There is no doubt that setting goals increases your probability of success. Obviously if you have no goals then even the definition of success is vague. Achievement of goals is success.
So why is it that many still don’t set goals? Or can’t?
It is not easy setting goals. This blog talks about three of the common hurdles in setting goals and to overcome them.
Fear of Failure
This is by far the most common and probably the most insidious factor stopping you from defining your goals. If you set goals or even a single goal and you’re not able to achieve it, you have failed. And if you set the goal yourself, and you were responsible for meeting it, then you don’t have anyone else to blame. The responsibility of the failure falls squarely on you. That can be a scary thought, and its roots lie in low self confidence.
The best way to overcome fear is to set smaller goals that you know you can achieve. As you set each goal, you will become more comfortable with that process. More importantly, as you meet your progressively more difficult goals, your confidence will grow. You’ll finally get to the point where setting relatively higher and long term goals will not scare you. You may actually want to give yourself a challenging goal to try your limits.
There is another aspect you can work on in parallel. The method above focuses on fear, this one focuses on ‘failure’. Start seeing failure not as your failure but as the failure of a process you tried. It just informs you that the process or the method you chose does not work for you. Start seeing ‘failure’ as feedback of what works and what does not – something to look forward to, not be afraid of.
Perfectionism
Another relatively common reason: you want to make sure any goals you set are perfect, exactly what you need or want and something you can flaunt and be proud of.
Perfectionism is sometimes an excuse for procrastination, and at other times may actually cause you to procrastinate. In either case, it does you no good.
To overcome perfectionism, first and foremost you need to be aware of it, acknowledge it and then take steps to overcome it. Becoming aware of it requires some reflection. You have to spend some time figuring out if a perfect goal is needed. Does it matter if your goal is not fully baked in? Start with an imperfect goal, and celebrate progress towards it. As you make that progress keep improving your goal. Such incremental improvement based on successes and failures of small goals towards it will make your goal more robust.
Celebrate imperfect progress, and the lessons it teaches. Use those lessons to continue to improve your goal even as you move towards it.
Unrealistic Goals
Sometimes overly ambitious goals can become a hurdle. This is augmented by the fear of failure discussed earlier. Setting high goals is a good idea, but not if the goal itself becomes a hurdle. This is not to say that you should not set ambitious goals, you absolutely should. Best, break it down into smaller, less scary goals that build up to the main goal.
And what if you cannot break down the big goal into smaller ones? Maybe you don’t have enough information, maybe you don’t know exactly how to break it down? Use a technique similar to the one in section Perfectionism: find the first step that is required to meet your big goal – just the first one, and make that your goal. Start pursuing it. As you do so, things will start to clear up, and the closer you get to it, the clearer will the next steps become.
Check out my blog on The Power of Goal Setting: A Guide to SMART Objectives. That process will also help you put the pen to the paper and define your goals.
Summary
Setting goals is not always easy. There can be multiple hurdles in setting goals. Get started even in the face of fear of failure and of perfectionism and if your huge goals scare you. Use this blog to get some ideas on how to start and keep chugging along.
Check out the following sites for additional information and inspiration:
