17 Things To Avoid In Order To Reach Your Goals

There are many things, both internal and external, that can stand in the way when you try to reach your goals. While you may not have control over the external factors, your ability to overcome personal habits that can stand in the way of reaching your goals is essential if you will overcome other stumbling blocks outside of yourself.

The following are highlights of some unfavorable attitudes and behaviors that you need to avoid in other to reach your goals. It also includes suggestions on what you should be doing instead to reach your goals.

1. Procrastination

One of the ways to kill your drive towards achieving your goals is when you form the habit of shifting what you can do now until a later time or day. This happens to most of us. You can begin to slip off the timelines of your goals if you don't take the bull by the horn and do what needs to be done. The first thing you need to avoid to reach your goals is procrastination because it's a killer of dreams.

Suggestion: Set aside distractions such as social media and TV. Also, practice doing the hard and important things first. Brian Tracy suggests that 'if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, most important task,' and persist to finish it before you move on to something else^[1]. You need to activate the power of self-discipline to boost your productivity in order to accomplish your goals.

2. Pessimism

Sarah Dessen says^[2]:

If you expect the worst, you'll never be disappointed.

Pessimists are people who think about impossibility rather than possibilities or are more concerned about threats rather than opportunities.

A pessimist believes no matter what you do, the worst would eventually happen. However, to reach your goals, you need a high level of optimism. By being optimistic, you will find the energy to give the goals your best because you expect things to turn out well.

Suggestion: Resist negative thoughts. If you have found out some things can't be done or are difficult to come by, spend extra time to find how they can be done. Where there is a will, there will always be a way.

3. Complacency

To be complacent is to be in a situation where you do not see the need to do something substantial about your current situation. In complacency, your life revolves around a routine, and you are not learning or doing anything to challenge yourself or try something new.

One of the reasons people become complacent is the fear of failure or fear of what other people might think^[3]. Perhaps you've been accused of being over-ambitious with your goals, which makes you want to tread softly; this can lead to complacency.

Suggestion: Never mind what people say about you; many are going nowhere, so work at your own pace. Don't get stuck in a routine. Try something new consistently that can help you achieve your goals.

4. Imitating Others

Another thing to avoid is imitating others. Some people admire what others are doing, and they try to do the same without doing their own homework. While you can learn from what someone else is doing, you can't succeed by just copying them.

Suggestion: If you admire what someone else is doing, try to learn about the source of their motivation. Then, if you desire to follow a similar direction, think about unique ways you can go about yours in a way that will work best for you.

5. Oversized Goals

Setting oversized goals is setting goals you do not need or goals that require a set of skills, experience, and resources you don't have at the moment. You don't have to run yourself to a burn out because of your goals. While it is okay to set stretch goals, working your butt off and achieving nothing at the end of the day can be demoralizing.

Suggestion: You can set big goals but also map out realistic plans to achieve the goals rather than just planning to 'work hard' to achieve the goals. Otherwise, set the goals you can achieve within your capacity.

6. Self-Limiting Beliefs

Many times, we think we are not good enough or we don't have the required experience to attain certain goals. In many cases, these thoughts are not true. They do not represent who we are; they are just thoughts based on low self-esteem.

Suggestion: Try to place what you are thinking side by side with what you have achieved over the years. Many times, when you take the time to write out your accomplishments, you will find out that you are more intelligent and have more abilities than you thought.

7. Lack of Drive

Reaching your goals requires that you have sustained inspiration, tenacity, and drive to pull through the obstacles and challenges you face. Without those, your goals can become inactive, or you can become overwhelmed and abandon your goals.

Suggestion: Find every way to stay inspired and motivated in order to generate drive towards accomplishing your goals.

8. Lack of Consistency

Your goals will require some daily, weekly, monthly or periodic commitments to achieve them. It might be reading some chapters of a book weekly, exercising for some minutes every day, saving some amount of money monthly, etc. All these will require consistency, and missing out on your planned routines will bring a setback to your goals.

Suggestion: Make a plan and determine to follow your action plans strictly and consistently.

This article can help you learn how to stay consistent to achieve your goals.

9. Unclear Objectives

When the objectives of your goals are not clearly set, it is hard to reach them because there are no clear-cut yardsticks to measure your goals performance. While your goal is the end result you want to achieve, your goal objectives are the specific and measurable actions you have to take to achieve your goals.

Suggestion: Set clear objectives for your goals.

10. Pursuing the Wrong Goals

Some goals are not meant for you. You can know if you are chasing after the wrong goals when your goals are not aligned with who you are and you're doing it because you don't know what else to do. It's also a clue if it doesn't take much effort to achieve the goals you've set or if you're not even sure whether you have achieved them or not.

Suggestion: Think properly before setting your goals and make sure they align with what you really want and have the ability to do.

11. Quitting Easily

Goals are meant to be challenging. If your goals aren't challenging you, it means they are not worth it. You will never be able to achieve your goals if you are the type that quits easily. The challenges are there to stretch you to think and work harder.

Suggestion: When setting your goals, think ahead about the possible difficulties that you might encounter. Then, have a plan on how you intend to work around them.

12. Taking Shortcuts

Taking shortcuts will not help you to achieve your goals. For example, the concept of weight loss has to do with 'negative energy balance.' This means that weight loss will most likely happen when the amount of calories that you need is lesser than the ones you are taking in or retaining. This is why weight loss comes through exercise and proper diet.

I instead of exercising and dieting, you resolve to be taking 'slimming teas' and other substances to 'burn fat,' you might end up damaging your health rather than losing weight.

Suggestion: Be sure to follow due process on your goals. The results will be more accurate, reliable, and long-lasting.

13. Taking on Too Much

When you have too many things to do at one time, you won't have the required attention for each of them, and this will make it difficult to achieve anything substantial.

Suggestion: Prioritize your goals and focus on one thing at a time.

14. Lack of Collaboration

Some goals might require that you collaborate with someone else. It might be your spouse, colleague at work, or business partner. Failure to do this or ask for help from someone can lead to not reaching your goals.

Suggestion: Look for partners in progress with whom you can work together to achieve your goals

15. Poor Communication

Communication is essential to achieving your goals. Les Brown stated that 'your ability to communicate is an important tool in the pursuit of your goals, whether it is with your family, your co-workers or your clients and customers.' Poor communication leads to poor results

Suggestion: Learn to communicate and be honest about your goals.

If you need help working on your communication skills, this article may be able to help.

16. Overconfidence

Sometimes, overconfidence can cost you your goals. If you think you have all you need to achieve your goals and you don't embrace learning new things or ask for help when you need it, you are not doing things right.

Suggestion: Learn all you can about your goals and don't hesitate to ask for help if you need it.

17. Limited Understanding of Requirements

If you have a limited understanding of what it takes to achieve your goal, you might become overwhelmed when the reality stares you in the face. This might lead to abandoning your goal.

Suggestion: Know what it takes to achieve your goals and only proceed when you've carefully figured out how you will meet the requirements.