There are several reasons why people don’t reach their goals. What keeps them stuck in the same place, day after day?

FEAR

Don’t let the fear of a little discomfort or what other people will think of you stop you from your ultimate happiness.” – Lori Harder

Fear is the biggest of all the goal crushers. It can be absolutely crippling. Fear can keep you in that rut you have been in for the last year. It can keep you in that same dead-end job that you hate. It can keep you from stepping out of your comfort zone and it can steal your dreams. Let’s be honest here. Fear is nothing more than your imagination running wild. Choosing to live in fear is a choice. Your choice. You can make a different choice!

How do you beat fear? One way to overcome your fear is to imagine two scenarios. First, think of something that you are scared of doing and ask yourself, “What if I do this and it all goes wrong? What is the worst-case scenario?” The only thing that you cannot learn from – or recover from – is death. (If your worst-case scenario is death… please rethink taking that step!) Everything else is a potential life lesson. Learn from those life lessons and try again. Second, ask yourself, “What if I do this and it all turns out great?” Those awesome outcomes are your WHY! Focus your thoughts on what can go right and your brain will do its best to make those thoughts a reality!

Another really good way to work through your fears is to take daily action toward your goal. That daily action can be large or small, many actions or one single action – As the saying goes, even if you were to take one swing at a tree with an axe every day, sooner or later that tree will fall. Take at least one action EVERY DAY toward your goal and sooner or later, you will be successful.

You will beat that fear that was standing in your path. When you beat it once, you will build your confidence and be more prepared to face it again and again. You will become addicted to the amazing feeling of facing your fears head on and conquering them one by one.

NO PLAN

It doesn’t matter what you are doing, if you don’t have a plan, it is much harder to reach that end goal. Whether you are remodeling your kitchen, writing a book, or taking your business to the next level, you have to have a detailed plan to get it done. Sure, you might eventually experience some success without a plan but I guarantee it will take longer and potentially cost more money if you don’t think it through, document and prioritize the steps that need to be taken, and finally, determine your timeline.

How do you build a strong plan? First, you will want to brainstorm everything that needs to be done. I usually use Post-it notes and put each step on a separate note. Next, you will want to put the steps in the order that they need to be done. For example, you don’t want to install new appliances in your new kitchen before you paint the walls or finish the floor. Next, put a timeline to your plan. Each step needs a due date so you have a good idea when to order the appliances, etc.

NO TIME

I have a family that is busy with sporting events. I travel out of state for work every week. I work 40-50 hours a week and between working out and eating, sometimes there is only an hour or two for working on my dream. I get it. Life happens. Sometimes I just want to relax at the end of a busy day.

How do you find the time? Once you have a plan to reach your dream, schedule time on your calendar to work your plan and commit to that schedule. Seriously. Block off time on your calendar and focus. If you only have 30 minutes a day to work your plan, stay focused for those 30 minutes. Athletes, for example, know exactly what hours they will train every day, when they will have lunch and dinner, and when they will rest. Get that detailed. Schedule time for working your plan, for research or reading, for rest, for working out and if you need to, for meals. If you don’t plan for it, it will be too easy to say, “I will do it later.” Before you know it, “later” becomes a week, a month, a year, five years, or TEN years later! Be smart and disciplined with your time.

One important note: Share your schedule with your family so they understand and have clear expectations for when you are working your plan. They can help you stay focused by understanding the schedule and not distracting you from the dreams that you have for yourself and your family. I have struggled with this and have found that Saturday mornings are the best time for my family. I get up at 5:00am on Saturdays and work five hours. That way, I am done by 10:00am and can spend the rest of the day with my husband and kids.

THE NEED FOR PERFECTION BEFORE ACTION

“You don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward” – unknown

I have fallen victim to this one several times in my life. Yes, you need to have a plan, but don’t wait for it to be perfect. Take my first blog, for example. I can’t tell you how many times I edited and re-edited that piece before I finally hit the button to publish it. I do the same thing with presentations and reports for my clients as well. I am usually editing documents until the last second because I want everything to be just right.

How do you fight the need to be perfect? Let’s face it. Nothing will ever be perfect. Someone will always find something that could have been said differently or that could have been added or shouldn’t have been said at all. The biggest thing that has helped me is to give myself a deadline. I do everything that I can up to that deadline and then I put the report down, save the presentation, send that email, or press that publish button. If you focus and do all that you can to make things as close to perfect as you can … If you did your pre-work, you will be fine.

“Success doesn’t just come and find you. You have to go out and get it.” – unknown

There is no such thing as luck. There is only hard work. If you want the life of your dreams, you must do the work because your dream is not just going to fall in your lap. (At least not for the majority of us.) If you are not where you want to be, there are no excuses! It is all in the choices that you make every day. Take 100% responsibility for your life and where you are right now. You can choose to stand still or you can choose to take action. If you are ok with standing still. Take responsibility for the fact that you probably won’t reach that goal. If you are not ok with where you are, take that first step toward your goal. Then the next. And the next. And the next. Because…

You are not a tree!

We have been asked about our life goals since we were small children. We have been surrounded by questions like what do you want to be when you grow up, do you want to have children, where is your dream home, what type of person do you want to marry, etc.

Setting life goals is important; it helps you stay on track, achieve what you want to achieve, and make the most out of your life.

Why Do You Need to Set Life Goals

Setting life goals is an important way to stay on track and make the most out of your life. Making a list of your life goals and revisiting it every year, making the proper adjustments, can help you be more focused on what you want in life and become more self-aware.

It forces you to take time each year to sit down and focus on yourself, thinking about what you want in your life. It gives you a way to track your progress and also provides you with a tangible object to hold you accountable (similar to a contract).

How to Set Life Goals

There are a number of ways to go about setting life goals, but there are a few practices that can help you head down the right path. For starters, you should limit your distractions. Making a list of your life goals requires you to get fully in touch with your inner self so you can accurately determine what you want in life.

You have to question yourself, being entirely honest with yourself, and examine the things that you want to achieve and accomplish over the course of your lifetime.

It is crucial that the life goals you choose to set for yourself are reachable. Don’t make a life goal that is impossible or highly unlikely. For example, rather than making a life goal “write a #1 best seller,” make it something more achievable like “write a book”. If the book ends up being a best-seller, that is awesome! If it does not hit the best seller list, at least you can still be proud of the fact that you completed your goal to write a book… which is still a huge accomplishment!

Once you’ve completed this self-reflection, it is a good idea to revisit your goals ever six to twelve months to make sure it still accurately reflects what you want in life.

What Are Some Examples of Life Goals

Most of the time, when people think of life goals they think of career goals or family goals. In reality, life goals are a combination of all those things and then some. This could be to reach a particular place in your job, a particular career, the time frame wherein you want to have children as well as visiting the Grand Canyon or living in a foreign country for an extended period of time. Whatever you specifically want in life.

Setting life goals is a great way to make sure your life is on the right path, keep you focused on your dreams, and help you achieve all you want in your lifetime. The process of determining and setting your life goals can also be a great experience, encouraging time spent in self-reflection. It can help you become more in-tune with yourself and better aware of your desires and dreams.

You may think it sounds difficult to set your life goals, but if you limit your distractions, stay focused, and listen to yourself, you can do it. Keep in mind that none of these goals are set in stone. The list will most likely grow and evolve as you do, changing many times. Some things will get accomplished and you will most likely lose interest in some things before you ever get close to crossing them off the list. That is fine. Keep an open mind.

Designing your life is an anatomy of choices

An important component to designing your own life is acknowledging and understanding the choices you have in your life, being willing to make the most of those choices, and leveraging the choices you have to select the best path forward for yourself.

Life is not something that just happens to you. I recently completed my training to become a Certified Canfield Trainer in the Success Principles. The very first principle we focus on is “Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life”. I couldn’t agree more! There is only one person that is responsible for the quality of your life and that is YOU!

The key to designing the life you really want is knowing exactly what your options are and using all the information at your disposal to make the best selection for you. You are where you are in life today because of the choices you have made. You always have choices on how to move forward or how to respond to an event.

Your life is defined by the choices you make. While not everything that happens in your life is up to you, how you respond to life’s circumstances and opportunities is always a matter of choice. Even when you choose not to act or react, you are still making a decision. There is nothing that is beyond your control.

Becoming Aware of Your Choices

There are certain things in life you cannot control. For example, you have no control over the circumstances of your birth or family, your genetic makeup, or the opportunities you were given as a child. However, your choices can override these circumstances.

Your choices determine how you treat others, how hard you work, and the activities in which you engage in… even at an early age. This helps form you into the person you become later in life. As you get older, you have free will to choose who to love, choose your career, and ultimately, what you will strive to achieve in life.

Acknowledging that all of these are choices in life, and not things that happen without your consent, is a big step toward designing your life. Choosing to accept responsibility for these choices, and not to blame life or others for the circumstances in which you find yourself, helps you not only move forward from your past but also accept the tremendous power you have to shape your future.

You already have all the ability within you to choose the life you want and to design the experiences that will lead you to your goal.

Using Self-Knowledge to Make Better Choices

Developing knowledge about yourself, including your fears and insecurities as well as your strengths and gifts, is essential to designing your life and attaining your goals. Until you truly know yourself, which means getting clear about your beliefs and values, you will always be vulnerable to crafting your life to please others or assessing your accomplishments against what others have achieved.

When you become aware of yourself and your inner longings and desires, you can use that information to better inform the design process for your life. Without knowing your true passions, interests, and strengths, though, you are left making decisions based on poor information.

Without self-knowledge, you are more likely to pursue work or other goals that are unsuited to your talents and passions. Instead of choosing what makes you happy, you may opt to go along with the crowd or take the advice of others when you lack sufficient insight into yourself. This type of decision-making can lead you to invest more of yourself and your money in pursuits that don’t make you happy, too.

Life is About Choice

Understanding that life is about choices and you are in charge of those options gives you the power to design the best life for you. Even opting not to choose is a choice, and only you will have to live with the consequences of those choices.

Regardless of your initial circumstances or what you were born with, your life is defined by the choices you make with how to deal with those events and what dreams you strive to attain.