals’ lack substance and are NOT likely to provoke directed effort. Sooner or later, they fizzle.
# 3 - Lack of Motivation and Focus
On the day I wrote my last paper at university many years, life suddenly felt empty! The feeling of emptiness was so thick that it seemed I just burst a bubble. The next morning, I was on my way home, several state boundaries away.
To seek new excitement, of course.
Such is the result of not having a personal philosophy to anchor your goals. Or when goal is clarity lacking. Motivation and focus perish.
Author of GRIT and University of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth, preaches that grit is more important than talent in goal achievement.
Most people do not develop the perseverance and passion needed – unfortunately.
Don’t be in the number.
Without all the bells and whistles that describe your goals, inspiration will not inspire. And motivation will not motivate. You won’t pick the right priorities and therefore, your focus will be foggy.
If your goals cannot evoke the emotions that come from reaching them, they cannot motivate to action. What does meeting your sales target this year mean for you? Or buying that car?
What they mean to you is why you will NOT hit snooze at 5.30am and snuggle up some more. Why you will NOT give up that effort when it becomes tedious.
# 4 - Weak Capacity to Act on Your Goals
It is one thing to have a goal to land on the moon this year. All good; specific, motivating.
But you’re not an astronaut; you’re me, a pen writer. Ok so, “civilians” like Richard Branson can pay his way there. But you’ve not made your first million bucks yet. Your name is missing on every Forbes list there is.
You get the drift?
It’s ok to dream and dream big. But you must work out the means to fly – skills, resources, networks, knowledge, etc.
Don’t be like the monkey that want to swim – or the elephant that wants to fly - because it seems fanciful or heroic.
Know your strengths and limitations and set your goals accordingly.
5 - Unresponsive learning from results and feedback
Ever turned right when Google Map wanted you to “turn left in 300 meters”? Google doesn’t fuss, it resets! It continues to direct you to arrive your destination.
Goals do not happen in a time capsule. Not in a vacuum. The elements, aka, environment, are there to interfere. You wish to have all the tailwinds in the air to sail you on seamlessly.
But expect the headwinds too.
When the results are not resulting as planned, reset – like Google Map. That’s what the folks in software development do, and they call it agile.
Goal Masters are comfortable with results – both the good results and the bad results. They know the value of feedback and actively seek it. Because that’s where learning happens.
Goal Masters learn from results to know what to:
- Keep doing
- Stop doing, and
- Start doing
You got to course correct by learning from your results and actively seeking feedback.
That’s how you crush your goals.
6 - Lack of discipline for accountability
You will never be a bright student if you set exams for yourself and mark your own scripts!
Businesses have reviews – monthly, quarterly, or whatever. There are daily stand-up meetings in most gig companies. But it is not the meetings or reviews per se. It is the subjection to accountability that is at play.
It is the discipline of knowing what is required, when, and how.
The discipline of recognizing that others – team mates, family, friends - depend on you to hold your end of the stick so they can hold theirs too.
It is living up to your pact with the team, your boss, or even yourself.
Where such discipline is weak or absent, nobody holds nobody accountable, and whatever performance you deliver is “the best possible”.
And your goals drift further away from you – unfortunately.
Goal Masters don’t drift – not for long. The music in their ears is, ‘back to work, back to work, back to work”.
Do you sing it too?
7 - Fear of failure and self-doubt
The holy book says, he that watches the cloud will not sow. And in another place, the lazy man says there’s a lion on the way…
Fear of failure is perhaps the greatest barrier to any endeavour, corporate or personal. The psychologists call them limiting beliefs.
Because they limit confidence, optimism, and energy. Often, past failures have a way of holding us back from future success.
To achieve your goals in 2024, be intentional to break away from your limiting beliefs.
Sometimes, breaking down goals into smaller levels, and approaching one task at a time, helps to build confidence and bury your fears. Try it.
If you want to build a proven practice to achieving your goals this year, my Goal Masters’ Coaching Programme is starting in a few days and filling up super-fast!
Learn more here and book your place.
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