When it comes to achieving goals, most people are not serious about it. They will tell you all the targets they want to achieve, but their talks are always louder than their actions.
You are what you do, not what you say you'll do.
Below are the 10 most common reasons why people fail to reach their goals. Study these reasons and apply the success principles behind each.
1. They are not specific
One of the main reasons people fail to reach their goals is because they are not being specific enough. When you ask them what they want to achieve in their lives, they will give you vague and general wishes such as they want to be rich or they want to be happy.
Do you know that vague goals will produce vague results? And that your goals will affect your strategy?
The strategy to achieve $10,000 a month and the strategy to achieve $1,000,000 a month is totally different. Therefore, if your goals are not specific, you cannot create a specific action plan to reach them.
The first thing you must do is to make sure your goals are as specific as possible.
2. They have doubts
Next, people often have doubts on their goals and they do not believe in their abilities. They set a goal and then they imagine all the things that will go wrong and ask themselves, “What if I fail?”
When you have doubts and you do not believe in yourself, you will never tap into your maximum potential to reach for what you want. Think about it, if you are doubtful that your product can perform, do you think you will go all out and promote it?
Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Elon Musk, etc., always believed in their products and services, that is why they are willing to invest millions of dollars into their businesses. If they are doubtful about their businesses, they will never take a bold move and pour all the effort into their dreams.
You have to believe in yourself and your ability to reach your goals.
3. They are not working for it
This is a very common reason people fail to reach their goals. They say that they want to achieve their goals but they are not doing anything about it. They procrastinate and they are not taking any action at all.
You have to understand that action produces results, and if you want results, you must take action.
Most people prefer to watch TV or surf the internet and choose to procrastinate on their dreams and their goals. You have to reserve this and choose to work on what is important to you instead.
Watching TV and wasting time surfing the internet mindless are not going to help. Decide to take at least one action step to reach your goals each day.
4. Their goals are not motivating
Tony Robbins once said, "People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals - that is, goals that do not inspire them."
Are your goals excited and motivating? If your goals are not exciting to you, you will never want to take action and you will never have the motivation to work on it.
If you want to make your goals motivating, you must associate strong and emotional reasons why you want to achieve them. Your reasons to achieve your goals will become the driving force that fuels your motivation.
When you are desperate enough, you will work on it no matter what. Thus, find out why you want to achieve what you want in life. Make your reasons strong and emotional so that they will drive you when you need the motivation.
5. They are not committed
Successful people are 100% committed toward their dreams and their goals. They will do whatever it takes to reach their dreams. On the other hand, unsuccessful people will do what is convenient because they are not committed to their dreams.
Most people are alright and they feel nothing when they fail to reach their goals. They can still survive and still live well if they did not hit their targets. This is why most people are not achieving their goals.
Hence, you have to raise the bar so that reaching your goals become a must-achieve. When something becomes a ‘must’, you will do whatever it takes to reach it.
Put yourself in a situation where the commitment is high and you cannot back off. When this happens, you will do all you can to hit your goals.
6. They do not focus
Reaching your dreams and achieving your goals are all about focusing on doing the right thing. You can come up with a lot of goals, but you must identify the most important goal to focus on.
You cannot be successful if you choose to be the jack of all trades and master of none. It is better to have one completed goal than to have ten failed goals.
If you study the story of all the successful people out there, you will notice that they are extremely focused on what they do. Successful people can produce remarkable results in life because they are the best. And the reason they become they best is that they focus on mastering their crafts.
Thus, identify your most important and result-yielding goal right now and focus on achieving it first.
7. They give too many excuses
How many times have you heard people telling you that the economy is bad, things are tough or the competition is too high?
These are excuses given by unsuccessful people. What if the economy is bad? You cannot change the economy, so you might as well just accept it and then come up with a better strategy to cope with it.
When you give too many excuses, you will eventually buy into them and this will limit and stop you from moving forward.
Always remember that successful people work hard and keep moving forward, while unsuccessful people give excuses and blame on anything.
8. They don't know how to handle failure
Too often, you will see people jumping from one company to another and switching business from one to another.
When they try a business and they do not see the result, they change and venture into another business or industry.
Most people do not know how to handle their failure and they do not have the determination to go on. When they work on something and they do not see any result, they choose to give up and go on to chase the next big thing.
The same goes with goal setting. People fail to reach their goals because they do not know how to handle failure. They choose to give up or change their goals when they face difficulties or are not getting any result.
Please understand that failures are feedback. They are lessons to show you the right path to success.
9. They get distracted
This is another common reason people fail to achieve their goals. They set a goal and they tell themselves that they will do whatever it takes to achieve it, but after awhile, they got distracted by other more important things and they forgot about their goals.
This is why staying focused is so important and you just cannot allow yourself to jump from one opportunity to the next without even trying.
Success requires time and reaching your goals may take some time. When you fail to produce the result you want, it does not mean that your goals do not work.
So do not get distracted and keep working on your goals until you succeed.
10. They give up way too soon
"If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it."
Finally, most people give up way too soon when they face with difficulties and setbacks. They choose to let go of their goals and dreams instead of finding ways and improving their strategies to get what they want.
Reaching your goals, living your dreams and achieve success in life are not something easy. It takes a lot of hard work and you must be willing to go through the hard times without giving up.
